[Advaita-l] New member introduction: Jivadas

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

I am in the course of translating yoga-vAsiSTha, the huge philosophical 
storybook attributed to vAlmIki. This is an ongoing project, available for 
study and discussion at yoga-vasiSTha at googlegroups.com

    YV presents a system that probably predates zaGkAra, though nearly 
contemporaneous. It says that this world never existed, is not now, and 
will not ever be. And it proves its point again and again, a thousand 
times.

    It is a compendium of many schools of thought, showing how each 
ends-up-with this conclusion. And it does so very engagingly, by-means-of 
a dialog between a teenage Râma and his guru Vasishtha, in the presence of 
everyone--even ten brahmA-s; even you!

    YV's greatest gift is its stories. There are comic-book=style kAvya 
tales of war, and love stories, a couple of gItA-s, and beautiful poems, 
and .... well, the author/s has/have seventy-five thousand zloka-s in 
which to sing. It's a beautiful song.

    The YVFiles contain the entire downloadable work-thus-far. It includes 
the Vihari Lal Mitra translation; the abridgment of Swami Venkatesananda; 
and my own ongoing translation, including my Working Notes, which make a 
close literal analysis of each zloka. See the googleGroup for further 
information.

xØx
  jd