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Music Credits: Milind Date
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LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste Acharya ji, I am Krishna Goyal and I am currently studying in NIT 3G in EC branch
00:09second year. I have two questions. My first question is what things we should keep in
00:15mind before reading Bhagavad Gita? Like many people said we should wash hands, take bath
00:20and all this. So what rituals we should follow? And my second question is how can we know
00:26whether we are meant for spirituality or leading the normal life? You are Krishna Goyal. You
00:46get access to the foundation's Gita course. Somebody please note and provide him the access.
00:56That is probably the only legitimate answer to your question. You are asking what should
01:03one keep in mind while going to the Gita. That's like asking what kind of rubbish should
01:09I carry before entering the bath. Gita is so that whatever you carry in your mind can
01:19be washed away. Why do you want to keep something in mind before coming to the Gita? Whatever
01:25you have in mind, is that bigger than the Gita? So why should that be preserved while
01:31coming to the Gita? Whatever you have in mind, tell it. You are subordinate to the Gita.
01:38So be prepared to be washed away. I am going to the Gita now. You will be attacked and
01:47annihilated. Should I clean my hands before going to the Gita? Cleaning is something that
01:59Gita will tell you. The very definition of cleaning will come from the Gita. How do you
02:05know what cleaning means? If you are thinking of cleaning your hands, it means you are the
02:10body. The Gita will tell you what the act of cleaning really means. Or are you superior
02:17to the Gita that you will do the cleaning first and then go to the Gita and if you are
02:20already clean, why are you going to the Gita? The Gita exists to clean you, but you say
02:26you are already clean. Today I am able to teach Gita to so many of you because when
02:38I was young, when I was not even a teenager, so many days it happened, I would be sleeping
02:44with the Gita on my chest. Sometimes the pages would get distorted. I would get scolded and
02:56even I would not like that the page has become twisted or dog-eared. But that happened. I
03:11would be in love. I am eating, having my meals and the Gita is here. I am not advising that.
03:19I am just truthfully telling you what happened. In the copy of the Gita that I had, some of
03:27the pages would be marked with turmeric or some other spices. You see I was a kid. So
03:37some dal is there on the fingers and it was left behind on the pages of the book. Not
03:43that this is something advisable. Not that this is what you are supposed to do. But it
03:46used to happen. I was in love and I didn't know any rituals or rules and that was not
03:55just with the Gita. To me Gita is not a book. It is a genre. Any book that teaches me is
04:02the Gita. You are talking of the Bhagwat Gita here. Even in the Hindu way, there are dozens
04:16of Gitas. And worldwide, from the antiquity till today, there are even greater number
04:31of Gitas. There has to be love. I don't mean to say that great books, you know I have taken
04:46them with me, even to the commode. I am not recommending that, please. But that's what
04:54has happened. So why should I hide? Even today, the 10-15 minutes I spend there, I cannot
05:02bear to just waste away that time. The body is doing something. What am I doing? Just
05:07waiting. So I keep reading from my mobile phone. I cannot enter the washroom without
05:15my mobile phone. And I don't read trash. I read something that uplifts me. What ritual
05:26am I following? I loved wisdom too much to let any rituals come in the way. Love is not
05:48about following certain regulations. And I just didn't bow my head down. I actually
05:57quarrelled with Krishna. Because I was young and I couldn't reconcile one shloka with the
06:03other. And I was not prepared to just bow down to someone on the basis of his proclaimed
06:12authority. If the book is indeed great, then I should be able to see a harmony. Things
06:24must agree with each other and come to a composite whole. One verse in one chapter cannot contradict
06:32another one elsewhere. And it took me time to come to that reconciliation. What rituals?
06:50Even today, it does happen that when I am with a particular verse of some religious
06:55scripture and if I cannot see that it agrees with the whole of the scripture, I honestly
07:02tell that to my people. I say, I do not know how this verse made its way to this book because
07:09the rest of the book does not seem to agree with this particular verse.
07:31Go to the Gita. It is the Gita that will tell you how to approach the Gita. You cannot
07:39be bigger than the Gita. So what does cleanliness mean? What does obedience mean? What does
07:48purity mean? What does loyalty mean? All these things will be taught to you by the Gita itself.
07:59You say, I must be pure before I touch the Gita. But without touching the Gita, how do
08:04you know what purity means? How do you know? So go to the Gita as you are. Like a little
08:17naked kid goes to the mother. The mother will decide whether to dress up the kid. The kid
08:24cannot say unless and until I dress up and that too formally, necktie and cuff links
08:33and everything, I will not go to the mother. He does not know even how to put on a chaddi.
08:44How will he wear formal clothes? Go to the Gita as you are in your animalistic nakedness.
08:56Just go. Go as you are. Let the Gita be your mother. She will teach you how to eat, how
09:07to wash your hands, how to dress up, how to go through the business of life. But we
09:21want to be special. We say, I will decide these things on my own and then I will go
09:27to the Gita. What are you going to the Gita for then if you have already decided the important
09:33things on your own? No, it is not yet my time to go to the Gita. How do you know whether
09:50or not it is your time? Even that is something that the Gita will tell you. First go to her.
10:02She is the father and the mother. Give yourself fully to learn from what Shri Krishna is saying
10:14and then if you find that is not of much value to it, then you go your own way. That's fine.
10:21Nobody is supposed to follow anything. If those words do not really appeal to you, go
10:29your own way. At what time should I read the Gita? Are there certain inauspicious times
10:49when one should not touch the Gita? The only inauspicious time is when you are not touching
10:55the Gita. But there are Gurus who will tell you the right time to read the Gita. When
11:02you read the Gita, that is the right time. You must be pure when you go to the Gita.
11:20When you go to the Gita, then you are pure. Thank you, Sir.