सर्वोपनिषदो गावो दोग्धा गोपाल नन्दनः । पार्थो वत्सः सुधीर्भोक्ता दुग्धं गीतामृतं महत् ॥
All the Upanishads are cows, and Gopala is the cowherd boy milking them.Arjuna is a calf. Wise men drink the exalted milk, the nectar of the Gita.
But once you read the Gita, you will realise why all those people told you to read it. I experienced this myself. Believe me when I say this, the Gita is no different from what our babas and purohits claim it to be. It is pure nectar, and to know it for real, you've got to read it! I wouldn't probably have said this before I read it. Reading the Gita is an activity that is indeed exaggerated to a great extent, but it is an experience unlike any other.
The "right" way to read the Gita
Many people think that the Gita is a prayer. A prayer, like a mantra or a stotram about a certain god. Some people just chant the whole text in Sanskrit over and over, and think it will elevate them spiritually. Nothing could be farther from the reality. The Gita is not a prayer. It is not supposed to be repeated like a mantra or chanted during a puja. The Gita is, effectively, a manual. There is no point in just chanting an archaic text in a language that nobody seems to know anymore. If you are like most Hindus who cannot read Sanskrit, you must opt for a translation of the Gita into a language that you are familiar with. The Gita preferably has to be studied with the aid of a guru. The meaning of each verse must be concise before moving on to a more advanced verse. You do not have to memorise the Gita. If the meaning is clear to you, the exact words and prosody are immaterial.
There are four schools of Hindu thought (sampradaya) that have given authoritative commentaries in common language on the Gita. These four commentaries are held to be canonical and are to be given the utmost authority by a person who is studying the Gita. They are the Rudravaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Saint Vishnuswami; the Brahmavaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Madhavacharya; the Srivaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Ilaiyalvar Ramanuja; and the Kumaravaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Nimbaditya. When studying the Gita, read at least one commentary, preferably one of these four. They are all equally recommendable, and have equal prominence. I would also like to recommend the commentaries of Mata Amritanandamayi Devi and Sampujya Swami Mukundananda.
As is so with every Hindu practice, many superstitions exist regarding the reading of the Gita. Some have claimed that it must not be read on Fridays, after dusk, or during rahukalam. They are what they are: superstitions. Such beliefs have no backing in the shastras or in the Hindu canon. The Gita can be read whenever one pleases. However, there are other enchantments, prayers and stotras which cannot be chanted or read according to one's whims. It is best to confirm with a learned scholar about these details, and mind you, I am not one.
There are certain hymns or enchantments that are traditionally chanted before a session of the Gita. They are not utterly necessary, but are recommended by most scholars. The most popular chant is Adi Shankaracharya's Gitadhyanam. It goes:
There are four schools of Hindu thought (sampradaya) that have given authoritative commentaries in common language on the Gita. These four commentaries are held to be canonical and are to be given the utmost authority by a person who is studying the Gita. They are the Rudravaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Saint Vishnuswami; the Brahmavaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Madhavacharya; the Srivaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Ilaiyalvar Ramanuja; and the Kumaravaishnava Sampradaya, originated by Nimbaditya. When studying the Gita, read at least one commentary, preferably one of these four. They are all equally recommendable, and have equal prominence. I would also like to recommend the commentaries of Mata Amritanandamayi Devi and Sampujya Swami Mukundananda.
As is so with every Hindu practice, many superstitions exist regarding the reading of the Gita. Some have claimed that it must not be read on Fridays, after dusk, or during rahukalam. They are what they are: superstitions. Such beliefs have no backing in the shastras or in the Hindu canon. The Gita can be read whenever one pleases. However, there are other enchantments, prayers and stotras which cannot be chanted or read according to one's whims. It is best to confirm with a learned scholar about these details, and mind you, I am not one.
There are certain hymns or enchantments that are traditionally chanted before a session of the Gita. They are not utterly necessary, but are recommended by most scholars. The most popular chant is Adi Shankaracharya's Gitadhyanam. It goes:
ॐ पार्थाय प्रतिबोधितां भगवता नारायणेन स्वयं व्यासेन ग्रथितां पुराणमुनिना मध्ये महाभारतम् ।अद्वैतामृतवर्षिणीं भगवतीम्अष्टादशाध्यायिनीम् अम्ब त्वामनुसन्दधामि भगवद्गीते भवद्वेषिणीम् ॥
pārthāya pratibodhitāḿ bhagavatā nārāyaṇena svayaḿ vyāsena grathitāḿ purāṇa-muninā madhye mahābhārateadvaitāmṛta-varṣiṇīḿ bhagavatīm aṣṭādaśādhyāyinīḿ amba tvām anusandadhāmi bhagavad-gīte bhava-dveṣiṇīm
Common Gita excuses
Many people turn down gitapathanam citing the lack of free time. It definitely comes as a surprise that in a country with eight-hour workdays, people still suffer from the acute shortage of leisure time! That's just an excuse. We all waste time on our phones, on TV and going on outings! If you're in school, well, have you got a lot to study? If you are indeed studying 16 hours a day and sleeping for 8, I will not ask you to read the Gita. Otherwise, spending five minutes for a few Gita verses will do just fine. Remember, the Gita can be read at any time.
I must mention that the Gita is not a Hindus-only text. Shri Krishna makes it clear that any soul seeking the truth will find answers and solace in the wisdom of the Gita. The book is very monotheistic and does not talk about the worship of idols, so the content is unlikely to be objectionable to people from iconoclastic religions such as Islam. Do not let your religion bar you from the Gita.
On the other hand, there are a certain species of people who will not read the Gita even if the heavens fall. This group includes some self-proclaimed Ambedkarists, "secularists", and "Communists", among others. Look, if you don't want to read the Gita, don't. Shri Krishna himself discourages us from preaching the Gita to people with intentions second to spirituality. When reading the Gita, have no presumptions in mind. Do not intend to learn only the things that you already know; let your mind be an open book. However, if you have resolved to not read the Gita, do not tell other people blatant lies about it.
The dumbest excuse by far is based on caste. Some people still seem to believe that only Brahmins and Kshatriyas have the right to read Sanskrit texts, and that it is disallowed for lower castes or dalits. I cannot imagine from what thought this idiocy originated. Shri Krishna himself destroys this argument in the ninth chapter.
My three favourite lessons from the Gita, all from the second chapter
[BG 2:13]: देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा |
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ||
dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarātathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati
Just as the embodied soul continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age, similarly, at the time of death, the soul passes into another body. The wise are not deluded by this.
There is a popular analogy about a knife. It goes that a knife was created by a blacksmith. A year after it was made, its wooden handle became mouldy and had to be replaced. A year still, the blade of the knife grew blunt and was replaced. Now, the trick question: is the knife the same knife? The blade is not the same, nor the handle; but we think that it is the same knife! Similarly, our body changes all the time. All our cells are constantly at work. We know today, thanks to the advancement of science, that every seven or so years, our body's molecules are replaced entirely by new ones. This means that not a single cell that is in your body right now was there seven years ago! Then how are we still the same person? Imagine your form right now and the form you were when you came out of your mother's womb: do the two forms even remotely resemble each other?
Shri Krishna answered this hundreds of years ago. He teaches that people are not their bodies. They are souls, seated within bodies. The body changes, and even perishes completely: but the soul is deathless. This tidbit is very well known, but one thing that many people find difficult to digest is the concept of rebirth. A body has the same soul when it was a fetus, and when it was a man on the verge of dying. Shri Krishan argues that if the soul could sustain such a big change, it could do the reverse, and attain a new body while leaving its old one.
[BG 2:14]मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदु: खदा: |
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ||
mātrā-sparśhās tu kaunteya śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥāgamāpāyino ’nityās tans-titikṣhasva bhārata
O son of Kunti, the contact between the senses and the sense objects gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress. These are non-permanent, and come and go like the winter and summer seasons. O descendent of Bharat, one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.
Shri Krishna speaks of emotions here. He likens them to the seasons, because they come and go and never seem to last. They are chanchal, or fleeting. The Gita preaches that we must be able to discriminate between the chanchal and the nischal: the fleeting and the permanent. According to the Sankhya school of Hindu thought, there are only two things that are nischal, or permanent: the brahman and the atman. The brahman is the energy present in the Universe, and the atman is the Soul. Everything but these two come and go, and are pointless as far as spirituality goes. Therefore, Shri Krishna advises us to move beyond our emotions. True happiness (santosh) can only be achieved by forgoing fake happiness. We think that the pleasures of the world; artham and kamam; will give us happiness, but it is this craze for material happiness that makes us sad. All these pleasures will in no time be followed by sadness. It is no mystery that the average human being spends more time in sorrow and a state of no emotion, than in "happiness." To achieve true happiness, one must forgo desire; that is, the only guaranteed way to be happy is to stop searching for more happiness. The Buddha also preached a similar message.
[BG 2:47]: कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ||
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchanamā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi
You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.
This is arguably the most popular verse from the Gita, held by some to be the Gita equivalent of the Qur'anic ayat ul-kursii or the Buddhist Heart Sutra. Even people who have not read the full Gita often quote, "karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana". Shri Krishna, in this verse, speaks of the duties of a human being. He teaches that we must first forgo ego, excessive forward-thought and idleness. We must do what our duty dictates, but only a foolish person would waste time thinking of its outcome. Take a doctor, for example. He does not treat his patient thinking "My goodness, will this patient survive if I treat him?" Instead, he devotes himself, with 100% commitment, to his work. In that way, he fulfills his duty and does the best that he can for his patient. Shri Krishna goes on to tell us that we did not cause the result of our duty. The doctor did indeed treat his patient, but as explained earlier, it was not the doctor's earthly body that saved the patient but his actions. His actions are nothing but an abstraction, caused by his uninfluenced, unwavering soul.
Amritam tu vidya (അമൃതം തൂ വിദ്യ),
Aravind Suresh
