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[sadananda]

>On Sun, 2 Aug 1998, Kamal Kothari wrote:
>
>> My dear Ravi,
>>
>> I am at present studying Vivekachoodamani by Sankaracharya. The
>> commentary is by Swami Chinmayananda. Do you know :
>>
>> a) If there are any "talks" on audio cassettes which might be available
>> on this subject?
>> b) *How* does one normally study such a text on one's own? Merely
>> reading through does not seem to be good enough.
>>
>> Warm Regards,
>>
>> Kamal
>>
>> --
>> Kamal Kothari
>>
>> "Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. "
>> (Shakespeare in "Macbeth")
>>
>>
>>
>>

Complete vidio casetts of the VivekachuuDaamani by Swami Chinmayaanandaji
are availabe through Chinmaya Mission Video Distribution center in
Philadelphia.  One can get info from Chinmaya under internet. Or call Swami
Shaantaanandaji at (215)396-0787.   These were taped in Siddhabary in
Himachal Pradesh and I heard they are of excellent quality. They were
trying to audio tape the series and I am not sure how far they have
completed.

If you need more information e-mail me  I will try to find it  for you.
There were also Old audio tapes of the talks by Swamiji, taped in
california more than two decades ago but some of the tapes were not of high
audio quality.

Some audio tapes by Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arshya Vidya Peetham (He
was groomed originally in Chinmaya Mission) also avialable but they do not
cover the whole text, but only the first part of the book. You can get that
info. from Arshya Vidhya Peetham.

How does one study these texts?  Yes just reading the book will not help.
We found that it is better to form a study groups (minimum three, maximum
15) and study and discuss together.  The group should meet at least once a
week regularly  for an hour or two.  It requires commitment and motivation.
Good luck.

In the text form there are several other beautiful commentaries besides the
one you quated.  Vidya in this series is providing the abridged version of
Sri Chandrashekara Bharati's commentary traslated into english.  The best I
found was by a Malayaali swami ( I forgot the name) who moved from Kerala
and settled in Andhra near Tirupati, learned telugu and wrote the
commentary in Telugu.  Any one of the texts will do, but discussion in a
study group format is found to be the best.  Once one is trained in the
thoughts swaadhyaayana will be much more beneficial. Then it will not be
just a study but contemplation on the theme.



Hari Om!
Sadananda

K. Sadananda
Code 6323
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington D.C. 20375
Voice (202)767-2117
Fax:(202)767-2623