a book of life, meditation & meditative life

© Puneet Srivastava, Feb 2015

A Book: of life, meditation &

meditative life.

Bhagwad Gita is India’s most powerful book.

Yet so many people know little about it.

This short slideshow explain a few basics.


Bhagwad Gita is a 5000 year old book.

The original script is in Sanskrit.

Now translations are available in several

languages.


Bhagwad Gita is a conversation between

a teacher and his ‘devoted’ disciple.

The disciple asks and the teacher answers.

The word ‘devoted’ here is of extreme

significance.


The teacher is the supreme master of the

Universe.

The disciple is an ace-archer,

a representative of the mankind.


Despite the mythology,

Bhagwad Gita is a book of life.

It tells: How the human life must be lived?

Rather, in what all ways life could be lived.


I share my experience:

When, I first read Bhagwad Gita,

I was 25 years age.

I understood nothing.

I only got a feeling of calmness,

which I experienced nowhere

and in nothing before.


Few years later I met my teacher.

Our teacher gave us the mantra of SDM.

• Satsang

• Disciplined Life

• Meditation

Our teacher told us to

follow SDM every day in life.


Our teacher never taught us Bhagwad Gita directly.

He asked us only to practice SDM instead.

He taught through little stories and simple examples.

He said, what must, shall come to you by itself.

Practice SDM everyday! He said.

Besides: “Watching Thought Flow”

Was our technique for Meditation.


Somewhere Bhagwad Gita came to me again.

May be, it became my support in wake of

geographical separation from the teacher.

10 years later I discovered,

SDM was the message of Bhagwad Gita.

Now both are my

constant companions.


So, What is Bhagwad Gita?

In simple words, it is a book that tells

science of 5 things, as stated beautifully

in the commentary by Sri Prabhupada.


At first it tells the Science of the Supreme.

I speak not much about this.

This is a subject better experienced than told.

So you shall have to make your own discoveries

on this.


The second thing it defines is the Science of ‘us’.

Yes, ‘us’; meaning ‘we’ – the ‘living creatures’.

It tells about the genesis of our being.

What are we? Who are we?

Why are we, what we may be?

It tells secret

of existence of all the creatures.


Third, Bhagwad Gita tells Science of the Nature.

It tells why the world is like the way it is.

It tells how various forces of nature run this world.

It tells how those forces are governed.

They include physical forces and also…

emotional forces like kindness,

compassion, cruelty, fear etc.


Fourth, it tells the Science of Time.

The Sanskrit word is ‘kaal’,

which is the destructive aspect of time.

What is this ‘kaal’?

How it governs this world?

How it work with the forces of nature?

How that impacts us?

Bhagwad Gita lays clear description of it all.


Finally, it tells the Science of Karma.

In popular perception ‘Karma’ is believed to be ‘Action’.

But my teacher clarifies. ‘Karma’ is ‘Thought + Action’.

Thus Bhagavad Gita states the Law of Karma and why

none can escape it.

It also tells how the cycle of Karma

can be won over.

How true freedom can be attained. It tells it all.



I Quote from the book:

That very ancient science of the relationship with the

Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My

devotee as well as My friend and can therefore

understand the transcendental mystery of this science.

BG 4.3


The next question may be:

How may one learn the message of Bhagwad Gita?

One may not know Sanskrit.

One may not understand the big

commentaries as written by experts.


Here I suggest a methodology.

At first, one must learn to believe.


My teacher tells a wonderful example.

In schools they teach us: H2O is water. We believe.

Have we seen ‘H’?

Have we seen ‘O’?

No! Yet we believe.


Similarly, the message of Bhagwad Gita comes only

to the true believers. So, be one. That’s the first

requirement.


Next, pick up a book of your comfort

and size, preferably in your Mother Tongue.


There are countless commentaries on Bhagwad Gita.

Choose any one of liking.

Each commentary (or most) will have three parts.

First, the Sanskrit Shloka (verse);

Second its translation in your language.

& third, the expert’s commentary on the shloka.

As a beginner, please avoid

reading the commentary at first.



That is because:

The commentary may confuse you terribly.

Besides, parts may be difficult to understand in

perspective.

Instead, read the translation.


The shlokas of Bhagwad Gita are laid

in a sequence of their own.

You have to do nothing,

just keep reading the translations

one after another.

This shall bring you something.

Guaranteed!


If you have liked what you have read and wish to

learn more;

Then now search for a teacher.

You shall find one, no matter which part of the world

you may be.


Go to the teacher and listen carefully.

Read, Listen, Practice, Read.

Follow the instructions of the teacher.


Few words of caution:

First, Bhagwad Gita is not easy.

It is subtle.

At places the message is extremely subtle.

Thus mind must be alert.

It may require lot of patience.


Secondly, Bhagwad Gita cannot be understood

without devotion.

But for a devotee the wisdom opens up by itself like

the flower of lotus.


Finally, since there are several commentaries on Bhagwad

Gita, there is also confusion.

It may so happen that you get to listen/read two different

interpretations of the same thing.

Sometimes they may seem conflicting.

What may one do in such moments?


My suggestion:

Follow your heart

or still better follow your teacher.

On this I quote my teacher,

‘What must, shall come to you.’

So believe truly.


This was Bhagwad Gita in 108 sentences.

In my experience, I would know perhaps less than 1%

of this endless ocean.

Yet that in itself has been life-transforming.

Such is the power of

this 5000 year old book.


Bhagwad Gita is the purest essence

of all the spiritual wisdom of India.


A mere reading of this work can make any person

embrace meditation & meditative life without going

to forest or renouncing the world.


It is a message for everyone & I hope this shall inspire

and motivate people all over the world to read

Bhagwad Gita.


Dedication:

To my revered teacher Swami Amartayananda & the

message of SDM.

• Satsang

• Disciplined Life

• Meditation

a book of life, meditation & meditative life

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