When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial.
~ Henry David Thoreau
While walking in Forest Park, the following idea occurred to me: Why not spend a year and a half slowly, patiently reading a little book of 700 verses (18 chapters), the Bhagavad-Gita?
More specifically, to meet weekly and to go over ten verses or to gather monthly to deal with a chapter and discuss their relevance to our daily lives. Discussion, plus meditation, 75 minutes max to become acquainted with (or go deeper into) a work that translator and meditation teacher Eknath Easwaran has described as “not a book of commandments, but a book of choices.”
Let me know if you are interested in joining me in a unhurried, steady reckoning with the Gita in 2013-2014. I recommend Easwaran’s translation (his commentary is three-volumes long, which I plan on consulting).
And for those interested but who live out of town and are in their residencies, I can find ways to be in touch and share the fruits of our discussions with you and relay your thoughts and wisdom to those of us in Saint Louis.
