The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Edward FitzGerald has long been one of the most beloved, and least understood, poems in the English language. In an illuminating new interpretation, Paramahansa Yogananda?author of Autobiography of a Yogi, reveals the mystical essence of this enigmatic masterpiece, bringing to light the deeper truth and beauty behind its veil of metaphor. Commonly thought to be a celebration of wine and other worldly pleasures, these lyrical Persian quatrains find their true voice when read as a hymn to the transcendent joys of Spirit.
This beautifully illustrated edition of Wine of the Mystic introduces for the first time in book form Paramahansa Yogananda's complete commentaries on an enduring treasure of world literature.

Yogananda said, "One day as I was deeply concentrated on the pages of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, I suddenly beheld the walls of its outer meanings crumble away, and the vast inner fortress of golden spiritual treasures stood open to my gaze. Ever since, I have admired the beauty of the previously invisible castle of inner wisdom in the Rubaiyat. I have felt that this dream-castle of truth, which can be seen by any penetrating eye, would be a haven for many shelter-seeking souls invaded by enemy armies of ignorance."
"Profound spiritual treatises by some mysterious divine law do not disappear from the earth even after centuries of misunderstanding, as in the case of the Rubaiyat. Not even in Persia is all of Omar Khayyam's deep philosophy understood in its entirety, as I have tried to present it."
?Winner of the 1995 "Benjamin Franklin Award?Best Book in the Field of Religion"
?Features 50 beautiful original color illustrations
?Includes Persian text and spiritual commentary to each quatrain

Customer Review: Visually stunning and an esoteric piece of work!

The spiritual interpretation of "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" by Paramahansa Yogananda reveals to the reader the depth of Yogananda's spiritual understanding and attainment. Yogananda interprets the poems in a very esoteric manner which leaves all sincere readers on the spiritual path breathless with admiration and veneration for Omar Khayyam.

Yogananda's commentaries on these poems will bring every scholar on mystical Islam to shame. His depth of understanding on Sufism is a welcome diversion of Yogananda's main spiritual books. Yogananda's main goal was to show the unity of Hinduism and Christianity to the West. But this book clearly shows to the world that Yogananda DID NOT neglect the second most popular religion of this primitive earth - that is Islam.

The illustrations are amazingly beautiful with a touch of Islamic art. But it is the interpretations of the poems that this book shines out. There are three levels of interpretations of each poem. The word for word translation; the practical application of the poem and last but certainly not the least, the deeper spiritual meaning and application of the poems.

Lastly I would love to recommend this piece of timeless art to all the Muslims in this sordid world. The reason is because this book shows the reader the deeper aspect of Islam - which is Sufism. Muslim mystics like Rumi and Khayyam are dangerous to orthodox Muslims because these mystics have already realized Allah and are beyond the mundane rituals of basic Islam. Their state of spiritual attainment is similar to that of Yogananda, Jesus, Buddha, Ramakrishna, Sai Baba, and so on.

Thus no one is in a better position than Yogananda (except for those souls who have God realization), to interpret these poems the way Khayyam had intended it to be understood. I would also like to recommend other books about Sufism which would compliment this book beautifully.

Customer Review: MISTRANSLATIONS COMMENTED BY MANY STOCK PHRASES

In the Fitzgerald text that HH Yogananda comments, the Persian poem is not truly TRANSLATED: that is well explained in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Yogananda dispensed with real translations to base his commentary on. That was unwise, for translators of the poem see how great the differences are between Fitzgerald's work and a translation of Omar's poem. With such an infirm basis to work on top of, the "interpretations of Omar" by Yogananda become formidable hocus-pocus - they are, rather, what he reads into Fitzgerald's book - which differs from the work of Khayyam considerably. (1) In this process Yogananda uses mistranslations as deep symbols to interpret; hence ERRONEUS guru dealings. (2) He repeats himself up to gruesomely by STOCK PHRASES - very boring to some. (3) MESS: To complicate things further, there are today TWO VERSIONS that lay claims on bringing Yogananda's (non-savoury) interpretations. These independent versions often differ. It means you may not be sure you get the true wordings of Yogananda - after the essentials of Khayyam have been done away with by Fitzgerald. CONCLUSION SO FAR: In this work there is too much inept or senile-looking handling to deal with.

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