Javier Centellas’s Reviews > Bhagavad Gita > Status Update

Read Chapter 11: The Cosmic Vision. Theophany of Kristna before Arjuna. Kinda pissed I only read this after lecture, this is pretty awesome. Then again I wouldn’t really know what was going on if I hadn’t gone before. Also it’s a shame that the metric shift in this chapter isn’t preserved in the translation.

Read chapter 10: Divine Manifestations. Forgot to read this before lecture today. Oh well. Relatively boring chapter of Kristna just listing what he is and isn't. I feel like I'm not reading into this book enough when I sit in lecture then again everything Doctor Greene talks about is random historical/background knowledge I wouldn't know.

Read chapter 8: Absolute Freedom. Kinda fw this section, about how to break out of samsara and kinda how to meditate properly

Read Chapter 7: Wisdom & Revelation. Short chapter where Krisna just brags about himself, what/how he is & how to be one with him.

Read Chapter 6: The Yoga of Meditation. Stuff about just how to calm your mind & whatnot. Would like a few footnotes for context and vocab and stuff

Read Chapter 5: The Yoga of Renunciation. Just going in circles about the same topic as the last three chapters, just how to find inner peace and withdraw from physical outside desires. I really hope we talk about how similar this is to Epictetus but I doubt we will. Surprised how quick it is to get through this.

Read Chapter 4: The Yoga of Wisdom. Decent amount of parallels between this and Greek stoicism. For a religious text it doesn't feel that religious, or even as profound as many people claim it to be. Talk about how to worship and the need for calm action in this chapter. Also the references in the intro to Thoreau and Emerson in the intro were quite off-putting, don't like those guys. Just wanted to say that now

Read Chapter 3: The Yoga of Action. Lot of stuff I like here. Similar to the Epictetus but I bet that everyone will try ti avoid those similarities in class.

Read Chapter 2: The Practice of Yoga. Interesting reading this part given how I'm going to be an infantry officer. Also I can tell from discussion this morning that Dr. Rothletter does NOT like the military. Her knowing that I do NROTC might fuck me over. I do not like the idea of reincarnation making killing morally fine though. Why is no one willing to be critical of this text the same way they were with others?

Read Chapter 1: Arjuna’s Despair. Nothing crazy, & already discussed this in class. It’s interesting how no one brought up the caste stuff that the narrator talked at length about.