Gita Jayanti - some thoughts

December 17, 2010: Gita Jayanti

Today is a special day. On this day, several thousand years ago, Shri Krishna rescued Arjuna from the depths of despondency on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

I discovered that the Holy Geeta Ready Reference had the Srimad Bhagavad Gita Ashtottaranamavali, the 108 mantras to do archana at the altar of the Gita. So, I placed my copy of the Holy Gita on the altar, chanting the 108 mantras and offered flowers. The mantras are enchanting and give you a bird's eye view of what the Gita offers. At some point, I will try and get the whole text scanned or composed for use on the web and try and get some blog posts on it but would definitely recommend you get the book. The ashtottara was composed by Pujya Swami Tejomayanandaji and is marked by his distinctive style of simple, yet elegant, Samskritam.

While chanting the Gita itself this morning, another memory flooded in. The mellifluous chanting of the Bhagavad Gita by Pujya Swami Brahmanandaji has made my Gita experience so much sweeter. I was fortunate to find a good example on Youtube, although I don't know that it is an authorized copy. Note that the translation is something that author of the Youtube has included, it is not part of the set of 4 CDs.

Gita Jayanti is definitely a happy occasion to reflect on sweet memories.

Hari Om and Namaskar until the next post.

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