Product Details:
Deluxe Edition
- Hardbound; 116 pages; 22.2 x 27.9 (centimeters); 8.75 x 11 (inches)
- 48 color illustrations with 4 gate-folds; jacket; no index
- Publisher: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust; First issue: 1984
- ISBN: 0-89213-135-7
- Suggested Audience: Introductory
A section of the Srimad-Bhagavatam poetically compares spiritual life to the beauty of nature in autumn. Each verse is illustrated in the traditional Gongbi style by Madam Li Yuen Sheng.
The simplicity, beauty and intricacies in nature have captivated the minds and hearts of the greatest philosophers throughout time. The light from the Bhagavatam shines into nature and brings many lessons alive. The accompanying illustrations provide for a rich sensory experience of the teachings.
From the flaps:
Of all the classic works in the vast treasure house of India’s timeless Vedic literature, the Srimad-Bhagavatam is the most sublime and precious, for it embodies the essence of spiritual truth in beautifully poetic passages. Within the Tenth Canto of this incomparable masterpiece is a description of India’s rainy autumn season as an extended metaphor to illustrate various aspects of transcendental wisdom. For example, the cloudy skies of autumn nights, which obscure the moon and stars, represent the materialism of the present age, which hides true wisdom from the human mind.
When in 1961 His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was invited to attend the Congress for the Cultivation of the Human Spirit in Japan, he conceived of presenting the Bhagavatam’s description of autumn through a series of paintings and accompanying text. He would title the work Light of the Bhagavata. Selecting forty-eight verses with high visual impact, Srila Prabhupada prepared detailed commentaries to the verses, as well as notes to guide artists in painting the images. When he discovered he would be unable to attend the conference, he set aside the work on the project.
Eventually some of Srila Prabhupada’s students, recognizing the literary and artistic importance of Light of the Bhagavata, commission well-known Chinese artist, Madam Li Yun Sheng, to execute the illustrations as Prabhupada had conceived them. These exquisite paintings now appear in this volume along with the original text. In Light of the Bhagavata, Srila Prabhupada’s evocative prose and Madame Li’s graceful paintings in the classical Gongbi style combine to provide a fresh and revealing insight into the vital and enduring truths of the world’s oldest spiritual tradition.
From the back cover:
The simplicity, beauty, and intricacies found in nature have captured the minds and hearts of the greatest philosophers throughout time. Even the greatest scientific minds of our time are at a loss to understand nature’s great mysteries. Light of the Bhagavata presents a clear and tangible illustration of the purpose and significance of nature and its origin.
