Spiritual Portal

Currently the Gita by Yogananda is my favorite book. I have sort of thumbed through Swami Prabhupada's interpretation of the Gita, and I was comparing verses.

The first thing I noticed is that Yogananda is of course very much a proponent of meditation (as am I), and that is hardly mentioned much in Prabhupada's work. They both pretty much translate the verses commonly, but the comments after the verses are where the major differences lie.

For some reason, I much prefer Yogananda's interpretations. It seems to be more of a complex style of writing, where you have to stop and reread things a few times, but that doesn't bother me.

Nomaste Spiritimage

What are you reading in the Gita this wk. end. I would like to study/read it together. More and more you will find people are leaving external devotion and spirituality in favor of meditation which opens us up to a whole inner life separated from the restless pastimes of most people on the earth today.We just must recognize how much we are ahead of our times. Fortunately there are now enough of us that we can stick together and not feel like weirdos like the general public often has thought. Look at what kind of trip the outer world has done on your life. The rewards are few. But the rewards from meditation and the gurus are lasting and fulfilling.

I've skipped around a lot in this book, but I just recently started from the beginning, I'm at chap II verse 47, I usually read just a few pages at a time, then try to think about it a while. Sure, sometimes bouncing thoughts and ideas off someone else can bring out even more thoughts and ideas that may not have come up otherwise. We'll try it,

Seems you've travelled and met a lot of devotees along the way, do you often get to discuss with others? Wish I knew more people practicing yoga or kriya that I could run stuff by.

O Arjuna, remaining immersed in yoga, perform all actions, forsaking attachment (to their fruits), being indifferent to success and failure. This mental evenness is termed yoga. Verse 48 Chapter 2 the Gita

Mental evenness is the native state of the soul. The ordinary man, identifying himself with this world, divorces his consciousness from union with Spirit. The remedy for this all-to-often disastrous disassociation lies in performing one's actions while inwardly united with the joy of Spirit. God's consciousness is perpetually in the state of yoga or everlasting evenness that remains unaffected  by the incessant changes of creation. Man also, made in God's image, should learn to manifest that divine equilibrium by which he can live and act in this world without being victimized by it's dualities. PY

Evenness is a tough concept, sometimes I think, should I enjoy that song, or just simply hear it and not let it affect me? It's like being emotional, and at the same time, completely controlling the effects. Most will think you simply don't care or have a heart of stone if you act that way. Society in general makes a lot of this stuff tough to implement. Oh well it's worth it!

Evenmindedness is a lot like good music, actually. You may not be able to describe it, but you know it when you feel it.

"This Bhagavad Gita that I offer to the World, God Talks With Arjuna, is a spiritual commentary of the communion that takes place between the omnipresent Spirit (symbolized by Krishna) and the soul of the ideal devotee (represented by Arjuna). I arrived at the spiritual understanding expressed in these pages by attunement with Vyasa, and by perceiving the Spirit as God of creation relating wisdom to the awakened Arjuna within myself. I became Arjuna's soul and communed with Spirit; let the result speak for itself. I am not giving an interpretation, but am chronicling what I perceived as the Spirit pours Its wisdom into an attuned soul's devotional intuition in the various states of ecstasy." -PY