Swami Venkatesananda's reverence for The Bhagavad Gita was constant throughout his lifetime. As Swami Sivananda's literary secretary and the Sanskrit scholar in residence at Vedanta Forest Academy in Rishikesh, he took on the responsibility of editing Sivananda's own Bhagavad Gita, published by The Divine Life Society in India and in South Africa. Many years later, in an effort to illuminate the day to day practicality of The Bhagavad Gita, he produced another popular edition, Song of God Daily Readings.
Swami Venkatesananda saw The Bhagavad Gita as the greatest treasure of practical wisdom, and an essential companion for any serious student of yoga. His enthusiasm for The Bhagavad Gita can be found in the many hundreds of lectures (many of which had been published by others) he gave in different parts of the world.
In Australia, it was requested that he deliver a series of lectures on the Sixth Chapter of The Bhagavad Gita. In May of 1980, he delivered five talks. Unfortunately, the fifth and final talk in this series has not been recovered. However, we do have the first four of these inspiring lectures, and feel compelled to upload them here, unedited, as MP3 files.
Talks On The Sixth Chapter of the Bhagaved Gita
May 24th 1980 - Talk 1 (35.57 Mb)
May 25th 1980 - Talk 2 (37.16 Mb)
May 26th 1980 - Talk 3 (37.09 Mb)
May 27th 1980 - Talk 4 (38.74 Mb)
Transcription
Additionally these four talks have also been transcribed verbatim, so that first time listeners, those who initially have difficulty understanding an Indian accent can follow along while listening to the audio, so as not to miss a word of these inspiring talks.
Download the unedited transcription.
Our MP3 files should stream while downloading whether you are using QuickTime (use the newest version for the most compatibility) or Microsoft's Media Player (use the latest version available for your Operating System). By the way, Media Player may have to be set to play MP3 using Media Player's Tools (Right click at the top and select: Tools, Options, File Types: and put a check mark in the box for MP3).
Remember with dial-up connections you may choppiness and stuttering as your connection speed drops. If you experience this problem, simply wait a few minutes (in order to get the download ahead of your listening, and then try listening again). If you find the download is not smooth, then simply wait until a few minutes and continue browsers, and then come back to the beginning of the audio file and begin listening.
Our MP3 files should stream while downloading whether you are using QuickTime (use the newest version for the most compatibility) or Microsoft's Media Player (use the latest version available for your Operating System). By the way, Media Player may have to be set to play MP3 using Media Player's Tools (Right click at the top and select: Tools, Options, File Types: and put a check mark in the box for MP3).
Remember with dial-up connections you may choppiness and stuttering as your connection speed drops. If you experience this problem, simply wait a few minutes (in order to get the download ahead of your listening, and then try listening again). If you find the download is not smooth, then simply wait until a few minutes and continue browsers, and then come back to the beginning of the audio file and begin listening.
You should be able to stream the files in real time, but you may prefer to download them instead, especially if you have difficulty with a slow or bad connection. To download, right click (option-click on a Macintosh) on the link and save to your hard drive. Once downloaded, click on the mp3 file to play.