Экна́т Эа́шваран: Инди́йский духо́вный учи́тель и перево́дчик

Indian American spiritual teacher

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

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. 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. 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.

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. 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." Since 2009, Easwaran's three translations "have each been the best selling translations of these scriptures in the USA." 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. Renewal is a pocket book of short readings on themes such as loving relationships, raising children, living simply, and aging wisely; Patience, the second in the pocket book series, shows how to cultivate Patience "the ornament of the brave" at any age. Other (older) books describe various aspects of leading a spiritual life: Climbing the Blue Mountain, Compassionate Universe, and Undiscovered Country.

God Makes the Rivers to Flow is an anthology of writings from the sacred literature of the world, selected by Easwaran as useful for meditation. A larger (and earlier) version of Timeless Wisdom, it contains dozens of passages from diverse traditions, and identifies passages for particular stages in life, such as caregiving, families with small children, death and dying, grief and loss, and for building positive qualities such as patience, courage, devotion to God, and putting others first. Words to Live By is a set of daily readings with Easwaran's commentary on applying the reading to daily life.

The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living is a manual for living a spiritual life, comprising a verse by verse commentary on India's timeless scripture the Bhagavad Gita. The work is in three volumes, published in 1975, 1979 and 1984 respectively, in hardcover and later also in paperback. When the first paperbacks were published the volumes were given new subtitles: the End of Sorrow; Like a Thousand Suns; and To Love is To Know Me. In 2020 the three volume set was reissued as a second edition, and as a single volume ebook. In Volume 1 (the first six chapters of the Gita) Easwaran explains how readers can begin to transform themselves, even as householders engaged in busy lives. In Volume 2 (the next six chapters) Easwaran addresses the seeming divide between scientific knowledge and spiritual wisdom, and explains how the concept of the unity of life can help people in all their relationships. In Volume 3 (the final six chapters) he makes the connection between the Self within and the Reality underlying all creation – and how to make a difference to heal the environment and establish peace in the world.

Gandhi the Man traces how Mohandas Gandhi transformed himself into one of the world's great spiritual leaders. Nonviolent Soldier of Islam is the life story of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a Pathan (or Pushtun) of Afghanistan and a devout Muslim, who raised the first nonviolent army in history to gain Indian independence from British colonial rule. This book was favorably discussed in The New Yorker. filmmaker and writer T. C. McLuhan, daughter of Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, to make the film The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace, which won the 2009 Black Pearl Award for Best Documentary Film.

Original Goodness (see article) is a commentary on the Beatitudes. Love Never Faileth (see article) is a commentary on the writings of St Francis, St Paul, St Augustine, and Mother Teresa. Seeing with the Eyes of Love (see article) is a commentary on The Imitation of Christ.