The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Explained

By: Paramhansa Yogananda

Narrated by: J. Donald Walters

Listeners will be awakened by deep spiritual truths within this famous poem as Walters sings the verses, reads the quatrains, and follows each with Yogananda's expanded, clarified meaning.©1999 Clarity Sound & Light. All rights reserved. (P)1999 Clarity Sound & Light. All rights reserved.

Fantastic Explanation

Swami Yogananda appears to have captured the hidden pearl, the effulgent and beautiful nature of God. The insights are profound! The message is positive. The writing is great. By far, this is the best translation of the Rubaiyat I have read. Great job!

You need to really be into Yogananda

You really need to very versed in a master’s yoga esoteric teachings. Or forget it.

Very hard to follow

The content is probably not suitable for an audiobook as it becomes too monotonous after a few minutes. The narrator is very poor as well. I could not spend another minute on this one.

30 Minutes of Poetry, 6 Hours of Inane Commentary

I thought this version of the Rubaiyat would have the poem itself as well as some background or translation notes to help understand the meaning of the quatrains. I was wrong. The vast majority of the book doesn't seem to have anything to do with the poem. The book follows the following format for each verse:

1. The verse is beautifully sung (30 sec each)
2. Explanatory notes on people or objects mentioned directly in the poem (30 sec)

After that, there is several minutes of commentary that was utterly meaningless to me. Maybe I'm too Western or lack the appropriate background, but the thrust of the commentary is thus: "Omar meant blah blah blah central oneness of the universe blah blah blah your mmmmmmm penetrates the depths of false existence yada yada yada." In short, unless you are specifically looking for the hippie-yogi interpretation of the poems that comprises 90% of the book, you will enjoy another version more.

Nice to hear the Rubaiyat sung...

...especially my favorite edition of Fitzgerald's translations. However, the author is forcing his own ideas on the poets work. I ignore that, but it's the reason I'm giving a 3 star. In all it's a relaxing bedtime choice.