i finished reading 'the bhagavad gita' the night before last.
had been curious to read this for a while, then somebody bought it for me for xmas (i hadn't requested it but was happy to receive it; better than a set of golf tees or whatever, that's for sure). anyhow ... i have the version published by a company named after a flightless bird which often frequents snowy climates, and on the back it claims that it is 'an intensely spiritual work that forms the cornerstone of the hindu faith'.
well ... i guess i had some expectations - not based on anything in particular really - that it might talk about the pantheon of hindu gods/heroes such as ganesh, shiva, parvathi, etc., and thier various exploits..... not so. i was/am curious about those. in any case it's fair to say that for the most part it didn't blow me away (perhaps on some level i expected it would?) and quite a number of rather 'dogmatic' passages reminded me of passages from the bible (not sure if that's a good thing or not - and which came first? this hindu epic or the torah/old testament??); while other passages brought to mind concepts in some of the buddhist texts (e.g. reagrding contemplation, meditation, etc.). of course the latter is no great surprise because i was aware that the lotus flower of buddhism kind of sprouted out of the lake of hinduism (if u will excuse my rather facile & obvious attempt at some form of symbolism).
where am i going with this? how many stars? well ... 'i'll get back to u'! perhaps after i've read the introduction to this edition; the first sentence of the intro points out that 'the bhagavad gita' is in fact just a small excerpt from the 'mahabharata' so now i'd like to read the altter and indeed perhaps i should withold any comprehensive judgement until i have done so [?] in summary for now however i can say that in my opinion 'the bhagavad gita' is certainly worth reading.
and there ends this week's bookclub with fergal ....
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