The Concise Yoga Vasistha

Rating:
Summary: Will you take the red pill or the blue one?
Review: "You" can NEVER turn back. There is no shadow of turning. A must read for anyone ready to find out.

Rating:
Summary: Will you take the red pill or the blue one?
Review: "You" can NEVER turn back. There is no shadow of turning. A must read for anyone ready to find out.

Rating:
Summary: The Only book you will ever need!
Review: The Concise Yoga Vasistha by Venkatesananda Swami is the ONLY spiritual book you will ever need! The Concise Yoga Vasistha is a condensed version of the Yoga Vasistha Ramayana, a 29,000 verse scripture! It contains 100% of the essence of ALL the world's holy inspired works... the wisdom of the ages is in this one book. OM!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Truth of life from the ultimate Absolute perspective
Review: The Yoga Vasistha is the dialogue between Rama and the holy sage Vasistha. In the beginning of the book Rama has come to realize the endlessly changing nature of life from such a profound level that he sees no hope in anything and does not know how to proceed to live in a way that can lead him away from the inevitable sorrow that always follows all relative hopes and endeavors. The bulk of the text of the Yoga Vasistha is Vasistha's response to Rama's questions and state of dispassion. This book presents the truths of life as perceived and understood by those who have risen above all small self concerns, beyond all karma... from the perspective of one in Unity consciousness, the only real achievement in human life. I find more depth and meaning to this text than to any other spiritual text I have ever read. It it is more totally fulfilling in a lasting way than any other source of fulfillment, except for the DIRECT first-hand experience of the Absolute field of life which the Yoga Vasistha describes.

Rating:
Summary: Truth of life from the ultimate Absolute perspective
Review: The Yoga Vasistha is the dialogue between Rama and the holy sage Vasistha. In the beginning of the book Rama has come to realize the endlessly changing nature of life from such a profound level that he sees no hope in anything and does not know how to proceed to live in a way that can lead him away from the inevitable sorrow that always follows all relative hopes and endeavors. The bulk of the text of the Yoga Vasistha is Vasistha's response to Rama's questions and state of dispassion. This book presents the truths of life as perceived and understood by those who have risen above all small self concerns, beyond all karma... from the perspective of one in Unity consciousness, the only real achievement in human life. I find more depth and meaning to this text than to any other spiritual text I have ever read. It it is more totally fulfilling in a lasting way than any other source of fulfillment, except for the DIRECT first-hand experience of the Absolute field of life which the Yoga Vasistha describes.

Rating:
Summary: Truth revealed through stories
Review: This book is a dialogue between Sage Vasistha and Rama. Vasistha reveals the "Truth" to rama by narrating a series of stories. The book is divided into six major parts, each part consisting of several short stories.

1. On dispassion.
2. On the behaviour of the seeker.
3. On Creation.
4. On Existence.
5. On Dissolution.
6. On liberation.

The original scripture of 'yoga vasistha' is in the form of verses and has several repetitions. Some stories stories are within other stories. However in this book Venkatesananda does a good job of writing the stories in prose form which is very readable. Also, in the "concise" form of yoga vasistha, venkatesanda takes out very similar sounding stories and keeps the book within 500 pages without taking away any flavour from the original teachings. The book is worth reading several times, and each time it reveals something new. This book is not something that you can expect to read and gulp over night, It has to be chewed slowly and digested. Reading one story a day is immensely satisfying and reminds one of the truth every day.

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Summary: My Experiences Reading This Book Seven Times
Review: This is an excerpt from a long letter I sent to some friends several months ago. It will serve nicely as a review. But its a bit more than that. It's actually a record of my own experiences during the reading of this book seven times over a seven month period. "Guruji" and "Punditji" refer to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, an enlightened master from Bangalore India. AoL refers to the Art of Living. Here it is: I met Guruji the first time in Tokyo in November 1992. He was breezing through town with Scott and Kevin and Doug. Doing a quick tour I suppose. My sister, Katie, an AoL teacher alerted me to the visit, then Scott called one day and said, "Hey, do you want to meet Punditji?" Well, I didn't know beans about this guy nor about Kriya and the Art of Living, but I heard that he was a student at one time of a man I have deep respect for, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. So I thought, what the heck, sure, I'd like that. But I had another motive beyond my light curiosity... you see in late 1992, I was at the bottom of my life in just about any catagory you care to choose. Really low. Nasty stuff. And I also thought, well, maybe this guy Punditji, if he's really hot stuff, can give me a few pointers... or maybe even tell me how I can fix things -- yeah, I thought, I'll go see him. I truly had nothing to lose. It was a rainy cold night in Tokyo and Scott met me at a train station. We walked to an old Buddhist Temple/Monestary about ten minutes away. Scott was, as I was to later confirm, his usual super casual self. He did or said nothing to prepare me, he just ushered me into this temple, we took off our shoes, and my first look at Guruji was behind a sort of light screen. And I thought, Whoa... wait just a darn second... this is somebody special. Looking at him made me think that I could almost see right through him, as if he wasn't really there. He raised his folded hands to me and smiled like I was an old and dear friend. I'll never forget that smile. We sat down. I met Kevin. Doug was apparently sacked out up stairs. There was a girl in the room, an American teaching English in Japan, and there was a Buddhist monk. We made small talk... and then there was some silence and I thought, hey wait, why is everybody being so quiet. And why are Scott and Kevin just looking at Punditji like that. They must be tired from traveling I thought. So I picked up the conversation a bit, you know, to make everyone feel relaxed. :-) But that didn't work so well, no one felt like talking, there was just all this silence. So I sat there too. Silent. Looking at Punditji. Looking at Kevin and Scott looking at Punditji. Hey guys, I thought, say something already. Then I was afraid that maybe this thing was going to end before I got a chance to make my big plea and get my life saving advice. So I spoke up to Punditji. I was too proud to go into all the gory details of my present situation. But I said things were not too hot, I was looking for work, and did he have any suggestions for me. He looked at me like he knew exactly what was going on with me... not with pity, but with some kind of understanding that I didn't really understand at the time. Guruji said, "Your basic needs will be provided for." I said "Oh... okay." Or something like that. But in my mind I was thinking, hey, I'm dangling from a cliff, here, hanging on to dear life from a dead leaf and this guy says my basic needs will be provided for? Is this some standard Indian way to respond to someone's desperation or is this guy patronizing me. But I looked at him hard, and something deep down inside me said that he was serious, and that he was right, and that I should listen to him and probably be grateful to boot. Before I knew it, Guruji said "Jai Gurudev", and we were wisked out of the room, Punditji with raised folded hands smiling that smile I saw when I first came in. Scott put a book in my hands. A short work by Punditji. Both Scott and Kevin walked the English teacher and me to the train station. I asked a few questions about Kriya... Scott said it wouldn't be taught on this trip but that probably soon it would be. Okay... I got home. Looked at this book, "Bang on the Door". What does that mean. Read it through that night. Went to bed thinking, bang on the door, bank on the door.... Geez I'm not even at the door yet. How the heck do I do that? Guess I'll learn this Kriya thing. Maybe that'll be a start. Hope it comes here soon. ... Months rolled by again... it was about a year after meeting Punditji. The dirt was really starting to pile up inside, but, yes, all my needs were still being met, and still in a very thorough way. Got out that book again. Bang on the door. What'll I do. Well, no one will ever accuse me of being a spiritual prodigy... but it suddenly dawned on me that maybe, just maybe I could start my meditation practice back up. I had learned TM about 20 years before. Soon after, I was going through a box of books and found something my sister had given me a few years before. Someone had told her, read this book seven times and you'll be enlightened. I remembered that. The book was called "The Yoga Vasistha". When I first got it, I was all fired up. I was going to read this thing seven times if I had to die doing it. That was the summer of 1989. I read, oh, about the first 45 pages and thought, how could anyone possibly read this book even once! It was the strangest book I had ever laid hands on. But back to the story. I dug The Yoga Vasistha out of the box. Dusted it off. When I had moved from Cincinnati to Tokyo I had given away about 1800 volumes of philosophy books. Honest. But for some reason I kept this one. Mmmmm. Must have been that promise. Read this book seven times and you'll be enlightened. Well, I thought... I asked for a door to bang on... and here it is. Start bangin, Tommie. I figured that if I read 15 pages a day of this thing, I could cover one reading every 30 days, 450 pages a month. So, hey, in seven months.... I'll have it licked... I'll be enlightened. Ha! Piece a cake. And I read. And just to hedge my bet, I kept meditating. Well I got through that first reading, and marked the passages I liked, just to remind myself the second time through. I started to like this thing. There were a lot of good stories, there were a lot of interesting and simple practices spelled out. I started doing many of them. And I read on. Things really started changing inside me. I'm sure my meditation was kicking in by this point, but there was something strange about this book. As I read it, my perception of me, and my perception of everything outside me began to change. About half way through that second reading, I thought hey, I'd like to do some group meditation. So I called the local TM office. They said, sure. But you need a signed letter of recommendation from your orginal TM teacher. I said, well, that was 20 years ago. I know her name, but have no way of contacting her. They said sorry, they needed the letter. I said, but guys, I still have my flowers and my handkerchief and my receipt from my TM initiation in 1973. Doesn't that prove anything? It was true. I had carried those things around with me like a bride all those years. They said, no letter, no dice. I was frustrated. I read on. Started thinking that it was high time I had an advanced mantra. The Yoga Vasistha said there wasn't anything the mind couldn't do. And by this time I was starting to believe it. So I asked Vasistha and Punditji and Maharishi, all of them, for an advanced mantra. No telling who was listening and who was not, I thought.... NOTE-NO MORE ROOM, IF YOU WANT THE REST OF THIS STORY CONTACT ME. TOM