The Occult Significance Of The Bhagavad Gita

So Rudolf Steiner describes this old Indian scripture 'The Bhagavad Gita'. It tells how in the midst of a fratricidal battle the lofty Krishna appears in spiritual form to the soldier Arjuna revealing the mysteries of universal egohood and the path of yoga. "The highest to which the individual man can soar by training himself and working on himself with wisdom -- that is Krishna... In all of earthly evolution there is no Being who could give give the individual human soul so much as Krishna," remarks Steiner. But Steiner also Describes out of his spiritual research how Krishna's one-sided inspiration of the ninner path of the individual was balanced and countered by what Christ brought from outside for all humanity. In impressive pictures Steiner paints the secrets of Krishna's evolutionary sacrifice, his role in the life and work of Jesus and Christ, and the relevance of his teaching for our time.

Swassjan's sparkling humor, wit, and lively style spill over every page, making this a thoroughly unique discourse on Rudolf Steiner's book The Philosophy of Freedom. His brilliant insight and comprehensive scholarship ensure that the reader's attention is engaged to the very end.

5 lectures, Cologne, Dec. 28, 1912 - Jan. 1, 1913 (CW 142) 9 lectures, Helsinki, May 28 - June 5, 1913 (CW 146) 1 lecture, Basel, Sept. 19, 1912 (CW 139) This combination of two volumes in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works presents Steiner's profound engagement with Hindu thought and, above all, the Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as they illuminate Western Christian esotericism. In his masterly introduction, Robert McDermott, a longtime student of Rudolf Steiner, as well as Hindu spirituality, explores the complex ways in which the "Song of the Lord," or Bhagavad Gita, has been understood in East and West. He shows how Krishna's revelation to Arjuna --a foundation of spirituality in India for more than two and a half millennia --assumed a similarly critical role in the Western spiritual revival of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the West, for instance, leading up to Steiner's engagement, McDermott describes the various approaches manifested by Emerson, Thoreau, H.P. Blavatsky, and William James. In the East, he engages with interpretations of historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, relating them to Steiner's unique perspective. In addition, and most important, he illumines the various technical terms and assumptions implicit in the worldview expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. The main body of The Bhagavad Gita and the West consists of two lecture courses by Rudolf Steiner: "The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul" and "The Esoteric Significance of the Bhagavad Gita." In the first course, his main purpose is to integrate the flower of Hindu spirituality into his view of the evolution of consciousness and the pivotal role played in it by the Mystery of Golgotha --the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Steiner views Krishna as a great spiritual teacher and the Bhagavad Gita as a preparation, though still abstract, for the coming of Christ and the Christ impulse as the living embodiment of the World, Law, and Devotion, represented by the three Hindu streams of Veda, Sankhya, and Yoga. For Steiner, the epic poem of the Bhagavad Gita represents the "fully ripened fruit" of Hinduism, whereas Paul is related but represents "the seed of something entirely new." In the last lecture of part one, Steiner reveals Krishna as the sister soul of Adam, incarnated as Jesus, and claims Krisha's Yoga teachings streamed from Christ into Paul. In the second lecture course, five months later, Steiner engages the text of the Bhagavad Gita --on its own terms --as signaling the beginning of a new soul consciousness. To aid in understanding both of these important cycles, this book includes the complete text of the Bhagavad Gita in Eknath Easwaran's luminous translation. In our age, when East and West are growing closer and we live increasingly in a global, intercultural and religiously pluralistic world, this remarkable book is required reading. The Bhagavad Gita and the West is a translation of two volumes in German: Die Bhagavad Gita und die Paulusbriefe (CW 142) and Die okkulten Grundlagen der Bhagavad Gita (CW 146). The lecture in the appendix is translated from Das Markus-Evangelium (CW 139) and was published in The Gospel of St. Mark (Anthroposophic Press, 1986).

A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life “O Dhananjaya, do your work established in yoga and abandon attachment. Be impartial to success or failure, for yoga is equanimity.” —The Bhagavad Gita Myths offer truths that speak about the human condition and have withstood the test of time. The Mahabharata is one such magnificent saga and the Bhagavad Gita is the nectar of its distilled wisdom. The great Indian gurus and philosophers have looked at the battle of Kurukshetra as a euphemism for the struggle within – between a person’s asuric (demonic) and daivic (divine) inclinations. Eons later, the Gita is still relevant and popular. Is it because we are still fascinated about an ancient war and a philosophical discourse that happened in the middle of a battlefield a long time ago, or because we are concerned about understanding the constant tussle between good and bad in our lives and in our own consciousness? Ravi Ravindra’s fresh prose translation of the great epic stands out from the many other versions with its assertion that the Gita is, at its heart, an indispensable universal guide to help you cross the battlefield of life. Ravi Ravindra, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he served for many years as a professor in comparative religion, philosophy and physics. He is the author of numerous books including Science and the Sacred, The Wisdom of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and The Pilgrim Soul.

A comprehensive account of the influence of occult beliefs and doctrines on intellectual and cultural life in twentieth-century Russia.