The Bhagavad Gita and the West The Esoteric Significance of the Bhagavad Gita and Its Relation to the Epistles of Paul 5 lectures, Köln, Dec. 28-Jan. 1, 1913 (CW 142) 9 lectures, Helsinki, May 28-June 5, 1913 (CW 146) Rudolf Steiner, Introduction by Robert McDermott, Foreword by Christopher Bamford, Bhagavad Gita translation by Eknath Easwaran ISBN: 9780880106047 Book (Paperback) SteinerBooks, The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner $35.00 6 x 9 ¼ inches 464 pages September 2009

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Click here to read the first part of Robert McDermott's introduction to The Bhagavad Gita and the West. This combination of two volumes in Rudolf Steiner’s Collected Works presents Steiner’s profound engagement with Hindu thought and, above all, the Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as they illuminate Western Christian esotericism. In his masterly introduction, Robert McDermott, a longtime student of Rudolf Steiner, as well as Hindu spirituality, explores the complex ways in which the “Song of the Lord,” or Bhagavad Gita, has been understood in East and West. He shows how Krishna’s revelation to Arjuna—a foundation of spirituality in India for more than two and a half millennia—assumed a similarly critical role in the Western spiritual revival of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the West, for instance, leading up to Steiner’s engagement, he describes the different approaches manifested by Emerson, Thoreau, H.P. Blavatsky, and William James. In the East, he engages with the interpretation of historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, relating them to Steiner’s unique perspective. At the same time, and most valuable, he illuminates the various technical terms and assumptions implicit in the worldview expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. The main body of The Bhagavad Gita and the West consists of two lecture courses by Rudolf Steiner: “The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul” and “The Esoteric Significance of the Bhagavad Gita.” In the first course, his main purpose, as McDermott shows, is to integrate the flower of Hindu spirituality into his view of the evolution of consciousness and the pivotal role played in it by the Mystery of Golgotha—the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Steiner views Krishna as a great spiritual teacher and the Bhagavad Gita as a preparation, though still abstract, for the coming of Christ and the Christ impulse as the living embodiment of the World, Law, and Devotion, represented by the three Hindu streams of Veda, Sankhya, and Yoga. For him, the epic poem of the Bhagavad Gita represents the “fully ripened fruit” of Hinduism, whereas Paul is related but represents “the seed of something entirely new.” In the last lecture, Steiner reveals Krishna as the sister soul of Adam, incarnated as Jesus, and claims Krisha’s Yoga teachings streamed from Christ into Paul. In the second lecture course, given five months later, Steiner engages the text of the Bhagavad Gita on its own terms, as signaling the beginning of a new soul consciousness. To aid in the understanding of both these important cycles, this volume includes the complete text of the Bhagavad Gita in Eknath Easwaran’s luminous translation. In our age, when East and West are growing closer together and we live increasingly in a global, intercultural, religiously pluralistic world, The Bhagavad Gita and the West is necessary reading for all concerned with a truly spiritual approach to the new reality. CONTENTS & SYNOPSES: Foreword by Christopher Bamford Preface by Robert McDermott Introduction by Robert McDermott Part I—The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul The Unified Plan of World History: The Merging of Three Spiritual Streams in the Bhagavad Gita (Köln, December 28, 1912) The three millennia bearing the stamp of Greek culture. The emergence of Eastern wisdom in the nineteenth century. A relevant comment by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The confluence of three spiritual streams in the Bhagavad Gita: Veda, Sankhya, Yoga; The renewed form of these streams in modern spiritual science; their living transformation through Christianity and through Paul. The Fundamental Concepts of the Gita: The Veda, Sankhya, and Yoga (Köln, December 29, 1912) The fundamental knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita. The Sankhya system: the degrees of the Prakriti ; Purusha ; the three gunas, their resonance in Aristotle and their rebirth in Goethe’s color theory. The task of Yoga: the regaining of the lost spirituality through devotional exercises. The Bhagavad Gita as the poetry and teaching of a time in transition. Joining the Three Streams in the Christ Impulse (Köln, December 30, 1912) The effect of world views on the soul and destiny of the human being. The super-personal “sublimity” of the Bhagavad Gita; the personal engagement in the letters of Paul. The being of Krishna and his teaching. The eleventh song of the Bhagavad Gita. The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita and the Significance of the Pauline Letters (Köln, December 30, 1912) The Bhagavad Gita as the flower of former developments, the letters of Paul as the seed of future developments. The transitional period characterized by the deed of Krishna: the falling away of blood-bound clairvoyance. The transition to a higher stage of development through the Christ impulse: the soul-element taking hold from within and the confrontation with Lucifer and Ahriman. The Spirituality of Maya; Krishna — the Luminosity of the Christ; Paul’s Experience and Teaching of the Risen Christ (Köln, January 1, 1913) The individual human being addressed by Krishna and all of humanity through the Christ impulse. Paul’s words about the working together of the various spiritual gifts in a community and about love. Indian philosophy turning away from Maya. The Christian search for the spiritual in the world as the work of the gods. The being and deed of Christ; Krishna as His “shining light.” The path of reconciliation of the human being with the world through self knowledge and self-education. Part II—The Esoteric Significance of the Bhagavad Gita Helsinki, May 28, 1913 The recognition of the Bhagavad Gita and its relevance for the present time. A statement on this by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The starting-point of the Bhagavad Gita: a battle of brothers. The reluctance of Arjuna to be involved in worldly battle. The opposite picture of Socrates as proclaimer of the immor¬tality of the soul. Arjuna as the representative of the world of the group soul, and Krishna as the leader for the experience of the individual ego. Helsinki, May 29, 1913 The artistic composition of all ancient documents of the esoteric. A shat¬tering soul experience as the starting point of esoteric experiences. Widening of interest as a prerequisite of spiritual training. Arjuna’s spiritual develop¬ment in accordance with such prerequisites. Thinking in general concepts as a new acquisition at the time of the Bhagavad Gita. Ideas and concepts as the beginning of clairvoyance. The teaching of Krishna: turning away from the word of the Vedas, and turning toward treading the path of Yoga. Under¬going the feeling of solitude and the first steps to super-sensible knowledge. Helsinki, May 30, 1913 The connection of dream pictures with everyday experiences. The intrusion of spiritual experiences into the world of dreams as a result of spiritual-scien¬tific practices. The overcoming of the usual sympathies and antipathies as a pre-condition for such experiences. Examples of the difficulties of achieving this. Attaining a new attitude to one’s own destiny. The necessity of strength¬ening self-awareness for the ascent into higher worlds. The reflection of such facts in the meeting between Arjuna and Krishna. Helsinki, May 31, 1913 The last remains of clairvoyance in people at the time of the Bhagavad Gita. The feeling of the senselessness of a merely physical existence as a spur to spiritual research. The attainment of higher knowledge through conscious penetration into the region of the spirit world otherwise only experienced during sleep. The recognition of the necessity of evil in the world. The indig¬nation of public criticism towards insights brought down from the “sleep region.” The truth of the two Jesus children as an example. The words of Krishna as revelations from this spiritual region. Helsinki, June 1, 1913 The deficiency of all definitions. Characterization of the cyclic course of the processes of upbuilding and degradation in the nervous system through the alternation of sleeping and waking. Helen Keller as example for the resil¬ience of hereditary forces against organic damage. The cyclic law of life in the course of history and alternation between periods of preparation and of fulfillment. The formation of a new organ in the human brain between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the beginning of spiritualistic thinking in the present. Examples of the after effects of a materialistically superficial mode of thinking. Woodrow Wilson’s views on national life. The preparation of self-consciousness through Krishna during the time of division into castes and ancestor worship. Arjuna’s becoming conscious of this process. Helsinki, June 2, 1913 An error of today’s abstract scientific knowledge: the interpretation of ancient religious documents as philosophical systems. The meeting of Arjuna with Krishna as bringing about self-consciousness. The artistic crescendo of the first songs of the Bhagavad Gita to the ninth song: from comprehension of the eternal through outer phenomena to deepening in Yoga, to experiencing the Krishna spirit in imaginative pictures. The meaning of the Krishna impulse for the individual human soul, of the Christ impulse for all humanity. Helsinki, June 3, 1913 The inability of the human being to recognize his own powers of cognition. The working of the destructive forces in the waking life of thinking and the creative up-building forces during sleep. The special quality of these forces in the human being: their relationship to the “less than nothing”. The sleep of the reproductive forces in innocent childhood and their animalizing effect when they awaken during puberty. The protection of these human creative forces from Lucifer’s influence in the sister soul of Adam. The becoming human of this soul in the Jesus child of the Luke Gospel. Its penetration by the Zarathustrian soul of the other Jesus child during puberty. The working of Adam’s soul in the Krishna impulse. The discovery of these facts through esoteric observation and not by rational construction. Helsinki, June 4, 1913 The emergence of the Bhagavad Gita out of the perceptual mode of ancient India. The lack of understanding its more profound contents. The efforts to renew the ancient Indian wisdom through the Sankhya philosophy and the Vedanta philosophy of Shankaracharya. The relationship of this spiritual stream with the philosophy of Soloviev, Fichte and Hegel. The perception of the Bhagavad Gita expressed in the concepts sattva, rajas, and tamas. The vivacity of these concepts and their application to various areas of life. Helsinki, June 5, 1913 The different application of the concepts sattva, rajas, and tamas at the time of the Bhagavad Gita and the present. Growing beyond these three soul conditions as the task of Arjuna. Krishna’s impulse for the independence and perfection of the human soul. The synthesis of the Luciferic impulse through the Christ impulse. The widespread error in the Theosophical Society of the physical reincarnation of Christ and the striving for truthfulness as the task of Anthroposophy. APPENDIX: From The Gospel of. Mark: Basel, Lecture 5, September 19, 1912 Buddha and his predecessor Krishna. Krishna’s teachings as esoteric revela¬tions. Teachings of modern idealist philosophers as equally “esoteric” but conceptual in the post-Christian era. In Vedas and Bhagavad Gita, Krishna’s teachings summarized a world perceived by ancient clairvoyance in the third cultural epoch before loss of clairvoyance. Buddha’s teachings some centuries later show nostalgia for the lost world of Krishna. Buddha looked backward to Krishna, John the Baptist looked forward to Christ. PART III—Complete Text of the Bhagavad Gita (Translated by Eknath Easwaran) Guide to Further Reading This volume is a translation of two lecture courses by Rudolf Steiner, published in German as “Die Bhagavad Gita und die Paulusbriefe” (GA 142; translated by Lisa Monges and Doris Bugbey) and “Die okkulten Grundlagen der Bhagavad Gita” (GA 146; translated by George and Mary Adams and Doris Bugbey). Earlier editions of these two lecture series appeared as The Bhagavad-Gita and the Letters of Paul (1971) and The Occult Foundations of the Bhagavad-Gita (1968). Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was born in Kraljevic, Austria, where he grew up the son of a railroad station chief. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a respected and well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his earlier philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and its results. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine and therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs (including the Camphill Village movement), threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.       See all titles by this author Robert McDermott, Ph.D., is president emeritus and chair of the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). His publications include Radhakrishnan (1970); The Essential Aurobindo (1974, 1987); The Essential Steiner (1984); (with Rudolf Steiner) The Bhagavad Gita and the West (2009); and The New Essential Steiner (2009). He has also published on William James, Josiah Royce, M. K. Gandhi, the evolution of consciousness, and American thought. His administrative service includes president of the New York Center for Anthroposophy; president of the Rudolf Steiner [summer] Institute; chair of the board of Sunbridge College (New York) and of Rudolf Steiner College (California). He was a member of the council of the Anthroposophical Society in America (1996–2004). He is the founding chair of the board of the Sophia Project, an anthroposophic home in Oakland, California, for mothers and children at risk of homelessness. He is a Lindisfarne fellow, a Fetzer mentor, and a member of the Esalen Corportion.       See all titles by this author Christopher Bamford is Editor in Chief for SteinerBooks and its imprints. A Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association, he has lectured, taught, and written widely on Western spiritual and esoteric traditions. He is the author of The Voice of the Eagle: The Heart of Celtic Christianity (1990) and An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West (2003). He has also translated and edited numerous books, including Celtic Christianity: Ecology and Holiness (1982); Homage to Pythagoras: Rediscovering Sacred Science; and The Noble Traveller: The Life and Writings of O. V. de L. Milosz (all published by Lindisfarne Books). HarperSanFrancisco included an essay by Mr. Bamford in its anthology Best Spiritual Writing 2000.       See all titles by this author Sri Eknath Easwaran is respected around the world as one of the twentieth century’s great spiritual teachers. Although he did not travel or seek large audiences, his twenty-seven books on meditation and the classics of world mysticism have been translated into twenty-six languages in Europe, China, Japan, India, and Latin America, with more than a million copies in print. Commentaries by him on current events and trends have appeared in the International Herald-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, and the Christian Science Monitor.       See all titles by this author

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