The Book of Everything
Jun. 6th, 2025 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pshaw_ravenI kept seeing images of this boxed set pop up, and I felt like it was a sign. So I finally found one for sale and it arrived yesterday.
The Bhagavad Gita is a small section of the Mahabharata and probably the bit that most Westerners are familiar with. I myself bought a copy when someone approached me on the street and said I looked like I'd recently had a mystical experience. I read it but without a lot of comprehension, as I was still in school and hadn't given a lot of attention to India, Hindu thought, or anything outside of medieval Europe, which was what I was studying. A guy I was dating at the time mocked me for reading it and said I would end up shaving my head and playing drums in the airport, which ... being armpits-deep in writing my thesis that sounded like a GREAT change of pace. Don't threaten me with a good time, hoss.
By my calculations, if I read ten pages a day, every single day, I ought to be done in January of 2027.
Anyway, I've started the first volume and while I feel a little lost, I know that this is part of the "framing" of the epic, so a lot of what I'm going through is just setup. Some king is lamenting everything that's happened, so the fact that I have no idea who these people are doesn't matter right now. I do kind of wish there was a good English language reader's guide for this, but I'll muddle along without one.
The Bhagavad Gita is a small section of the Mahabharata and probably the bit that most Westerners are familiar with. I myself bought a copy when someone approached me on the street and said I looked like I'd recently had a mystical experience. I read it but without a lot of comprehension, as I was still in school and hadn't given a lot of attention to India, Hindu thought, or anything outside of medieval Europe, which was what I was studying. A guy I was dating at the time mocked me for reading it and said I would end up shaving my head and playing drums in the airport, which ... being armpits-deep in writing my thesis that sounded like a GREAT change of pace. Don't threaten me with a good time, hoss.
By my calculations, if I read ten pages a day, every single day, I ought to be done in January of 2027.
Anyway, I've started the first volume and while I feel a little lost, I know that this is part of the "framing" of the epic, so a lot of what I'm going through is just setup. Some king is lamenting everything that's happened, so the fact that I have no idea who these people are doesn't matter right now. I do kind of wish there was a good English language reader's guide for this, but I'll muddle along without one.
Go you!
Date: 2025-06-06 08:08 pm (UTC)When I was in junior high, my parents bought me the Encyclopedia Britannica. It lasted me the whole summer. I used to lie on the floor with a dozen books spread around me, chasing the cross-references. <3
Re: Go you!
Date: 2025-06-06 10:02 pm (UTC)Re: Go you!
Date: 2025-06-07 12:52 am (UTC)