Gita for Everyday Living

Gita for Everyday Living - book review

November 11, 2011

I came across a beautiful book, "Gita for Everyday Living"(ISBN 978-81-7823-520-2) published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore. This is a natural subject for review in this blog. The book is a reissue of a special edition published by Vedanta Kesari, the publication of the Math. It is a collection of articles on the Geeta by several eminent Swamis of the Ramakrishna order and other well known writers.

I was attracted first by Chapter 4, "Sri Krishna, the Teacher of the Gita" compiled from Swami Vivekananda's talks in San Francisco on May 26, 1900.

"You find in Krishna that non-attachment is the central idea. He does not need anything. He works for work's sake.

"He is the most rounded man, I know of, wonderfully developed equally in brain and heart and hand. No cobwebs in that brain, no superstition..

"Every moment [of his] is alive with activity, either as a gentleman, warrior, minister. Great as a gentleman, as a scholar, as a poet.

"Then that heart! He is the first man, way before Buddha, to open the door of religion to every caste.

This is but one of the gems among a number of well written articles. There is an interesting FAQ on the Geeta by Swami Harshananda. One very relevant question addressed relates to the dating of the Geeta. Swamiji says that per the Hindu calendar, the Kurukshetra battle must have taken place in 3139 BC.

Swami Atmaramananda has an excellent piece on The Bhagavad Gita and its Relevance to Teachers. The article is extensively footnoted with reference to the specific shlokas in the Geeta.

Chapter 20 is a nice compilation of 15 shlokas that are direct guidelines for making the Bhagavad Geeta relevant for daily life.

For those who work in corporations, B Mahadevan, Professor, IIM Bangalore has an interesting article on "Management Lessons" where he explores the famous shloka 2-47, कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते.

In summary, a very useful volume for any student of the Geeta. For the price of S$5 in Singapore (listed for Rs 70 for sale in India), this book is a steal. Plenty of food for thought from which I hope to source some of my ideas for this blog. Fear not, I shall attribute appropriately.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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