Study of The Bhagavad Gita
The “Bhagavadgita” or “plenty of nourishment” is the key Indian text written as a practice for householders, people like us, around 2,000 years ago. When the “Gita” appeared, it offered a new synthesis and introduced the new “karma yoga.”
For us today, this text represents a manual for precisely how to live skillfully within the world we inhabit. For Patanjali (Yoga Sutras) and for the Buddha, one cannot use the world to solve our problems because the world IS the problem. In these traditions escaping or being free from the world, samsara, and embodiment is the goal. Using the metaphor of a battle, Krishna instructs Arjuna on how to live skillfully within the world. To do this one must first understand this world and what the universe has on offer. One must also consider the natural forces that act upon everyone and everything and learn how to proceed.
Happiness is an inside job, and the way to reach serenity is by doing the work. When we are crystal clear about how to do this work, when we do the “deep work of the self” we will find ALL of ourself.
Join Richard Parker, Ed.D., from 9-11 a.m. via ZOOM for five Saturday classes this April on Douglas Brooks’ translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Richard will conduct an essentially line by line examination of the text, with special attention on its relevance to modern life with time for questions and discussion.