About Vanity Karma (short)
In Vanity Karma: Ecclesiastes, the Bhagavad-gita, and the meaning of life, a Jewish American who has been a devotee of Krishna since the 1960s explores the most essential of all themes—the meaning of human life. To do this he brings India’s most celebrated spiritual classic into dialogue with the most radically powerful wisdom book of the Hebrew scriptures.
Ecclesiastes, “the strangest book in the Bible,” begins with the argument that our life on earth is pointless, that we spend it working hard for “vanity,” for nothing better than vapor—and then die and disappear into oblivion.
In the 1960s the themes of Ecclesiastes profoundly moved a young Jewish American boy, starting him on a quest for meaning that led him to the Bhagavad-gita, India’s preeminent book of wisdom. Today, after following the teachings of the Gita for more than forty-five years, that young boy, now grown old, looks deeply into Ecclesiastes again.
He says, “As wisdom meets wisdom, as found in these two books – one biblical, the other from spiritual India – we see the daily issues of our world in a different way as we rise above them to consider what life is for, what ultimate profit we can gain from it, what meaning, what happiness, what lasting value. And as we read, we grow in wisdom ourselves.”
Vanity Karma includes the full text of Ecclesiastes in a modern English rendering with an illuminating commentary on each verse.
The plain-language commentary is followed by meticulous notes, making Vanity Karma valuable for the seeker, for the scholar, and for anyone who has ever asked, “What is the meaning of my life?”
About Vanity Karma (long)
In Vanity Karma: Ecclesiastes, the Bhagavad-gita, and the meaning of life, a Jewish American who has been a devotee of Krishna since the 1960s explores the most essential of all themes—the meaning of human life. To do this he brings India’s most celebrated spiritual classic into dialogue with the most radically powerful wisdom book of the Hebrew scriptures.
Ecclesiastes, “the strangest book in the Bible,” begins with a powerfully expressed argument that our life on earth is pointless, that we spend it working hard for “vanity,” for nothing better than vapor—and then die and disappear into oblivion.
Work for pleasure brings emptiness, says the speaker of the book, and seeking knowledge brings only greater frustration. The sun forever rises and sets, generations forever come and go, and there is nothing new under the sun. “Vanity of vanities,” cries the speaker. “All is vanity!” All is in vain.
The power and eloquence with which this bleak view is explored, the beauty of the book’s celebrated poem on time and seasons, the richness of the book’s proverbial insights, and a refusal to settle for dogmatic platitudes have made Ecclesiastes a perennial classic.
Hemingway, Tolstoy, and Melville, Orwell, Updike, and T.S. Eliot all drew from it. Shaw equated it with books by Shakespeare. A lyrical passage from the book became the much-loved song “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To everything there is a season).”
Thomas Wolfe wrote, “I am not given to dogmatic judgments in the matter of literary creation, but if I had to make one, I could only say that Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known, and the wisdom expressed in it the most lasting and profound.”
In the 1960s this wisdom profoundly moved a young Jewish American boy, starting him on a quest for meaning that led him to the Bhagavad-gita, India’s quintessential text of spiritual wisdom.
The Gita too begins with a collapse of meaning, as the warrior Arjuna finds himself at the brink of a war in which he must bear arms against his own teacher, family, and friends—a war in which winning, he cries, would be worse than death.
Standing between the two armies, the war about to begin, Arjuna’s divine charioteer Sri Krishna enlightens Arjuna with a message of immortal spiritual realization.
And so it is that Tolstoy, Emerson, Eliot, Gandhi, and countless others have turned again and again to what Thoreau called “the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita.”
After following the teachings of the Gita for more than forty-five years, in Vanity Karma our young Jewish American boy, now grown old, looks deeply into Ecclesiastes again.
He says, “As wisdom meets wisdom, as found in these two books – one biblical, the other from spiritual India – we see the daily issues of our world in a different way as we rise above them to consider what life is for, what ultimate profit we can gain from it, what meaning, what happiness, what lasting value. And as we read, we grow in wisdom ourselves.”
Vanity Karma includes the full text of Ecclesiastes in a modern English rendering, with an illuminating commentary on each verse.
The plain-language commentary is followed by meticulous notes, making Vanity Karma valuable for the seeker, for the scholar, and for anyone who has ever asked, “What is the meaning of my life?”
Five facts about the book of Ecclesiastes
- In the 1960s the American folk singer Pete Seeger put a passage from the book to music as “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season),” and the folk-rock group The Byrds made it a number-one song.
- The book has a long history of controversy. Early rabbis debated whether or not the book should be considered sacred. Once they decided yes, they talked about whether it should nonetheless be hidden away. (They decided it shouldn’t.)
- The title Ecclesiastes has nothing to do with a church or churches. It’s the name given to the speaker of the book, and it means something like “the leader of the assembly.” (The use of ecclesia to mean a church came much later.)
- Among the well-known phrases that come from the book: “nothing new under the sun,” “the fly in the ointment,” and “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.”
- A line from Ecclesiastes provided the title for Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises.
Five facts about the Bhagavad-gita
- It is the essential book of wisdom for the oldest spiritual tradition in India.
- It consists of 700 Sanskrit verses.
- Mahatma Gandhi read it every day.
- It’s India’s original go-to book for knowledge about yoga, karma, reincarnation, meditation, and spirituality.
- The translation and commentary by Jayadvaita Swami’s spiritual teacher has been translated into nearly sixty languages.
Websites
- Jayadvaita Swami: www.jayadvaitaswami.com
- Vanity Karma: www.vanitykarma.com
- The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust: www.bbt.info
Jayadvaita Swami Social Media
Publication Information
| Title: | Vanity Karma: Ecclesiastes, the Bhagavad-gita, and the Meaning of Life |
|---|---|
| Author: | Jayadvaita Swami |
| Publisher: | The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |
| Date of Publication: | September 2015 |
| ISBN-13: | 978-0-89213-449-6 |
| ISBN-10: | 0-89213-449-6 |
| Retail price: | $15.95 (trade paperback) |
| Pages: | 384 pages |
| Paper: | Acid-free paper |
| E-book edition: | yes |
