Study group locally: Mondays, 7:30pm (medit. till 8pm)-9pm. Monthly donation-basis.
 
 

Jan 27 pp. xxxii     -xxxix     Introduction to the Gita: PY places the Gita within the larger context of the full Mahabharata epic and explains the spiritual symbolism of the characters. * Feb 3 pp. xxxviii-3     Gita v. I-1   Intro (cont'd): Final summary of the introduction. Setting the scene for Chapter I of the Gita - and for the entire work. Feb 10 pp. 4-10 Gita v. I-1   Chapter I - Verse I: Yogananda explains the fundamental metaphor for the entire Gita - that the blind king who is asking seer Sanjaya to report on the events of a war battle is actually presenting spiritual seekers with the nightly asignment their minds need to request of their intuitive introspections to evaluate the progress of their spiritual battles during the past day. Summarizing the essence of the Gita's story, Yogananda describes it as presenting "How King Soul rules over his bodily kingdom, loses and then regains it..." (p. 10) Feb 17 pp. 11-17 Gita v. I-1   Survey of the cosmology of spiritual and material forces, how they interact, how they work through the chakras or body energy centers, the meaning of the three fundamental forces of creation: the gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas). Explanation of the three different levels of interpretations which are possible throughout the Gita: the simple material and moral good-vs-evil contest; the psychological battle that each spiritual seeker wages in attempt to rise to human selfishness, greed, etc.; the spiritual battle to elevate the consciousness toward the soul during deepest meditation. Feb 24 pp. 18-24 Gita v. I-1  (cont'd) Chapter I - Verse I (cont'd): ...