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The Art of Man Making - Evergreen Classic

January 26, 2014
India's Republic day is a good day for me to resume posting to this blog after a hiatus of over 8 weeks. The impetus for this came from listening to Param Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji's audio talks on the "Art of Man Making". The audio and the accompanying book are the results of 114 talks on All India Radio by Pujya Gurudev in the 1960s. The talks are wonderful, crisp, lyrical at times, yet always marked by the razor-sharp insights into the Bhagavad Geeta, the familiar hallmark of Pujya Gurudev's teaching. As he sets the context for the first chapter, Gurudev vividly lays out the setting of the Bhagavad Geeta.
(the Upanishads) are given out in an atmosphere of quietude and in an inner mood of total dispassion. The hum of the Ganges, the hymn of the eternal snow peaks and the salubrious climate are all conspicuous witnesses in the Upanishadic literature. Even the students who listen to the declaration of these Rishis are calm and cool, self-controlled and unagitated, and they hear these words of wisdom with a quiet and serene intellect.

This songful and quiet environment has been completely replaced in the Geeta by the atmosphere of strife and stress, dust and fury, stress and strain, pulls and pressures. The inner mood and outer atmosphere are suggestive of dynamic service to the society and its members. Unlike the Upanishads, in the Geeta, the Lord himself addresses the Pandava Prince, mentally agitated and intellectually confused. Yet, the message of the Upanishads and the Geeta are one and the same. Hence, the glory of the Geeta lies not in what she states, but how she states it.

Vyasa deftly chose Lord Krishna as his mouthpiece to give out the immortal message of the Geeta amidst the din and roar of a national war to a confused and confounded hero of the day. Thus, Vyasa, by his masterly setting of the Geeta, has brought down religion from the snow-capped Himalayas to the work-a-day world to bless man in his day-to-day existence. Religion is never to be practiced in jungles and forests alone.

The Art of Man Making CD and the book are an invaluable tool for a student of the Bhagavad Geeta. Do yourself a favor and get them today.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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