Aldous Huxley's Gita Intro

http://www.spiritualtimesindia.com/bhagwat-gita/introduction-by-huxley.html

I stumbled across this doing a search. It's the intro Huxley wrote for the Isherwood/Prabhavanada translation. Very succinct and insightful.
There are also a few chapters of the Gita in this very easy to read and poetic translation.


Aldous Huxley


Sri Krishna

 

isherwood once gave a talk on vedanta and a woman complained to Swami Prabhavananda that he was a pervert and therefore it was a disgrace to which he replied, "Madame, I am a swami and to me, all sex is perverted."

 

From the standpoint of a celibate Swami he was probably speaking the truth as he saw it.

 

that sounds kind of a lame answer to me, its like an answer some catholic priest who's been hiding from sex would say....if he's a swami why doesn't he let go of the mental construct of pervertedness that he's built around sex and accept sex as it is?

by leading others to believe that sex is perverted just creates people in denial that thing their penis or vagina is dirty or wrong

sorry I've strayed from the thread topic but him saying sex is perverted is bogus to me

 

Sorry.

 

Gurus often answer based on the disciple, not everyone. Perhaps that woman's svabhava was such that that particular answer struck a chord with her and helped her on her spiritual path. It is a different matter if he wrote it in a book or said such athingi n a public discourse.

 

mm good point

 

Actually I'm not sure Isherwood was a 'pervert' - I assume the implication being that he was gay. I don't know if he was or not.

The point is that together, he and Prabhavanda produced a very good translation of the Bhagavad Gita, which is very accessible, unlike many other versions.

I daresay some would dispute Huxley's authority to write an introduction to the Gita, as he was a user of psychedelic drugs.
Myself I think it's the work that counts.

 

Bill...did you ever read "A Single Man" by Isherwood? I've read that he was gay and this book seems to be autobiographical fiction...deals with gayness and spiritual questions...it's been a long time but I remember it was excellent.

 

Hi Spook - no, I've read none of Isherwood's fiction. I've read only the Gita which he helped Prabhavanada with, and a couple of things from 'Vedanta for the Modern World'. As I say, I know nothing of his sexual orientation.

Huxley though was definitely hetrosexual - and in my opinion one of the best english writers of his period, both novels, and also more scholarly stuff.

 

ditto... Prabhavananda's reply was a spontaneous witticism

 

Sex is best with the one you love the most.

 

He is just messing with people's attachments, by making a cosmic joke like all sex is perverted, he is playing with our conceptions...

one person laughs, and thinks yes we shouldn't take sex seriously, and trasend it to the true reality whether we do it or not. Getting what the swami meant, don't be attached to sex, and never take it seriously

another person takes it serious and thinks he's right, sex is horrible and evil and peverted

yet another says what tiki said, and doesn't get swami cosmic humor, and takes it serious. You blasted my precious jewel sex, how dare you call this wonderful jewel perverted, it gave me so many good times.

 

I have said nothing of the sort.... I'm just saying a lot of people probably take him really seriously so when someone hears that sex is perverted there like whoa shit, sex is perverted?
and it leads to a society in denial or repression (similar to america now?) I mean look at what christianity has done to sex and our society.....all I'm saying is yeah that saying might have greatly benefited some people I'm sure there are a lot of followers who take his word to be gold...but maybe he intended their rollercoaster ride to take them thru a dark tunnel

 

Yeah now I see where you are coming from... sorry for the misunderstanding

 

wasn't the soma that some of the first yogi's drank a psychedelic?

I think too many people underestimate the value psychedelics have on religions and spirituality around the world and it stretches back thousands of years before the word psychedelic or drug were ever invented.

yeah they are a huge trap but they also open a bright and sunny window that most users weren't aware of before...i mean its all just scenerie along the way anyway

 

This issue of psychedelics has come up before here on this forum. Myself, I've explained that it was taking LSD years ago that first got me hooked on the spiritual path, or at least set me off on a journey in that direction.
In my view though, there are very real dangers, and many people don't seem to need such a stimulus.
Huxley was interesting, and his approach where psychedelics are concerned was well balanced - he never wanted it to become a mass movement type thing, but thought that really only a few would benefit. Some criticize this as elitist, but I think the results of mass usage justify his caution.

I think the insights Huxley gained and recorded in 'The Doors of Perception' would actually make his comments on the Gita that much more authentic, rather than purely scholarly.

As to the famous Soma - some, Gordon Wasson, and Terrence Mckenna for instance, have argued it could have been a mushroom. Wasson favoured amanita muscaria, Mckenna psilocybes of some type.
Myself I don't think there's much evidence for that, and there is internal evidence in the Veda which leads to a different conclusion.
But it is possible some of the ancient Rishis took some psychedelic - certainly 'shamans' from central asian cultures have used them for millenia, as have others in other places.

 

Bill...further regarding books, I finished the Dilip Kumar Roy biography of Sri Krishna Prem...awesome...SKP was truly a pure Krishna bhakta and had most refined literary and philosophical gifts.

I also think you would find Isherwood's A Single Man an excellent read.

I found an interesting bit regarding a trip that Timothy Leary made to India around 1964, in the company of Ralph Metzner, who had been an LSD researcher with Leary and Alpert in the early 60's. During this trip, Leary had occasion to meet Krishna Prem. Regarding drug use, this was very interesting (you know how hard-core anti-drugs I am):

It was Metzner's impression that Sri Krishna Prem "was probably as close as Tim has ever come to accepting a teacher. "If this was the case, then his teaching, brief as it was, contained an explicit warning. At one of their last meetings, Sri Krishna Prem grew serious and said to Leary, "It is time that I tell you some things that you should know. Over the centuries our Hindu philosophers have seen everything come and go. Empires, religions, famines, good times, invasions, reforms, liberations, repressions. And drugs. Drugs are among the most influential and dangerous powers available to humans. They open up glorious and pleasurable chambers in the mind. They give great power. Thus they can seduce the searcher away from the Path."

The link to the website where I found this:
http://sunrisedancer.com/radicalreader/library/stormingheaven/stormingheaven20.asp

I have purchased a signed 1938 first edition of Krishna Prem's Initiation into Yoga, a 1968 first edition of the Roy Biography as a collector book, and a 90's paperback edition of Krishna Prem's Yoga of the Bhagavad-Gita...plenty of good reading ahead.

 

Dear Spook -

I will check out the Isherwood book.
I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed Srikrishnaprem - I agree that he was a truly amazing being. Very inspirational.

I'd also recommend other titles by Dilip Kumar Roy - 'Pilgims of the Stars', which is co-written with his daughter-disciple Ma Indira Devi, who gets a mention only in the Krishnapram book. She was also a very high level devotee of Krishna.
I'm also gradually reading 'The Rounding Off' which contains some wonderful stories of Ma Indira's many spiritual experiences.
Incidentally, most of Sri Aurobindo's 'Letters on Yoga' were written to DKR,
over 1,000 letters in all.

I seemed to recall that Leary had met Sri Krishnaprem. I think he alludes to it in 'Jail Notes' - a book I read over 25 years ago - I have a copy somwhere so I'll check it out, and I'll also look at the links you've provided here.

There is another book about Krishnaprem out there - but I've not been able to get hold of it - 'Teachings of Krishnaprem' by Narandranath Kaul. It is available on this site, situated in the USA- They don't respond to emails, to my annoyance, as I would dearly like to read this book, and I've not been able to find it elsewhere. Still, I will go on looking.

http://www.bhavanus.com/store.htm#Book%20Store

 

Bill...Krishnaprem is a huge inspiration...very much appreciate your pointing me in his direction. His philosophy is Caitanyaite Vaisnavism, very simliar in spirit to that of Srila Prabhupada; though he's more philosophically liberal than SP in some areas, pure devotion to Krishna and Guru was the ultimate goal of life for him, as it was for SP...he was a trailblazer in the same sense as Yogananda and SP, except in reverse...he was starting his spiritual life in India about the time Yogananda first came to the U.S., and passed away about the same time SP set foot on U.S. soil.

I've got a bit of repair to do on the signed first edition and then back to reading.

I have heard of the 'Teachings of Krishnaprem', and would also like to have a copy. I tried to call the Bhavan U.S. offices in NYC this PM and got nothing but busy. I'll keep trying back and let you know what I find out...it's a cheap call here in the U.S.

A search of abebooks USA yielded absolutely zip for that title.