My latest teacher
As you can probably tell by now reading the previous blogs, that I am reading Gandhi's biography. I am reading one that was written by another brilliant Indian luminary, Eknath Easwaran. Easwaran was a scholar of Sanskrit and English (!) literature and was believed to be the first to offer Meditation as a credit earning course in the US at Berkeley. He has written many books on what he calls "the art of living" and on meditation. I am setting about consuming his books, most of which are available from our National Libraries (try Orchard, Ang Mo Kio and Woodlands). What I like about his writing is his sympathetic tone, his friendly and very practical advice. His lively anecdotes on his experiences growing up in India, his relationship with his spiritual teacher, his grandmother and his encounters with the American way of life in San Francisco of the '60s-'80s -- are all full of humour, significance and inspiration. His comparisons between surfing beach bums in California, Indian village boys jumping into a flooded river in Kerala and penguins diving off icebergs into the freezing sea make me laugh and learn. Because he wrote well, with talent and ease, without ego, with the intention to share and teach, his writing always cuts deep into the core of truth that resides within us and transforms us from within to without.
"Eknath Easwaran often recalled with pride that he grew up in Gandhi's India the historic years when Mahatma Gandhi was leading the Indian people to freedom from British rule through complete nonviolence. As a young man, Sri Easwaran met Gandhi and the experience of sitting near him at his evening prayer meetings left a lasting impression. The lesson he learned from Gandhi was the power of the individual: the immense resources that emerge into life when a seemingly ordinary person transforms himself completely."
Above excerpted from Easwaran's website at http://www.nilgiri.org
Do visit the website and read his books, if there is ever any reading material I would prescribe for my yoga classes this is it!
Warning: you will not be unchanged after you've read Easwaran's writings. ;-)
"Eknath Easwaran often recalled with pride that he grew up in Gandhi's India the historic years when Mahatma Gandhi was leading the Indian people to freedom from British rule through complete nonviolence. As a young man, Sri Easwaran met Gandhi and the experience of sitting near him at his evening prayer meetings left a lasting impression. The lesson he learned from Gandhi was the power of the individual: the immense resources that emerge into life when a seemingly ordinary person transforms himself completely."
Above excerpted from Easwaran's website at http://www.nilgiri.org
Do visit the website and read his books, if there is ever any reading material I would prescribe for my yoga classes this is it!
Warning: you will not be unchanged after you've read Easwaran's writings. ;-)
