Coming soon. There will soon be a new translation from the Hindi, and commentary by both Rajiv and I of the Ashtavakra Gita. Byrom's translation is very poetic, but inaccurate. We will show how. We will also show how the Gita contradicts the neo advaitin theory that Consciousness is everything.
Hopefully, Ashtavakra will not call us and threaten to sue.
We are still confronted with the problem of the accuracy of the various Hindi translations of that Gita from the Sanskrit. This requires rather laborious dictionary hunting and definitions of Sanskrit words into Hindi. Therefore, several Hindi translations would need to be consulted.
Realizing the Manifest Self--the Life Force permeating our humanity--and the Unmanifest source from which it arises.
Yes it is laborious but it feels correct to do this.
ReplyDeleteIt is much more complex too because it is way beyond just literal translation and dictionary work. It is translated keeping in mind the actual experiences and realizations one has while in deep meditation. Literal translation is no good.
For example the Sanskrit word DHARMA the literal meaning of this word in English would be virtue or righteousness. Most translations available on the NET says this. But a more deeper thought on this would suggest something more subtler than this.
DHA means "to hold or abide"
MA means "Me or my"
So DHARMA would actually mean to hold or to abide in me (my beingness)
This is just one example. We have just started the work. Lets see how many such examples present themselves.
Many times the true message remains hidden behinds words with no deeper meaning.
Jaiastu,
Rajiv
I'm looking forward to it! I just ordered Byrom's version, though this seems even better. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteEdji, I think your comment about the Gita contradicting some Advaitin or neo advaitin teachers is not entirely correct, because in many cases the problem is a purely semantic one.
ReplyDeleteWhen some (not all) of these neo-advaitin masters and many of the classic sages speak about "Consciousness being All", they´re not referring to the same thing you or Nisargadatta mean when you use that word, and I know first hand.
I mean,when Krishna Menon,Jean Klein,or younger teachers such as Rupert Spira, Peter Dziubian or Francis Lucille say "Consciousness is all" they strictly refer to Infinity Itself without properties or limits whatsoever , they speak about what you or Maharaj call "Parabrahman".
I know this is not the case of them all, but to be fair with some of them, their teaching is the same you show in this site, but expressed with different definitions for the same words.
I seem to recall that in the book "I am That", Nisargadatta addresses this and to someone there makes the distinction between Consciousness(as a unitive state)and Pure Awareness(which he also refers to as the Parabrahman).
ReplyDeleteTo my knowledge there still exist some good english translations of the Ashtavakra Gita from the original Sanskrit. For example the translations by Swami Nityaswarupananda or by John Richards. They seem to be very accurate.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.realization.org/page/doc0/doc0004.htm
There is also an audio version of the Gita on:
http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/ashtavakragita.html
Nevertheless I am looking forward too your commentary.
Stefan