For most, the COVID phase was gloomy, scary & unprogressive; for some, it was a much needed break to reflect, relax and re-align life's direction. Just as Arjuna turned to Lord Krishna some 5,000 years ago, in mid-2019, I decided to jump into the Gita's nectar yet again... this time, to teach it as a succinct 18-week course with an aim to bring out its therapeutic wisdom in an attractive and easy-to-remember flow.
Usually in summer, I have travelled and shared Vedic wisdom in USA in my own small way. Taking cues from those journeys, it struck me that for every journey, you need to plan, prepare and pack essentials for the passage, be it visa or itinerary, medicines or currency, and so on. And in the Bhagavad Gita, hasn't the Lord given us the essentials for Life's journey to travel both safely and swiftly and to the best places that life can take us beyond our mortal realms? After a year of exclusive research and reflection, I announced an online course in mid-2020 'Gita Sutras: 18 Essentials for Life's Journey'. The course received over 150 paid registrations and an excellent response from the participants for its relevancy and simplicity. Many began requesting me to put it all into a book. But when Mrs Nisha Jamwal took this to my senior mentor, HG Gauranga Das, and he too told me to bring this out as a book, I surrendered. My extreme gratitude to Ms Viraj Mehta, who has put in a great deal of effort and time in making this book happen. She has truly been a blessing in compiling this book, and I pray she is blessed even more The book has benefited from discussions with some of my co-monks at the Ashram, especially Sukumar Krishna Das and Rasik Raman Das. Apart from referring to multiple commentaries and talks on the Gita, a key aspect of the book's journey for me was to sit with these two friends every week, to relish the beauty of the wisdom stored in the Gita. Deep gratitude to two of my close friends Radha Dyuti Das andand Radheslal Das, who always kept a comforting watch over me, reminding me to rest and rejuvenate my health as I sometimes got lost in my research for the course. Gratitude also to Shubha Vilas Das, a close friend and an accomplished author, on facilitating the best way to publish this little attempt of mine.
As in a journey, we need to know the terrain! With a telescope, you can see both hopes and traps that lie ahead. For a hungry traveller, the sight of a hotel to rest for the night brings him hope; for a sea-voyager. the sight of an iceberg or pirates informs him of the traps ahead so that he can act in time. In a journey, you need to move at a good pace, and with proper direction and purpose. For our life, the Bhagavad Gita teaches us the right pace (dasha) and the right purpose (disha).
The Gita not only helps you go faster in your life but also gives you a direction, the way to go. It is a journey to increase our speed, our Yoga Kaushalya - how we can live better, how we can work better, how we can connect better, as also where we should direct our lives. In Gita Sutras, each chapter will be a tour, a visualisation of places we usually visit or are attracted to, with appropriate sutras (acronyms and one-liners; see Appendix 2: Learning Tips for more information). All this is to help you relish and remember the message in a short form in the long term. So succinct yet profound are these sutras that you can share them as Bhagavad tweetas!
The master's piece, a masterpiece.
When tears drop from our eyes, some wipe them with a tissue, while most sell us a tissue! Who's a true adviser and who's just another advertiser it's hard to tell in life. Advice is given for the receiver's benefit, while advertisement is often for the giver's profit.
For thousands of years, many have advertised different ways to live life most of them now archaic - but the Bhagavad Gita, being true advice to humanity, has helped people come out of the most hopeless turmoil in life, be it Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lokmanya Tilak..... the list is endless. It is a true masterpiece - Lord Krishna, the master's piece of advice, not an advertisement for votes.
We are very fortunate to have access to this treasured source of ancient wisdom in facing current dilemmas. Studying this text will inspire us to think deep, act right and live full. It is both a Vyavahara Shastra (Art of LIVING) and a Moksha Shastra (Art of LEAVING/LETTING GO).
GITA'S STRUCTURE
Although it is presented in the style of a conversation, the Bhagavad Gita rolls out its wisdom sequentially, in 18 chapters. Each chapter in the Bhagavad Gita is a precious gem and a complete treasure in itself. When strung together, these 18 chapters contain the most amazing wisdom ever shared on this planet. Broadly, we can categorise the chapters as per the table given below.
Vedas (1182)
Upanishads (493)
Puranas (624)
Ramayana (741)
Mahabharata (354)
Dharmasastras (165)
Goddess (496)
Bhakti (242)
Saints (1503)
Gods (1290)
Shiva (370)
Journal (187)
Fiction (60)
Vedanta (362)
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