Request

[Giri]

Namaste.

        As many of the readers of this list will be aware, Guru Poornima
falls on July 30th. It is a full moon day (poornima) dedicated to the
Guru, as the name implies.
        Usually, tapas (austerities with certain do's and dont's) is
observed starting such that the 49th day falls on this day. As a part of
this, I will try to post small portions daily (2-3 verses) from ONE of the
following (I assume that all the readers do not have these books):

(I feel the commentaries on the following books are relevant to the
advaita list).

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1. Commentaries on the Bhagvad Gita:

Since many readers of this list (who I know) are interested in
Bhakti-marga, in combination with jnana-marga, I would like to provide the
commentary of one of the famous bhakta and jnani, Madhusudana Sarasvati.
Reference : Madhusudana Sarasvati on Bhagvad Gita, translation by Gupta.

Since I am personally interested in the practice of yoga as outlined in
Bhagvadgita, I will also provide brief expositions based on Shankara's
commentary as outlined by Trevor Leggett in his recent book
Realization of the supreme self : the Bhagavad Gita yoga-s with commentary
of Shankara and Sastri's translation of Shankara's commentary.

2. Commentaries on the Patanjali yoga sutras:

I would like to post Vyasa's commentary on the yoga sutras for the
important verses. I will combine this with Shankara's sub-commentary
(vivarana) on Vyasa's commentary. This is a newly discovered text, which
was first published in 1952 from a single manuscript. Despite this, most
of the Indologists including Hacker, Mayeda, Isayeva etc consider this an
authentic work by Shri Shankara.

However, I will refrain from quoting from yoga-upanishads or specific
yogic techniques like mudras, and asanas which are sometimes taught along
with the yoga sutras since it is my opinion that the techniques presented
should be passed on in paramparic (disciplic sucession) tradition.

References : Translations by Swami Hariharananda; and by Trevor Leggett.

3. Devi Gita:

The book refers to itself as THE Gita. It is a wonderful book and a must
read for all Shaktas. Though many parallels may be drawn to the bhagvad
gita, it is a book which can stand on its own right and the powerfulness,
grace and the kindness of the Shakti is apparent. I will refer primarly to
the devi gita in the devi-bhagvatam, while keeping in the references to
other devi gitas (kurma devi gita and parvati gita).

References : Translations by Swami Vijnanananda; and C.M. Brown.
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        I am requesting the interested readers of this list to kindly
e-mail me within the next couple of days what (1/2/3 or none) they would
like to see.  Please also let me know your favorite verses in the gita (s)
or the sutras or what you consider to be important verses so that I can
post the commentaries on them. I will go with the majority, and maybe I
will be able to do all of them consecutively, if there is sufficient
interest.

        It is my hope (not vasana :-) that readers will be interested in
the stuff presented and will also stimulate more discussion (like the
discussion on Ravi's question), which will help me learn.

        The sanskrit text, transliteration and translation (not
commentaries) of the bhagvad gita and the yoga sutras are available at
ftp://jaguar.cs.utah.edu/private/sanskrit/sanskrit.html

dhanyavaad