--- In [email protected], "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], cardemaister <no_reply@> > wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "Mr. Magoo" <wgm4u@> wrote: > > > > > > If you really want to read the Bhagavad Gita with it's > > > Religious/Spiritual context still in tact read Swami Yogananda's > two > > > volumn set, an ambitious project but a remarkable translation! > > > > How does he translate for instance II 45? > > > > Maharishi's translation: > "The Veda's concern is with the three gunas. Be without the three > gunas, O Arjuna, freed from duality, ever firm in purity, > independent of possessions, possessed of the Self." > > Yogananda's translation: > "The Vedas are concerned with the three universal qualities or > gunas. O Arjuna, free thyself from the triple qualities and from the > pairs of opposites! Ever calm, harboring no thoughts of receiving > and keeping, become thou settled in the Self."
They're pretty close, but MMY's is more succinct. Also, "Be without the three gunas" (which MMY interprets in his commentary as the injunction "Transcend!") is free of any suggestion of effort or even intention, whereas Yogananda's "free thyself from the triple qualities" appears to describe a process of *doing* something. Likewise, Yogananda's version suggests a "doing" process with regard to becoming "settled in the Self," but in MMY's version "possessed of the Self" seems to be simply what happens when you transcend. In other words, paraphrasing MMY: If you are without the three gunas, you are freed from duality, ever firm in purity, independent of possessions, and possessed of the Self. Paraphrasing Yogananda: Free thyself from the triple qualities and the pairs of opposites, always be calm, never harbor thoughts of receiving and keeping, and then you will become settled in the Self. I'd be willing to bet Vernon Katz and MMY worked on this verse a for quite a long time. I'd also guess that its succinctness is Katz's contribution.
