Buying a 'Bhagavad Gita' remained a long time wish until I had been to Iskcon a couple of months ago. After I bought it, I "wanted to" & tried reading a few portion at least every day, later realized that it was becoming an unfulfilled agenda. Slowly I tried becoming a regular reader, currently at an average extent. And wanted to record the learning from what I read!
The edition that I have is the 'Bhagavd-Gita As it is', by the Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the well known founder of Iskcon and it encloses the Sanskrit, Hindi and tamil version of the phrases with a detailed description of the intent and meaning of every phrase. When I first started, reading both the Sanskrit and tamil scripts was the motto, but later reading only the Tamil phrase. As I wanted to read the Gita all over again once I complete reading the full for the first time, it would make more sense to read through everything the second time than doing it now. Needless to mention, the day is more peaceful and the mind is more stable through the day.
So, in the initial few portions before Krishna starts the Upadesam, the war field formation of the Kurukshetra with all other nuances involved along with the ability of the soldiers on both the sides, the Dhritarashtra and the Pandavas is described beautifully.
Coming to the learning, I was at a complete awe to read about how fear encompassed Arjuna, when he looked at the war field, and to fight so many of them considering the dharma. He slides away the bow and tells Krishna, this is not how he wanted to make this life of his. There are so many soldiers, elders, relatives etc and killing them becomes the greatest sin. It also shows up the wrong path to the next generation that's growing up in the Raja Vamsam.
- I realize, the greatest of human, the Arjuna, would also feel 'fear'! Being afraid of something at some point of life is no wrong. Without that, life doesn't run into the right path.
So, to this question of Arjun, Krishna replies, 'the most powerful, ambidextrous archer, Arjuna! this is not what I expected out of you. Being the most skillful, I thought you knew to differentiate between the permanent and the temporary. All of those who are going to be killed by you in this battle of Kurukshetra would lose only the life (athma). It is only their body, that's temporary, will be destroyed; the athma is permanent, it will stay back and get transferred to another body.'
- All the good and bad deeds in this life, has no destruction. They will stay back with your athma. Being more careful about one's every action is vital for a human!
On a side note, when I was on my way to office in the morning today, I thought through point #2 and felt, 'so what about the athmas that are not yet transferred to another body! Are they just strolling around here. there are so many people dying each day and is this world full of athmas. suddenly I imagine around me a set of white human structures, without legs, floating in the air like what we see in the ghost movies, phew! whoaaa!' :P
The edition that I have is the 'Bhagavd-Gita As it is', by the Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the well known founder of Iskcon and it encloses the Sanskrit, Hindi and tamil version of the phrases with a detailed description of the intent and meaning of every phrase. When I first started, reading both the Sanskrit and tamil scripts was the motto, but later reading only the Tamil phrase. As I wanted to read the Gita all over again once I complete reading the full for the first time, it would make more sense to read through everything the second time than doing it now. Needless to mention, the day is more peaceful and the mind is more stable through the day.
So, in the initial few portions before Krishna starts the Upadesam, the war field formation of the Kurukshetra with all other nuances involved along with the ability of the soldiers on both the sides, the Dhritarashtra and the Pandavas is described beautifully.
Coming to the learning, I was at a complete awe to read about how fear encompassed Arjuna, when he looked at the war field, and to fight so many of them considering the dharma. He slides away the bow and tells Krishna, this is not how he wanted to make this life of his. There are so many soldiers, elders, relatives etc and killing them becomes the greatest sin. It also shows up the wrong path to the next generation that's growing up in the Raja Vamsam.
- I realize, the greatest of human, the Arjuna, would also feel 'fear'! Being afraid of something at some point of life is no wrong. Without that, life doesn't run into the right path.
So, to this question of Arjun, Krishna replies, 'the most powerful, ambidextrous archer, Arjuna! this is not what I expected out of you. Being the most skillful, I thought you knew to differentiate between the permanent and the temporary. All of those who are going to be killed by you in this battle of Kurukshetra would lose only the life (athma). It is only their body, that's temporary, will be destroyed; the athma is permanent, it will stay back and get transferred to another body.'
- All the good and bad deeds in this life, has no destruction. They will stay back with your athma. Being more careful about one's every action is vital for a human!
On a side note, when I was on my way to office in the morning today, I thought through point #2 and felt, 'so what about the athmas that are not yet transferred to another body! Are they just strolling around here. there are so many people dying each day and is this world full of athmas. suddenly I imagine around me a set of white human structures, without legs, floating in the air like what we see in the ghost movies, phew! whoaaa!' :P
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