His name was Abdullah Ansari... Abdullah means like submitted to the will of Allah. Here's the first part of it... I just typed it... I'm pretty sure it's not online.
Oh that's beautiful! Who wrote it? I've been recently been developing a great taste for spiritual or religious poetry, such as that of Rumi, Lao Tzu, among others. Who wrote it?
"When I remember You, sorrow is joy. This is my secret door to Truth. Without the taste of Your Identity, praying and learning are illusory. My direction of prayer is Your Face; my victory banner reads, All is He. Paradise is not my concern; hell is not my anxiety."
Thank you, should I type a little more? It's from a poem in a book.
Hey, I really like the description on your location
Hmmm the translation sounds really good and I think I've seen editions of it. Maybe I'll get it, though I usually don't like a lot of notes and like reading the poem all thoroughly laid out on the page. What do you think of Edwin Arnold's translation, the one Gandhi praised so highly.
The writer is Lex Hixon Nur Al Jerrahi. From your response... I know you would like this book.
Oh, for a second I thought you said that was your poem, lol. Wow, it's great, who's the writer again? I especially like the last two lines.
The other good thing about Prabhupada's translation are his purports. When I first read it, I read is all the way through, and I didn't understand anything, but I felt like I was reading something from an elevated consciousness - similar to when I picked up my first book of philosophy, and began reading Descartes Meditations. I learned a lot from his Gita (which is titled Bhagavad-Gita As It Is) The downside of Prabhupada's translation is two-fold, in that he doesn't view the sexes as equal, and that he isn't tolerant of other religions or views. But as a scholar he did an incalculable service for all of us, by translating both all of Caitanya-Caritamrita, and most of the Bhagavat-Purana (his disciples finished that translation). These are the next two most important scriptures for Gaudiya Vaisnavas, and before Prabhupada they were very difficult to find.
As for the Gita, I have only read Srila Prabhupada's. The good things about it is that each verse is written in Sanskrit, transliteration, and translation, and each verse has a purport. I studied the Gita in great depth, and lived a Hare Krishna (Gaudiya Vaisnava) temple for 6 months to practice its philosophy (bhakti-yoga, or devotional service). Whenever I look at another translation, it is usually pretty nice, because it's still the same poem... however, there is so much that seems to be lost by those other translations. It's like you read through it and hope to get something, whereas with Prabhupada's, every verse is full of meaning.
