Eknath Easwaran. Sacred Literature of the World (Cassettes). Nilgiri Press, Box
256. Tomales, CA 94971, USA. The festival of the Spring equinox, sometimes ...
Eknath Easwaran Sacred Literature of the World (Cassettes) Nilgiri Press, Box 256 Tomales, CA 94971, USA
The festival of the Spring equinox, sometimes considered as the start of the New Year, has been universally celebrated in the Persian- influenced world of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India. On the day of the Spring equinox, day and night are of equal duration; heat and cold are balanced and both are enjoyable and helpful. The equinox festival is traditionally associated with Shah Jamshid, the divine king and culture hero who taught humanity its arts and sciences. His wonderful achievements are narrated in the Shahnama of Firdausi and the Avesta Vendidad. Shah Jansid says “I will restrain ill-doers and make for souls a path toward the light.” The Spring season in nature, connected with sowing and germination, is an outward and visible sign of an inward psycho-spiritual motion: the flowering of the human plants of virtues: beautiful, colourful and fragrant. Eknath Easwaran, an Indian teacher of meditation now living in California, has brought together his personalized selection from the spiritual harvest of humanity to indicate a path toward the Light. The spiritual realm is beyond distinctions of nationality, era, or religious tradition. Thus this collection is arranged neither chronologically nor by religious tradition. Poems of Saint Teresa of Avila in the 16th century in Spain are followed by a very old Indian hymn to the Divine Mother taken from the Chandi and translated by the English writer Christopher Isherwood. In addition to selections from the classic Upanishads, there are selections from modern Indian religious thinkers such as Sri Ramakrishna and Mahatma Gandhi, whose biography Gandhi the Man Easwaran has written. These selections are often poems and express devotion and the power of the Spirit rather than theological positions. For those who know the texts, they will enjoy the readings. Others will discover aspects of the spiritual traditions they did not know. A small booklet indicates bibliographic references. These cassette readings are a most welcome contribution to understanding the common strands of the spiritual life. René Wadlow
