Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

The idea of me “reviewing” spiritual scriptures is bizarre. Who I’m I to judge the some of the most sacred scriptures known to man? Hehe, fuck it, why not,right!? Let’s go!

Timeless scripture

Bhagavad Gita is an old Hindu scripture. The narrative framework is a dialogue between Arjuna and his counsel Lord Krishna on the battlefield on the dawn of war.

The dialogue soon takes a dive in the deep end and dwells into ethics, karma, meditation, the good life and other juicy topics. Gandhi had “the Gita”, as its also known, as his spiritual dictionary for a reason.

This version of the book is probably preferable to the “raw” Gita for beginners. Mainly because you get explanations of the key concepts between chapters and it really helps you to understand the message fully. In the end of the book you get to hear the Gita again at full length without the commentary (about 2 hours long). I loved this book. I initially thought it would be tough to get through such an old book from a culture I’m not to familiar with. But it was the other way around. I was bingeing it and found it both profound and accessible.

Notes

– Only the one who is utterly engaged and utterly detached is able to live life fully.

– You have the right to work, but not to the fruit of work. Never engage in action in sake for reward.

“When you keep thinking about “sense objects”, attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire. The lust of possession which burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgement.”

“Pleasure from the senses seems like nectar at first but is bitter as poison in the end. That which seems like poison at first but taste like nectar in the end, this is the joy of satwa, born of a mind at peace.”

⭐️ TAKEAWAY:

My biggest takeaway was the concept of detachment from outcome. Many times we do thing we don’t want to because it might lead to future rewards. Krishna says: “You have the right to work but not to the fruit of work.”

The Gita for free?

The Gita is old enough (well, it’s more than old!) to be public domain and you can catch the whole thing as an audiobook but searching for it on YouTube or read it of the internet by a simple Google search.