The Supreme Knowledge - The Science and Engineering of Life and Consciousness

The core and key ideas of India's wisdom and spirituality in all its profundity and completeness as well as principles behind the techniques to experience and realize the Truth are presented systematically, succinctly and precisely using simple, beautiful verses. This is a unique literary work that makes an excellent introductory and an easily accessible reference material for anyone interested in the higher knowledge and Self-realization. It's a practical guide to profound wisdom that is not only delightful to read but also easy to comprehend.

Alok Gupta is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He attended University of Hawaii and University of California San Diego for graduate studies in Electrical Engineering. A communication system engineer by profession, he discovered his love and appreciation for spiritual knowledge, metaphysics, philosophy, Vedanta and poetry later in his life. He lives with his family in Encinitas, an idyllic beach town known for surfing and Self-Realization Fellowship center and ashram founded by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, located in the suburb of San Diego, California,. He is the author of a poetry book Dawn of Wisdom.

Ever since I came across Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda about 25 years ago, I have been fascinated to explore the realm of spirituality, metaphysics, philosophy in depth and almost obsessed with acquiring insight, intuition, wisdom and crystal-clear clarity into the higher knowledge and the Truth. My newly awakened passion took a back seat for quite some time while I became fully occupied with pursuing my other interests and an exciting career in engineering, raising family and chasing few other dreams and aspirations in life. Association with Chinmaya Mission San Diego when the kids were in middle and elementary schools rekindled my passion in spirituality. It offered me an opportunity to embark on a systematic study of Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta using many great publications of Chinmaya Mission written by the esteemed Swamis of the Mission including its illustrious founder Swami Chinmayananda, an avid philosopher and an intellectual giant, and his successor Swami Tejomayananda. Some of those were English translation of works by Adi Shankaracharya with illuminating commentaries and explanations. I also had an opportunity to come across many great books during my trips to India written by the scholars and experts in this field from India as well as the West to get a varied perspectives on Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta, Yoga and Meditation. Xii Bhagavad Gita is undoubtedly India's spiritual knowledge and wisdom. However, if one attempts to read any of the large number of verse-wise English translations along with author's detail commentary on each verse available today on Bhagavad Gita, one soon finds oneself quite lost and bewildered. Some ideas are scattered over several chapters, many ideas are constantly repeated, and still others require knowledge of concepts found elsewhere, in earlier Vedic and Upanishadic texts. Furthermore, at places, the same words are used in different verses to convey different meanings, and at other instances, different words are used to convey the same idea. The verse wise commentary of the author becomes essential part of the discernment of the main idea but not without the disadvantage of encountering the color and the texture of author's personal inclinations and preferences that, at times, only adds to the further confusions. For example, an author with a natural inclination towards bhakti (devotion) necessarily adds that color in his interpretations of each verse. Myself being an engineer with a mathematical and analytical aptitude and a natural inclination for structure, coherence, succinctness and precision, I realized what is needed is a thematic and top-down approach to capture the essential teachings of Bhagavad Gita rather than a verse wise translation and commentary which is readily available in a large number of English translations of Bhagavad Gita. I have found the thematic approach and style immensely useful, contemporary, cohesive, coherent and eminently appealing to anyone trying to grasp the essence of Bhagavad Gita in its totality. Furthermore, Bhagavad Gita by itself is not self-contained as it assumes knowledge and understanding of Vedanta and Samkhya philosophy. The book includes few chapters devoted to cover all important aspects of Samkhya. Bhagavad Gita touches upon many important steps of hatha yoga like pranayama, concentration and meditation only sparingly. An entire chapter is dedicated to present all the important concepts and eight steps of yoga in a systematic way. Another chapter is devoted to introducing the science behind yoga. The concepts of cosmic prana (cosmic energy) and individual prana (life force), five koshas (encasement of Atma within layers of gross and subtle matters), three bodies (gross, subtle and causal), nadis and chakras (energy channels and energy centers of the subtle body), five pranas that control all physiological processes in the body are all covered in this book. Most of our scriptures including Bhagavad Gita are in poetry. Over the years I have developed love for poetry. It has become a means for reflection using verses where few words can be put together to convey powerful emotions, thoughts and ideas esthetically and beautifully. This is the reason I chose to write this book in poetry consisting of simple, beautiful verses that are not only a pleasure to recite but can also be used as inspiring quotes. This book is a culmination of my thorough study and deep dive into Bhagavad Gita and other texts on Yoga, Vedanta well over a decade and my love for poetry. It is a compilation of essence of Bhagavad Gita, Samkhya, Vedanta and Yoga with a modern touch using simple verses with accuracy and precision. I have tried my best to avoid any unnecessary repetitions and duplications of the same ideas and be consistent with the usage of terminologies.

**Contents and Sample Pages**