Review (PDF) Wine Of The Mystic : The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam (Self-Realization Fellowship)
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Edward FitzGerald has long been one of the most beloved, and least understood, poems in the English language. In an illuminating new interpretation, Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, reveals the mystical essence of this enigmatic masterpiece, bringing to light the deeper truth and beauty behind its veil of metaphor. Commonly thought to be a celebration of wine and other worldly pleasures, these lyrical Persian quatrains find their true voice when read as a hymn to the transcendent joys of Spirit. This beautifully illustrated edition of Wine of the Mystic introduces for the first time in book form Paramahansa Yogananda's complete commentaries on an enduring treasure of world literature. Yogananda said: "One day as I was deeply concentrated on the pages of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, I suddenly beheld the walls of its outer meanings crumble away, and the vast inner fortress of golden spiritual treasures stood open to my gaze. Ever since, I have admired the beauty of the previously invisible castle of inner wisdom in the Rubaiyat. I have felt that this dream-castle of truth, which can be seen by any penetrating eye, would be a haven for many shelter-seeking souls invaded by enemy armies of ignorance. Profound spiritual treatises by some mysterious divine law do not disappear from the earth even after centuries of misunderstanding, as in the case of the Rubaiyat. Not even in Persia is all of Omar Khayyam's deep philosophy understood in its entirety, as I have tried to present it."Winner of the 1995 Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Book in the Field of Religion, this edition features 50 beautiful original color illustrations and includes Persian text and spiritual commentary to each quatrain.
Hardcover: 248 pages
Publisher: Self-Realization Fellowship; First edition, third printing. edition (July 15, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 087612225X
ISBN-13: 978-0876122259
Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 1 x 10.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #776,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #194 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > Middle Eastern #892 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Themes & Styles > Inspirational & Religious #1524 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Philosophy
"It takes one to know one," is here shown to apply to mystics. In this award-winning volume, Twentieth Century Indo-American sage Paramahansa Yogananda applies his irrepressible spiritual pursuit to Omar Khayyam's Twelfth Century masterpiece. Like most cultures through the ages, Kayyam's Persia was much friendlier to his mainstream career (in mathematics and astronomy) than to his spiritual revelations. The wondrous poetic beauties which sparkle through his Rubaiyat express his personal, non-canonical insights into Enlightenment (aka: the Kingdom of Heaven, Nirvana, Samadhi) are in metaphors - symbolisms whose spiritual implications register only for those "who have eyes to see" - who have themselves had a glimpse of higher spiritual realms.The publisher of Wine of the Mystic has included an eye-opening foreword to this volume that puts these complexities into perspective, including 1) the fact that Edward FitzGerald (translator for the most famous English-language editions) only grudging acknowledged the mystical significance of the work, 2) FitzGerald's poetic techniques that faithfully capture the *spirit* of stanzas even when they are not linear translations, 3) the tradition among Sufi mystical poets of using wine as a symbol for Divine Intoxication.Why should a poem that is merely (on the surface) a hymn to the joys of drunkenness survive for a millenium and continue to fascinate cultures around the world in languages so unlike its author's? In his introductory words, Yogananda summarizes the miracle of FitzGerald's (apparently materialist) translation by called him "divinely inspired to catch exactly in gloriously musical English words the soul of Omar's writings.
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