Product Description

World-renowned philosopher and spiritual teacher Ram Dass—author of the groundbreaking classic Be Here Now—presents the contemporary Western audience with a lively, accessible guide to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the classic Hindu text that has been called the ultimate instruction manual for living a spiritual life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #418313 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-25
• Released on: 2005-10-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
“Blessed brilliance and luminous heart wisdom—Ram Dass at his best. These lectures were joyous to attend and exquisite to read.” —Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

“With wisdom, humor, and great compassion, Paths to God illuminates the liberating power of the Gita—a rare gift in these unsettled times.” —Joseph Goldstein, author of One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism

“Through offering a wide variety of approaches to spiritual happiness, Paths to God is one of the most inclusive and inviting books available to us.” —Sharon Salzberg, author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

From the Inside Flap
For centuries, readers have turned to the Bhagavad Gita for inspiration and guidance as they chart their own spiritual paths. As profound and powerful as this classic text has been for generations of seekers, integrating its lessons into the ordinary patterns of our lives can ultimately seem beyond our reach. Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism's most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or "paths for coming to union with God."

In Paths to God, Ram Dass brings the heart of that system to light for a Western audience and translates the Gita's principles into the manual for living the yoga of contemporary life.

While being a guide to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, Paths to God is also a template for expanding our definition of ourselves and allowing us to appreciate a new level of meaning in our lives.

About the Author
Ram Dass has served on the faculty at Stanford and Harvard Universities. In the 1960s, he traveled to India, where he met his guru. Since then, he has pursued a variety of spiritual practices, including guru kripa, devotional yoga, karma yoga, many forms of meditation, and Sufi and Jewish studies. Many of his books, including Be Here Now, are international bestsellers and classics of their kind.

Customer Reviews

Helpful, Inspiring and Another Gift from Ram Dass
I like the teachings and the person of Ram Dass. And, having read the Gita in seven translations, most with commentary --- I was very pleased to find both Ram Dass and the Gita in one book.

However, it is not what I expected. It exceeded my my preconceived expectations. For me Ram Dass uses the Gita and its teachings as a takeoff point to help the reader find his/her own path to God. Glancing through the book as I write this brief review --- I can tell how much it meant to me by my ubiquitous underlinings, check marks, arrows and comments.

It has been a source of real benefit in my spiritual path.

Great Teacher = Greater Student
For anyone remotely interested (esp. in the West) in the Gita, Hinduism, and the Actual definition/acknowledgment/application of Karma, I HIGHLY recommend this back. Ram Dass shares four decades of his own experience with/without his Guru, his ruminations/contemplations on the Gita, and his own results of this life. Beautifully written, worded for us 'mere mortals', this is one the best, most direct, commentaries available on truly living Spiritual Principles.

Good if you like watered-down Hinduism
The twelfth canto of the Bhagavata Purana describes how, in the present age of Kali Yuga, irreligion replaces religion. This does not occur overnight; it is a gradual process. And one catalyst of the process is the "watering down" of religion.

Just as when acid comes into contact with milk, the milk is transformed (into curds and whey), similarly, when beatnik and hippie philosophy mingles with Eastern thought, you get the watering down of Hinduism (and Buddhism).

Such is the case with this book. I started reading this book with an open mind; after all, even the Bible has a few pearls of wisdom in it.

However, one only has to read a few pages to see how shallow and hollow this book is.

The clincher for me was in Chapter 7 ("Renunciation and Purification"). Here the author discusses the concept of ahimsa (non-violence, particularly towards animals). In a nutshell: the author says that he gave up being a vegetarian so that he would not be proud of being a vegetarian.

This type of thinking is absolute nonsense, and can be shown by following similar logic: "I should become a thief so that I will not be proud of not being a thief". "I should become a murderer so that I will not be proud of not being a murderer." The author should just admit that he can't control himself, and his taste buds are controlling him. So much for him being a teacher of transcendence!

The person who has no knowledge of Hinduism, and is sincerely inquisitive of it, will walk way with the dismaying impression that Hinduism is a happy-go-lucky, "do your own thing", "everything goes" pseudo-religion, with no real substance. But Hinduism has schools of thought (for example, the Gaudiya-Vaishnava school) that is nothing short of the science of religion and philosophy par excellence.

The bottom line is, I am very sorry I bought this book. I don't want to donate it to the local Public Library or sell it on eBay (as I usually do with unwanted books), because I do not want to be a party to spreading nescience. If I had caged birds, you know what I would do with the pages of this book. But I don't, so it looks like this book is heading for the recycle bin.