Celebrating the Audiobook of
“The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living”

Last fall the BMCM released a new edition of The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living in paperback, hardcover, and as an ebook.  We also recently released it as an audiobook, and both the ebook and the audiobook contain all three volumes of Easwaran’s verse-by-verse commentary. His writings on the Bhagavad Gita are full of rich spiritual treasures that continue to provide wisdom and insight with every reading.

 In this News Story we wanted to share some of the behind-the-scenes background on the audiobook. You’ll find more from the BMCM Press Team about how the audiobook was made, and how listeners can approach it. You can also read some reflections from passage meditators, including Paul Bazely, the narrator of the audiobook, on their experiences with The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living.

 We hope that this New Story encourages you to find your own way into these books, whether it’s for the first time or whether you’re coming back to them as old friends.

From the BMCM Press Team

The BMCM started producing audiobooks (narrations of Easwaran’s written works) in 2009, but things really took off when we released The Bhagavad Gita in 2014. This recording has been tremendously successful in introducing Easwaran to new listeners – almost 30,000 people bought The Bhagavad Gita audiobook in 2020. We then went on to produce several more audiobooks including Passage Meditation, The Dhammapada, and Essence of the Upanishads.

 Many people asked us for an audiobook of The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, but we knew that it would involve a huge amount of work, which meant we would have to pace it out over maybe a decade. But then some friends of the Center offered their very generous support to create a single audiobook of all three volumes for release as soon as possible, and so we started work!

All the narrations of Easwaran’s audiobooks are by Paul Bazely, who is an actor of Indian heritage and a longtime passage meditator. Paul started recording The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living towards the end of 2018, together with his studio engineer, Simon Smith. Our Press team listened to the recordings several times over, finding and checking the necessary corrections. Paul and Simon also came up with lots of good suggestions, and were tremendously persevering and dedicated during the pandemic, managing to complete the book on schedule in December 2020.

 The audiobook is an unabridged narration of all three volumes of The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, and is more than 50 hours in length. The Bhagavad Gita itself is set on the battlefield of an apocalyptic war between good and evil, and is in the form of a dialogue between the warrior prince Arjuna and his spiritual guide Sri Krishna. In The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living Easwaran interprets the Gita’s teachings for modern listeners, applying them to every aspect of our lives as we face the social, environmental, and global challenges that threaten our world today.

The dialogue form of the Gita makes for a compelling audiobook. Each track, up to 30 minutes long, contains verses from the dialogue, followed by Easwaran’s commentary. Paul’s voicing of Arjuna, Krishna, and then of Easwaran really sweeps the listener along. Many of us like to follow in the ebook or print book while listening to the audiobook – it helps us to concentrate and absorb Easwaran’s teachings. Of course Easwaran is a master teacher, providing us with entertaining stories while challenging us to face reality.

We hope that this audiobook will be a welcome addition to people’s libraries, and will continue to bring new listeners to Easwaran.

From the BMCM Community

From Paul Bazely (narrator of the audiobook) in the UK

It took us more than two years to record The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, and it's been a real labour of love. To try to embody not only Easwaran, but also Arjuna and Sri Krishna is a pretty tall order! 

But I repeated my mantram before every session and have to say it was the best sadhana I’ve ever done. I hope friends enjoy listening half as much as we enjoyed recording it. It was the greatest privilege.

From Peter in Madison, Wisconsin

Years ago, I read Easwaran’s full Gita for Daily Living.  It took a number of months.  It’s the kind of book you just want to work through slowly.  There is a certain luxuriousness to his writing that makes it read like a superb novel.  And it’s a perfect warm-up for a morning or evening meditation.

From Lisa in San Francisco, California

Although I love all of Easwaran’s books, I’ve always found that reading The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living feels like I’m in conversation with Easwaran, which makes it one of my favorites to read. I always have one of the volumes by my bedside table, even when I’m reading other books, and work my way through them cover to cover. Sometimes I move slowly reading one verse and commentary every night and sometimes it’s like reading a page-turner and I move more quickly. Whenever I reach the end of Volume 3, I just start back at the beginning! I’ve just started experimenting with the audiobook, sometimes listening on its own, sometimes while I follow along in the book – it’s been a great new way to experience these books.

Experience the Audiobook for Yourself

We'll leave you with the opportunity to experience the audiobook for yourself. This excerpt is from Volume 3 of The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, and Paul Bazely is reading Easwaran's commentary on verses 49–50 of Chapter 18. These verses are at the start of the much-loved passage that Easwaran recommends for meditation, titled “Be Aware of Me Always.” We hope you enjoy this recording!