Karma Yoga: Book of the month (Oct 2021).

 

Here is a quick background of how this title became a top contender for the October book-of-the-month. 

Two members bought this book and posted covers in the WhatsApp group. It prompted a third member to send a request for this book as "book-of-the-month." We circulated messages in the group. The announcement resulted in 26 members signing for this book. Twenty-six members are much more than our active members, almost one-fourth of our total members. Hence we confirmed this to be Book-of-the-month. 

As we have an overwhelming response for this book, some of the things that we have planned for October are: 

1. GRP: Guided reading program. [Thanks to Aniket for this]. We will post daily portions as well as a prompt. Would you please post your responses to the prompt? You may follow this pace or have more bandwidth, or love to read books in one sitting; You can move at a faster pace. Even if you are moving quicker, we request you to respond to prompts to add to fun and learning. 
2. We haven't yet finalized, but there will be daily quotes related to Karma Yoga and that day's portion. [Thanks to Vikraman Panicker for this]. 
3. We will take the break on the weekend to take notes/summary or some side activity. 
4. We are getting in touch with experts who studied this topic in depth. An attempt is to call them to speak with us in a monthly meeting. So do watch out for the space! 

Sounds exciting, isn't it! Get ready for the learning journey. 

For those who wish to dive deep into this topic. Few more resources. 

1. Swami Vivekananda has given six speeches on Karma Yoga, now published as a booklet. Now available online too. It's a small booklet in size. The English version is available here. 
2. An erudite scholar Swami Pitambarananda gave a series of lectures based on this book. You may access youtube here. 
3. Swami Tyagananda (Hindu Chaplain at Harvard & MIT) penned a beautiful, accessible commentary on Vivekananda's Karma Yoga. It is titled Walking The Walk. It is available here. It's a highly recommended book. I will post the summary of this soon. 
4. Swami Tyagananda runs a course on "Walking the Walk." It is available here.  
5. For more enthusiastic readers, Tilak's commentary on Bhagavad-Gita - Gita Rahasya or Karm Yoga Shastra is one of the pioneering works in this domain.  

Feel free to comment or give feedback. Do add your resources or pointers.