Gita Bodh - The Book
Why one more book on the Bhagavad Gita?
The Bhagavad Gita is extremely valuable to every human being because it reveals the profound knowledge which has all the answers to the fundamental human quests. This profound wisdom has attracted people for thousands of years. Several great masters have written from time-to-time extra ordinary commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, for the benefit of humanity. It is really a blessing for us that elaborate and verse by verse commentaries are available in contemporary language. These commentaries are of great help in in understanding the meaning verse by verse.
But...
Why then a need for this book?
How this book is different?
What is unique that a reader will get?
How this book helps the seeker?
The challenge in understanding the Bhagavad Gita
In spite of these great commentaries being available, challenges still remain in comprehending the complete and clear vision of Gita. Let’s look at some of the challenges while studying Gita verse by verse.
“The Gita is to be understood as a whole and not in parts. But the problem is that the whole cannot be understood without understanding the parts and the parts cannot be understood without understanding the whole”
— Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati
1. The vast scope and the subtle nature of the knowledge
There are seven hundred verses across eighteen chapters in the Bhagavad Gita. Each verse is loaded with profound wisdom. They reveal many fundamental concepts which are very deep and subtle in nature, to which we generally have no or little exposure. Thus, it is a challenge to grasp the complete insight and at the same time the complete overview of the Bhagavad Gita.
2. The spontaneous and unstructured nature of the dialogue
Gita evolved as a spontaneous dialogue between Bhagavan Sri Krishna and Arjuna and that is the reason it is unstructured. Various aspects of the knowledge were unfolded during the course of the discussion. Besides the topics were referred to back and forth as Arjuna asked questions and clarifications. When read in a verse-by-verse fashion, the unstructured nature of the dialogue makes it difficult to comprehend the big picture. While one dives deep in the meaning of each verse, it is difficult to relate all verses to each other, as the concepts mentioned in the beginning are further developed and elaborated in later verses. Therefore, getting a complete overall perspective at a glance is a challenge. At the same time, without understanding the complete perspective, it is difficult to understand even the individual verse completely.
3. One may not have enough background
The reader may not have been exposed to basic concepts to understand the Bhagavad Gita directly. The preparation may not be there or may not be enough.
How does Gita Bodh help?
The Unique Approach
This book helps to address the challenges mentioned above. It is not a verse-by-verse commentary or a translation of the Gita. It is a topic wise, concept by concept presentation of the knowledge revealed in the Gita as a whole, in a smooth, logical sequence. It step by step progressively unfolds the whole vision of the Bhagavad Gita, leading to a clear understanding and conclusion.
One chapter is dedicated to each main topic, wherein all aspects related to that topic revealed across the entire Gita have been consolidated and the topic is dealt with comprehensively. Chapters themselves have been organized in logical progressive sequence to systematically build the whole picture.
This helps the seeker to directly acquire precise and comprehensive understanding of the Bhagavad Gita
Features of Gita Bodh
The Intent of this book
The intent of this book is to simply present the knowledge from the Bhagavad Gita in a precise and organized manner which is easy to understand.
The book is written from the point of view of a student (seeker) and not from the teacher’s view (preacher).
The purpose of the book is to help the reader to grasp the entire vision of the Bhagavad Gita with complete clarity by identifying and understanding all the concepts and their interrelations.
Structure of this book
Each chapter is well structured. The concepts are organized in a smooth flow within the chapter and explained precisely. There are beautiful illustrations, simple stories and examples to explain and emphasize important points. Each chapter ends with a summary of the main points. To ensure authenticity and further reading the reference of the relevant verses from the Gita for each concept have been given after the summary. Effort has been made to avoid any personal bias.
Presentation of the book
The book is in simple English. The content is to the point, precise and direct. A lot of care has been taken to ensure that the chances of misinterpretation of the content are minimized to the extent possible. While care has been taken to avoid repetition, it has been done wherever it was necessary or useful.
Vedantic basis and terminology have been used to ensure authenticity and preciseness. Diacritical marks have been incorporated to help the reader understand the correct pronunciation of original Sanskrit words. Also, Devanagari versions of these words have been given when these words appear for the first time in the book.
An effort has been made to make the book aesthetically beautiful and ergonomically easy on eyes, to give a pleasurable reading experience. Big font, enough white spaces, beautiful page layout, custom designed pages and complete colour printing with nice illustrations, excellent quality of paper and printing, all result in an enjoyable and comfortable reading experience. It has total 544 pages and is hard bound.
The Key Aspects about Gita Bodh
The book is meant for anyone who has fundamental questions about life, world and God. It is for one who has keen interest in understanding clearly and completely the Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta and what it means to lead one’s life as per this divine guidance.
Even if one has no prior exposure to the subject but has keen desire to know, Gita Bodh is very useful. And if one has studied various texts on the subject, Gita Bodh will help to consolidate all that is read or heard in a clear integrated manner while resolving any pending doubts.
It presents the complete knowledge revealed in the Bhagavad Gita in a concept-by-concept manner that are introduced in a logical progressive sequence. It is not a verse-by-verse commentary. It also covers, important concepts which are prerequisites to understand this knowledge. It has beautiful visuals, stories, examples to explain the concepts.
The author himself is a successful corporate leader and has also done an in-depth study of the Bhagavad Gita and Vedantic texts under a Guru. After the systematic study, modern analytical methods have been used to objectively analyze the Bhagavad Gita. With these methods, the conceptual model has been constructed and validated thereby ensuring that it is free of any errors, gaps, personal bias and influence of popular notions.
Gita Bodh is an outcome of this extensive study and analysis of over 3 decades, and application of this insight in daily life.
The content of the book itself has been further validated by the authorities in the subject.
The Bhagavad Gita addresses the fundamental issues of death, ignorance and sorrow of a human being. A correct understanding of the Bhagavad Gita makes a huge difference to the life of a human being. However, it is difficult to grasp the complete vision of the Bhagavad Gita.
This is where Gita Bodh is of immense value. The purpose of this book is to help the seeker to grasp and comprehend the entire vision of the Bhagavad Gita, in a precise and complete manner with clarity, ease and in minimum time and effort.
In Gita Bodh, each concept from the Bhagavad Gita is explained at one place, holistically, based on all the related verses across the entire Bhagavad Gita. The concepts themselves are organized progressively to take care of dependencies. Thus, the book builds the complete vision of the Bhagavad Gita step by step in a logical sequence and makes it easy to understand.
Adequate coverage of prerequisite concepts, makes it possible even to one who has no background, to understand the content easily without confusion.
It is in simple English. Beautiful illustrations, stories, examples further facilitate the process of understanding. The aesthetically and ergonomically designed pages make it pleasurable and comfortable to read.
Gita Bodh is available as a book.
From time to time, it is also offered as personally conducted live sessions as well as live web sessions.
