Eknath Easwaran

Eknath Easwaran (December 17, 1910 – October 26, 1999) was an Indian-born spiritual teacher, author and translator and interpreter of Indian religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads.

Eknath Easwaran was born in 1910 in a village in Kerala, India.

Eknath is his surname, Easwaran his given name.

Brought up by his mother, and by his maternal grandmother whom he honored as his spiritual teacher, he was schooled in his native village until the age of sixteen, when he went to attend St. Thomas College, Thrissur, a Catholic college fifty miles away.

He graduated at the University of Nagpur in English and law.

He served as Chair of the Department of English at University of Nagpur.

Easwaran was a lifelong vegetarian.

Easwaran was a professor of English literature at the University of Nagpur in India, and in 1959 he came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Minnesota before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley where he taught courses on meditation-the first in the country offering credits.

In 1959, he came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

From 1960 he gave classes on meditation in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He met his wife Christine at one of these talks.

In 1961, Easwaran founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation and Nilgiri Press, based in northern California.

Nilgiri Press has published over thirty books that he authored.

Easwaran was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, whom he met when he was a young man.

Easwaran developed a method of meditation – silent repetition in the mind of memorized inspirational passages from the world's major religious and spiritual traditions – which later came to be known as Passage Meditation.

Together with his wife, he founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in 1961.

After a four-year stay in India, he returned to the Bay Area in 1965.

In 1970 he founded Ramagiri Ashram as a community of dedicated followers in Marin County.

He set up a publishing activity, Nilgiri Press, which printed his first book Gandhi The Man, telling the story of Gandhi as a spiritual as well as a political leader.

His first major work was his 3-volume commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, the first volume of which was printed in 1975 and the last in 1984.

His book Meditation on the program of meditation and allied disciplines that he developed first appeared in 1978.

Since 2009, Easwaran's three translations "have each been the best-selling translations of these scriptures in the USA."

In the US in 2016, each of Easwaran's translations outsold the second best-selling translation in its category "by more than 3:1", and the second editions have together sold more than 470,000 copies.

Essence of the Upanishads (see article), originally entitled Dialogue with death: The spiritual psychology of the Katha Upanishad, explains how the Katha Upanishad embraces the key ideas of Indian spirituality within the context of a powerful mythic quest – the story of a young hero who ventures into the land of death in search of immortality.

"Essence of the Upanishads is a westerner's guide to this vitally important Indian text and its modern relevance to the Indian mindset and spirituality."

In Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, Easwaran places the Gita's teachings in a modern context and comments on the Gita's view of the nature of reality, the illusion of separateness, the search for identity, the meaning of yoga, and how to heal the unconscious.

The book views the key message of the Gita as how to resolve our conflicts and live in harmony with the deep unity of life, through the practice of meditation and spiritual disciplines.

In Essence of the Dhammapada, Easwaran comments on the Dhammapada, sayings attributed to the Buddha himself, presenting it as a guide that gives straightforward teachings about spiritual perseverance, progress, and enlightenment.

His book Passage Meditation (original title Meditation) describes the Eight Point Program that Easwaran developed, while his book Conquest of Mind goes further into the practice of these disciplines in daily life.

Timeless Wisdom is a companion book to Passage Meditation and contains passages for meditation drawn from across the world's spiritual traditions.

His book Mantram Handbook: a practical guide to choosing your mantram and calming your mind addresses The Mantram, the second point in the program.

His book Strength in the Storm is an introduction to The Mantram, containing many stories and practical examples to help the reader learn how to harness the inner resources for dealing with challenges in daily living.

His book Take Your Time explores "Slowing Down" and "One-Pointed Attention" in daily lives.

By 2018, Easwaran's methods of spiritual practice had been the focus of two major scientific research programs that had produced thirty refereed research reports.

Easwaran's written works may be grouped into several major categories—primarily books, but also articles in newspapers and other periodicals.

Most of his books have been reviewed by spiritually oriented publications or websites, or by nationally known media such as The New Yorker, or the New York Post.

In addition, a large number of Easwaran's recorded talks have been published in video and audio formats.

Easwaran's translations of the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Dhammapada (see article) have been critically acclaimed.

Religion scholar Huston Smith is cited by the publisher as writing: "No one in modern times is more qualified – no, make that 'as qualified' – to translate the epochal Classics of Indian Spirituality than Eknath Easwaran. And the reason is clear. It is impossible to get to the heart of those classics unless you live them, and he did live them. My admiration of the man and his works is boundless."

In Buddhism: A Concise Introduction Smith and his coauthor Philip Novak wrote that "Our favorite translation is Eknath Easwaran's The Dhammapada. His Indian heritage, literary gifts, and spiritual sensibilities... here produce a sublime rendering of the words of the Buddha. Verse after verse shimmers with quiet, confident authority. A bonus is the sparkling 70-page introduction to the Buddha's life and teachings."