Reddit reviews The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita (Self-Realization Fellowship) (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

The Gita is quite fascinating but rather esoteric and difficult to understand upon first approach. It really helps to read a version with explanations as even the names have deeper meanings. I'd recommend Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita or, if you're really bold, God Talks with Arjuna.

As I understand it, The Gita is essentially instruction for Yoga (meaning union as opposed to bendy-practice.)

Ohh I got some goodies for ya, Hermann Hesse is amazing and opened me up to many books.

1. Just buy it right now..seriously. The Book of Mirdad by Mikhail Naimy
   
   
2. Another Classic by Herman Hesse Demian
   
   3)Another with a similar feel as Siddhartha The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
   
   So these top 3 are the "closest" to Siddartha that I've read. You will defintely like the top 3, they are amazing books with such fundamental truths told through a story. All easy to read and similiar in length.
   
   These next 4 are just suggested for anyone that is into these types of books, I would almost guarantee that you will love them! They are just less "story" like. The Autobiography is an amazing read, and is indeed a story but it's non-fiction. The Way of Zen is just a beautiful book, but is not a fiction along with the Bhagavad and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (The author actually suggests Siddhartha in it!)
   
   
3. If you liked Siddhartha heavily for it's spiritual aspects and the effect it left on you, this book has changed me deeply (they all have but this book is a little different) The Autobiography of a Yogi by
   Paramahansa Yogananda
   
   5)And his translation of The Bhagavad Gita
   
   6)Good ol' Allan Watts The Way of Zen
   
   
4. Another highly suggested book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma
   
   Enjoy my friend!

The work of Paramahansa Yogananda can be helpful in understanding the Hindu spiritual foundations of meditation.

He founded the group Self Realization Fellowship to spread the teachings of yoga in the West.

Here's another site that has more information about his writings

What's helpful about Yogananda is that he came to America in the 1920s and taught until his death in the early 1950s, so he is able to translate ancient Hindu concepts into terms that modern Americans can understand.

A great resource on this is his book The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita.

The basic idea is that the foundation of the universe is pure consciousness, and that this pure consciousness is the real source of our being or our real Self.

Translated into Western terms, this pure consciousness is God and our real Self is the soul, and our false self is the ego.

Then the purpose of yoga is to experience our real Self as the eternal divine infinite bliss consciousness which is its source.

What!s also interesting is that Paramahansa teaches powerful yoga techniques to directly experience this aspect of our being, so it is a practical path of experience.

There is no proselytizing because yoga teaches that we will all become enlightened at some point anyway -- if not in this life, then we will just keep reincarnating until it happens. So yoga is just for those who want to speed up this process.

A further basic idea is that it is the goal of every human to have permanent unalloyed pure happiness unmixed with sorrow, and that we have this desire because of our source in divine bliss consciousness. And that our egoic separation from the Divine is the source of our ignorance and misery.

Yes it gets more complicated but I tried to distill it down to the bare bones basics and provide links for anyone who has further interest.