Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.25.
Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math (ND)
Seller: Hard to Find Books NZ (Internet) Ltd., Dunedin, OTAGO, New Zealand
Association Member: IOBA
Small octavo softcover (VG): all our specials have minimal description to keep listing them viable. They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. Ordering more than one book will reduce your overall postage costs.
Published by Signet / New American Library 1969, 1969
Seller: Hard to Find Books NZ (Internet) Ltd., Dunedin, OTAGO, New Zealand
Association Member: IOBA
Paperback (VG-); all our specials have minimal description to keep listing them viable. They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. Ordering more than one book may reduce your overall postage costs.
Published by Vedanta Press 1983, 1983
Seller: Hard to Find Books NZ (Internet) Ltd., Dunedin, OTAGO, New Zealand
Association Member: IOBA
Duodecimo softcover (VG) minor water staining to base of pages; all our specials have minimal description to keep listing them viable. They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. Ordering more than one book may reduce your overall postage costs.
First UK edition. Introduction by Aldous Huxley; 187 pages. Paperback in near very good condition; Boards a bit concave; Page edges age toned.
Published by New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953, 1953
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
First Edition Signed
First edition, first printing, signed by both translators on the front free endpaper. This title is scarce signed by both Isherwood and Prabhavananda, the philosopher and religious teacher who founded the Vedanta Society of Southern California in 1930. Isherwood writes in My Guru and his Disciple, first published in 1980, of his rapid immersion in the study of the Vedanta scriptures against the background of the Second World War: "I was empty because I had lost my political faith - I couldn't repeat the left-wing slogans which I had been repeating throughout the last few years. I knew, from somewhat vague gossip, that [Gerald] Heard and [Aldous] Huxley had become involved in the cult of Yoga, or Hinduism, or Vedanta - I was still contemptuously unwilling to bother to find out exactly what these terms meant" (p. 4). Initially, Isherwood found "all this Oriental stuff was distasteful in the extreme" (ibid.) until a visit to Los Angeles, prior to his move there in 1939. Spending time with Heard and Huxley, Isherwood was introduced to Prabhavananda. It was the Swami's influence that converted Isherwood from sceptic to dedicated Vedantist, with Isherwood remarking that "If I hadn't met [Prabhavananda], my life would have been nothing" (ibid., p. 283). He spent the subsequent 35 years as an active member of the Vedanta Society, occasionally lecturing at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara temples, and assisting Prabhavanada with translations of key texts. Written between 500 BCE and 400 CE, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali were among the most translated ancient Indian texts during the medieval era. In the periods that followed, the work fell into obscurity, and it was not until the late 19th- to mid-20th centuries that it regained its popularity and classical status. Isherwood and Prabhavanandra explain that these aphorisms "are not the original exposition of a philosophy, but a work of compilation and reformulation. What Patanjali did was to restate yoga philosophy and practice for the man of his own period" (p. 7). The exhaustive and original commentary by the translators is written for the serious student of yoga, enabling them to approach a fuller understanding of the text. Christopher Isherwood, My Guru and His Disciple, 2013. Duodecimo. Original dark blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. A touch of rubbing to spine ends and corners, trivial foxing to top edge, offsetting to endpapers. A near-fine copy in jacket, small ink inscription "N.A.B 1953" on front panel, spine panel toned with single nick to head, tiny chips to top corners and head of front fold of spine panel, trivial rubbing to edges, faint spots of foxing to front and rear panels, unclipped, very sharp.