Commentary on 'The Bhagavad Geeta' by Swami Mukundananda

Global Release Paperback

"The introductions in this anthology are meant to be just that: a basic overview of what students need to know before they begin reading, with topics that students can research further. An open access literature textbook cannot be a history book at the same time, but history is the great companion of literature: The more history students know, the easier it is for them to interpret literature. In an electronic age, with this text available to anyone with computer access around the world, it has never been more necessary to recognize and understand differences among nationalities and cultures. The literature in this anthology is foundational, in the sense that these works influenced the authors who followed them. A word to the instructor: The texts have been chosen with the idea that they can be compared and contrasted, using common themes. Rather than numerous (and therefore often random) choices of texts from various periods, these selected works are meant to make both teaching and learning easier. While cultural expectations are not universal, many of the themes found in these works are."--Open Textbook Library.

The commentary of Shankara on the Gita is regarded as an outstanding specimen of Indian scholarship. The translator has accomplished his task in a most praiseworthy manner by giving a faithful translation, without in any way detracting from the strength or clarity of the original commentary. The inclusion of a ‘word index’ of the entire text has added to the worth of the book.

The largest-selling edition of the Gita in the Western world, Bhagavad-gita As It Is is more than a book. It is alive with knowledge and devotion; thus it has the power to change your life for the better. Bhagavad-gita is knowledge of five basic truths and the relationship of each truth to the other: These five truths are Krishna, or God, the individual soul, the material world, action in this world, and time. The Gita lucidly explains the nature of consciousness, the self, and the universe. It is the essence of India's spiritual wisdom, the answers to questions posed by philosophers for centuries. In translating the Gita, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has remained loyal to the intended meaning of Krishna's words, and thus he has unlocked all the secrets of the ancient knowledge of the Gita and placed them before us as an exciting opportunity for self-improvement and spiritual fulfillment. The Gita is a conversation between Krishna and His dear friend Arjuna. At the last moment before entering a battle between brothers and friends, the great warrior Arjuna begins to wonder: Why should he fight? What is the meaning of his life? Where is he going after death? In response, Krishna brings His friend from perplexity to spiritual enlightenment, and each one of us is invited to walk the same path.

Gita leads us from spiritual infancy to maturity, impulsive irrationality to intelligent rationalism, and agitation to tranquility. ‘G-OO-D’ contains two ‘O’s between ‘G’, the God, and ‘D’, the Devil. First ‘O’ near ‘G’ denotes Obeisance to God; and second ‘O’, near Devil, denotes Obfuscation. Eliminate Obfuscation from life to see God in everything ‘Good’. Ego and prejudice are the earplugs that stop us from listening to inner voice of God. Enjoy the 3 D film of life by wearing spectacle of Anaasakti, the indifference. Orthodoxy is the peel of a banana whose pulp is Dharm. We shouldn’t set foot on the peel and slip into gutter but relish soul-nourishing pulp. Our senses must follow our commands like the ‘Genie’ of Aladdin’s lamp. The best batsman defends his wicket by driving every ball to boundary but the less skilled runs to score; and the least skilled is bowled out. Dharm appears as the ferocious tiger Richard Parker in the film ‘Life of Pi’. Initially Pi struggles to save himself from tiger; then it suddenly dawns on him that the tiger is an indispensible anchor of his life in the boat. His simple attitudinal change saves the beast and himself.

Extreme makeovers start on the inside when readers face the facts about their spiritual conditions and the reality of their circumstances and situations, and then allow God to transform minds and revive hearts. (Christian)

In our journey of life we try to satisfy others, we aim for materialistic things, we take decisions, which sometimes proves to be not worthy, however, we learn from them. In this process we neglect simple things in life. This book is about simple things of our life i.e family, friends, love, work and few special moments.

The MacArthur grant–winning environmental justice activist’s riveting memoir of a life fighting for a cleaner future for America’s most vulnerable A Smithsonian Magazine Top Ten Best Science Book of 2020 Catherine Coleman Flowers, a 2020 MacArthur “genius,” grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, a place that’s been called “Bloody Lowndes” because of its violent, racist history. Once the epicenter of the voting rights struggle, today it’s Ground Zero for a new movement that is also Flowers’s life’s work—a fight to ensure human dignity through a right most Americans take for granted: basic sanitation. Too many people, especially the rural poor, lack an affordable means of disposing cleanly of the waste from their toilets and, as a consequence, live amid filth. Flowers calls this America’s dirty secret. In this “powerful and moving book” (Booklist), she tells the story of systemic class, racial, and geographic prejudice that foster Third World conditions not just in Alabama, but across America, in Appalachia, Central California, coastal Florida, Alaska, the urban Midwest, and on Native American reservations in the West. In this inspiring story of the evolution of an activist, from country girl to student civil rights organizer to environmental justice champion at Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative, Flowers shows how sanitation is becoming too big a problem to ignore as climate change brings sewage to more backyards—not only those of poor minorities.