Dear Neerjaji,

Namaste.

Though I completed reading your book by June 12, some interruptions and distractions kept me from writing to you till today.

I enjoyed reading the book, which has a unique language and presentation. The words come from a certain inspiration and conviction, it seems to me.

Impressions:

The book gives a good picture of the teachings of the Geeta to newcomers. Readers will know the range of topics that the ancient poem covered. The topics you have highlighted can impress young people. Stories with valuable messages like the one on Two cats (page 44) and a second on The Happy Man (page 46) make the reading quite delightful and easy. The section on six kinds of emotional traps and how to handle them, at the end of the book, add value to the work. The Seven Principles (page 52) are well outlined. The classification of people into child, youth, householder and elder and their description seem to have an original flavor in them. Quotations from Gandhi and Goethe, Swami Chinmayananda and Pascal have enriched the book.

 

Suggestions:

Please provide an Index in your next edition. Supply verse numbers for all the shlokas that you have quoted from the Geeta. Sanskrit words may please be given for the “Five Distractions on the Path of Yoga” (page 32).

 

Summary comment: Your book is an attractive addition to the available books in English on the eternal message of the Song Celestial.

 

Congratulations. Hope you will come out with more such useful, practical writing.

 

With regards,

S Chidananda

 Personal Website: www.fowai.net

Instead of deriving pleasure from what he has, he derives pain from what others have. - Bertrand Russel on "the envious person"

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