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Paperback: 672 pages ISBN: 81-09430-00-4 Hard
Cover
click
here for Gita Testimonial
Rarely
in a lifetime does a new spiritual classic appear that has
the power to change people's lives and transform future generations.
This is such a book. It shares the profound insights of Paramhansa
Yogananda, as remembered by one of his few remaining direct
disciples, Swami Kriyananda.
Unbelievably,
Kriyanandaji finished this work -- comprising as it did well
over six hundred pages -- in less than two months! To everyone,
himself included, it seemed a miracle. "Master's thoughts
poured effortlessly into my mind," Swamiji related, "helping
me to fill page after page with deep insights and inspiration."
"Fortunately,"
he told us, "I have a very clear memory, and can recall
vividly the days I spent in Master's company, reading his
entire manuscript, and helping him with its editing. I said
to him at the time, 'Sir, this is the most wonderful thing
I have ever read!'"
This revelation
of India's best-loved scripture approaches it's message from
an entirely fresh perspective, showing its deep allegorical
meaning and also its down-to-earth practicality. This commentary
makes these deep teachings so accessible that it truly has
the potential to bring millions to God as Yogananda predicted.
From
Swami Kriyananda's Preface
The Bhagavad
Gita teaches every important aspect of the spiritual path:
during activity, Karma Yoga; during thinking and discrimination,
Gyana Yoga; when feeling and experiencing emotion Bhakti
Yoga. There is a central teaching, however, in the Bhagavad
Gita, which unites all paths even as subsidiary streams unite
in a larger river.
"That
river," Yogananda said, "is the energy flowing in
the spine. The subsidiary paths of yoga offer guidance to
people of different basic temperaments: the active, the discriminating,
the 'heartful.' The central river to enlightenment, however,
is shown by Raja Yoga, the royal yoga: the pathway
of the spine.
"Raja
Yoga," he continued, "takes one straight up
the central pathway of the spine into the inner silence of
divine communion. It is the teaching of this yoga, finally,
that makes the Bhagavad Gita truly a scripture for all mankind.
It is why Krishna stated in the Gita, 'O Arjuna, be thou a
yogi.'"
The
Story Behind the Book
It was
in May, 1950, while he was still twenty-three years old, that
Swami Kriyananda's Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, asked him to
come over to his retreat to begin work with him on the job
of editing his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita.
The Master
had kept Swamiji with him during the first days of his dictation
of his Gita commentaries. He had then sent him to work alone,
however, while he himself concentrated all his time on his
commentaries. Now he was ready to begin working with Swamiji
(whom at that time he called "Walter") on the editing
of his new manuscript.
The Master
had told his monk disciples in January of that year, when
he took "Walter" with him to the desert, "I
prayed to Divine Mother and asked Her whom I should take with
me to help with the editing. Your face appeared, Walter. That's
why I am taking you." For two months they worked together.
The day "Walter" came over, his Guru exclaimed ecstatically,
"A new scripture has been born! Millions will find God
through this work. Not just thousands -- millions! I have
seen it. I know!"
It seems
clear, in retrospect, that Yogananda knew from the beginning
that Kriyananda was destined to edit his Gita commentaries.
He must surely have seen they would not come out that year,
as he wanted them to do. The urgency he expressed for their
immediate publication must have been prompted by his knowledge
that, if they did not come out during his lifetime, their
publication would be delayed for many years.
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And so,
finally, in October 2005, Swami Kriyananda felt the time had
come to at least begin the work on Paramhansa Yogananda's
Gita commentaries for which his guru had begun to train him
during the winter and spring months of 1950-fifty-five years
ago. What began as an "overview" soon became a stanza-by-stanza
commentary.
With a
radiant look on his face, Swami Kriyananda often worked late
into the night. Sometimes he began work again in the early
hours, long before dawn. With quiet humility and deep inner
joy, he told us who were with him. "I am filled with
such bliss as I write, it is hard to think of anything else!
I feel the deep delight my Guru takes in this work."
Here, then, is a book that is a living tribute to two of India's
great spiritual contributions to the world: the wisdom of
the Bhagavad Gita, and the importance of the guru-disciple
relationship. Through a long life of dedication to, and attunement
with, his guru, Swami Kriyananda has presented the vibrant
truth and power of his master's original explanation of this
beloved scripture. Yogananda has guided his disciple's life
and thoughts for nearly sixty years in such a way as to enable
him to fulfill that commission, given so many years ago.
- edited from the Foreword
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