No one in modern times is more qualified no make that 'as qualified' to translate the epochal Classics of Indian Spirituality than Eknath Easwaran. And the reason is clear. It is impossible to get to the heart of those classics unless you live them, and he did live them. My admiration of the man and his works is boundless. Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions.

Autorentext

Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999) brings to this volume a rare combination of credentials: knowledge of Sanskrit, an intuitive understanding of his Hindu legacy, and a mastery of English. More than two million copies of his books are in print, including his best-selling translations of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads.
Born in India, Easwaran was a professor of English literature at a leading Indian university when he came to the United States in 1959 on the Fulbright exchange program. He founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in 1961 and gave talks on the Indian classics, world mysticism, meditation, and spiritual living for 40 years. His meditation class at UC Berkeley in 1968 was the first accredited course on meditation at any major university. 
Easwaran lived what he taught, giving him lasting appeal as a spiritual author and teacher of deep insight and warmth.

Klappentext

"It is impossible to get to the heart of those classics unless you live them, and [Easwaran] did live them. My admiration of the man and his works is boundless." - Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, reviewing Easwaran's translation, The Bhagavad Gita

In this verse-by-verse commentary on India's most famous scripture, Eknath Easwaran, author of the best-selling translation of the Bhagavad Gita, interprets the Gita's wisdom for modern readers. With everyday stories and touches of humor he shows how this ancient text sheds light on every aspect of our lives. In later chapters he explains how the Gita's insights can be applied to address the social, economic, and environmental problems threatening our world today.

The Bhagavad Gita is set on the battlefield of an apocalyptic war between good and evil. Faced with a dire moral dilemma, the warrior prince Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, for answers to the fundamental questions of life.

Easwaran presents Arjuna's crisis as acutely modern. The Gita's battlefield is the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage. Arjuna represents each of us, and Sri Krishna is the Lord, showing us the path to peace and meaning.

The second volume in this three-part series covers chapters 7-12 of the Gita. These chapters go beyond the individual Self to explore the Supreme Reality underlying all creation. Easwaran builds a bridge across the seeming divide between scientific knowledge and spiritual wisdom, and explains how the concept of the unity of life can help us in all our relationships.

Zusammenfassung
This warm, practical commentary by the author of the best-selling translation of the Bhagavad Gita helps us understand and apply the Gita's teachings, to find meaning, peace, and wisdom in our lives.

Leseprobe
***11. The immature do not look beyond physical appearances to see my true nature as the Lord of all creation.

12. The knowledge of such deluded people is fraught with disaster, and their work and hopes are all in vain.***

    To help us change our direction in life, Sri Krishna occasionally uses some rather strong language. The word he uses in these two verses is mdha, 'slow-witted.' Anyone who cannot see below the surface of life, who believes only in what can be touched and measured, Sri Krishna says, simply is not thinking intelligently. When we think there is no more to life than physical objects and sensations, when we identify ourselves completely with the body and deny that there is any unifying principle in life, everything we do will be futile; there will be no fulfillment in life at all. That is the nature of the physical world: everything in it is limited; everything is fleeting. Not only that, Sri Krishna warns us, this is not something that affects us alone. There can be great danger in living on the surface of life, because there will always be this blindness about the welfare of the whole. Even with the best of intentions, people with this kind of shallow vision can be led into activities that really endanger life around them.

    To take just one example, look at the people who think that by producing more and more and consuming more and more, we will eventually reach the land where all troubles end. The phrase Sri Krishna uses for this self-centered way of life is quite contemporary: moghsh moghakarmno, 'with vain hopes, and with work in vain.' Those who go on producing for the sake of profit, who continue to consume for the sake of pleasure, will end in futility and frustration. Many of our business empires and technological exploits, built on the idea of unlimited material progress, are now facing the fact that the earth's resources are very limited indeed. To the mystic, the real problem is not with our resources; it is what we are trying to do with those resources that is futile.

    As we are forced to give up some of these activities, we make a marvelous discovery that the mystics have been trying to tell us about all along: a simple life can be a joyful life. By simple life I do not mean a romantic return to a rustic state. Nor is simplicity something we must just put up with because we are running out of energy. The simple life is much more creative and practical than most of us imagine. It is a life that values human qualities, one that is rich in lasting relationships with family and friends and community.

    Inhalt

    Table of Contents

    INTRODUCTION The Unity of Life 9

    CHAPTER SEVEN Wisdom from Realization 21

    CHAPTER EIGHT The Eternal Godhead 88

    CHAPTER NINE The Royal Path 136

    CHAPTER TEN Divine Splendor 200

    CHAPTER ELEVEN The Cosmic Vision 269

    CHAPTER TWELVE The Way of Love 327

    Passage for Meditation 421

    Glossary and Guide to Sanskrit Pronunciation 425

    Index 431