In Mahabharata, one of the most discussed events is the Draupadi Vastraharana. Among the many stories around this incident, I would like to draw attention to one of them. When Dushassana starts pulling the vastra of Draupadi, it seems she was holding onto the last shred of cloth and calling out to Krishna. There comes a point of time where she just lets go and surrenders herself to the almighty. Sri Krishna does come to the rescue of his sister and ensures her respect, dignity and honour are protected.
As humans, this is a great lesson of Bhakti and surrender. There comes multiple instances in one’s life where circumstances seem to compound on each other and there seems to be absolutely no way out of the pit we find ourselves in. In times of such hopelessness, naturally we turn to the almighty for emotional support, some sort of divine intervention or guidance. We hope or rather believe that Bhagwan or God ensures that he will take care of us in these testing periods and would help us tide over the same.
In 2023, I lost my Appa - My world, emotional anchor and one last person who was truly mine (apart from my own family). Having lost my Amma at relatively younger age, Appa was my everything and his loss did deal a big blow to me. Coupled with other circumstances (beyond personal life), I was staring at an endless tunnel of despair and despondency. Having drained every ounce of my self reserve, I turned to the one thing that I always believed would protect me - My belief in God.
During my childhood and teens, I used to read Srimad Bhagwad Gita on and off, but never in a structured way. It was more of a reactive approach, but never a methodical, constructive path. This time I decided to do something different. I wanted to be more disciplined, wanted to rein in my mind that was running like wild horses and be organised and committed to the cause.
Around the same time, I was exploring the world of stationery (something I have always loved), specifically pocket notebooks. Coincidentally, I found a famous YouTuber talking about his pocket notebooks and how records his day, work etc in his books. What caught my attention was his attempt to write a psalm of Bible every day or whenever possible. This made me to think.
Combining my need to study Gita in an orderly manner & wishing to do something I like (writing in notebooks), the idea of NITYA GEETA SUDHA was born on Saraswati Pooja day - Oct 09 2024.
Every day, one verse of Gita with break-down of the words and the meaning. Every single day for past couple of years. Today, as I write the last verse of Srimad Bhagwad Gita, it marks the culmination of a phase, not the journey.
During the last couple of years, I have had numerous changes in life, professional and personal. In each of these phases, one of the constants has been my Gita verse writing practice. Over time, I could this with writing similar verses and meanings of one another stotra. Vishnu Sahasranama, Lalitha Trishati, Lalitha Sahasranama - all have been completed.
As I wrote, tried to understand and reflected, I started to get a sense of Sri Krishna’s teachings. As a famous dialogue in a recent blockbuster says: “Put your ear to the forest, the forest will speak to you”. I put my faith into Gita and man, did I hear or what?
Srimad Bhagwad Gita’s impact is incomparable and can’t be described in words. It gives a sense of calm, a belief, an impetus of hope. Along the way, I could resharpen some of my Samskruta skills which was pure rust earlier. Though I can’t claim to be proficient, I have come to a level where I can easily perform the padabandha i.e. splitting of words and deriving the meaning to some extent.
Srimad Bhagwad Gita became my mother and my father and took me into its bosom as its child. Have I completed the journey? Absolutely NOT. I feel this is just a phase and a new dawn awaits. I am going to read Gita again and again and again. With age and life circumstances, I feel Gita will speak to me in different tones, giving me the medicine that I thoroughly deserve.
What next?
For now, I am going to spend the next 18 days reading one entire chapter every day. Someone on X (formerly twitter) asked me to compile one verse that is a representative of the entire Chapter. I will go on this journey to figure out those verses. I will write a post on why I chose specific verses and why I feel they represent the specific chapters / adhyayas.
In time for Saraswati Pooja / Vijaya Dashmi, I hope to undertake one more similar journey with yet another gem from a collection of ancient wisdom.
If this post inspires you to take up reading Gita or better writing a verse, I feel I am blessed to be a nimitta to carry the message of Sri Krishna.
Sarvam Sri Krishnaarpanamastu
Comments