The Original Gita

Most readers will be familiar with the Bhagavad Gita but will find a new depth of analysis and insight in this translation and commentary. The author is a scientist who has studied yoga for over 50 years, describing the Gita as a discussion on the science and spirituality of life reflected in the various paths of 'striving to oneness'. There are three fascinating essays at the beginning of the book, on thought, time and the relationship between life and death. The essay proposes that 'without limitation there is no existence' and that the brain is the tool for setting up limitations and controlling the consciousness of differences. In this way, 'man becomes aware of himself by limitation and experiences that as the awakening of his own world.' The second essay on time proposes that 'time is part of the form world and that the formless world is timeless', a formulation corresponding to insights from near-death and mystical experience. This leads to the third essay, which argues that life and death are complementary in the sense that 'in life, spirit is beyond space-time and substance is in space-time', while in the unseen world 'substance is beyond space-time and spirit in space-time - the inside thought is seen as the outside world.' In other words life is turned to the outside and death to the inside. These are profound reflections and are elaborated in the commentary on the text. All students of the perennial wisdom and the Gita will want to make a careful study of this book.