Bhagavad Gita for students

Bhagavad Gita for students

[Speech during distribution of copies of the Gita to students of Agrasain Balika Shiksha Sadan, Liluah]
Respected Srivastavji, Principal of Agrasain Balika Shiksha Sadan and my very dear friend,
respected teachers and my dear students; I am very happy to be here today for distributing these copies of
the Bhagavad Gita to all of you. You all are indeed very fortunate that your school is giving so much
thought for your all-round growth. Let me tell you that your school does not have to do this as per ICSE
guidelines. It is sufficient if the school teaches you the prescribed subjects and prepares you for your
exams. However, Srivastavji is giving you sufficient support for guiding your entire life by doing this
today. You must be grateful for it. And I am proud of being a part of it.
We just saw a beautiful video about the Bhagavad Gita. There is so much information about this
book. Also, there are so many controversies about the timing and historicity of this book. I wont bother
you about all this. I will just tell you a couple of ideas about the Bhagavad Gita, which will serve as a
background for you to use this book.
You know, the first thing to do with this book is to learn it by-heart. You must memorize the
whole book. It will take about six months. And it is in poetry form, so memorizing will be easy. You need
not try to understand it at the beginning. Just learn it by-heart. This act itself will help in a very subtle
way. The language is Sanskrit. It is very simple Sanskrit. You will be able to understand most of the
shlokas directly if you have studied Sanskrit in your school for three or four years. If you know
rudimentary Sanskrit and learn the shlokas by-heart, your mind will do the rest of the job of
understanding it in due course of time. I say in due course of time because one more thing you will need
to understand this book, apart from Sanskrit is experience in life. By the time you are 20 years old,
these wonderful shlokas will start revealing their meaning to you and will totally reshape your
personality.
Listen to a story. There was a farmer. He had a grandson. He made his grandson learn the Gita by
heart. After some days, the boy got bored. He complained that the exercise was not helping him in any
way and he wanted to discontinue. He questioned the utility of learning this book by-heart. The farmer
patiently called him near and showed him the cane basket lying nearby. He told the boy to take that cane
basket and bring some water. He wanted his grandson to use that cane basket to bring water and fill up a
tub nearby. The boy tried many time. But you know a cane basket wont hold water. It has innumerable
holes. All the water escapes. The boy came back and said, See? It is no use. Nothing remains in the
basket. It leaks. Same as my learning the Gita by-heart! The old man pointed out, But look at the basket
itself. See how it has become clean and looks as if it is new!
You will get this subtle, but incredible benefit by doing this exercise I told you. Later on, as you
gain more and more experience of happiness and sorrow in your life, one by one, these shlokas will start
making sense to you. These experiences are indispensable for understanding this book.
You know, a man once went to the court and lodged a complaint against his neighbor. He told the
Judge that his neighbor had called him a hippopotamus. The Judge was scandalized. He wanted details to
punish the neighbor. He asked the man, When, where and under what circumstances did he call you a
hippopotamus? The man said, He called me so five years ago. The Judge was surprised and asked,
You say he called you a hippopotamus five years ago and you are complaining now? The man replied,
Your Honor, yesterday I saw the animal on TV and only then did the gravity of his words sink into my
mind!

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Bhagavad Gita for students

So also, you will learn the meaning of these shlokas slowly, as you gain more and more
experience in your own life. What will you learn from this book when you grow older?
I will give you just one example. Whenever we experience some kind of failure, dont we blame
others for it? Say, for instance, you get low marks. When your people at home ask you, you will say the
teacher is useless and doesnt teach well. You didnt understand and hence the low marks. When your
teachers at school ask you, you will say that there were too many functions at home and you couldnt read
well and hence the low marks. When your friends and relatives ask, you will blame it on some fever that
you got during exam period. So, finally, somebody else or something else is at fault for your failure. We
learn this trick very early in life and keep up with the charade.
Or, take another instance. Supposing someone comes up to you and says that you are useless and
worthless and you will never be able to get 100 out of 100 in Mathematics. You will immediately get
angry and shout and curse that person and consider him or her as a really bad person. Wont you? But,
when you are alone in your room, reading, how many times you say to yourself, I simply cant
understand this subject. I cannot do well in this subject. It is not for me. Dont we do these things?
Slowly, as you grow older, you will analyze your life and find that such is not the actual case.
Then, Krishna will tell you through this book You will have to lift yourself up by your own self. Do not
denigrate yourself. You alone are your best friend and you alone could be your worst enemy. Thus will
start a wonderful journey of self-betterment. You will be interested in knowing how you could be your
own best friend and how again you could be your own worst enemy. Also, how can one uplift oneself by
ones own self? Krishna has many ideas for doing all these.
So, till then, learn this book by heart. One day it will be of great use to you. With these three
ideas, I will leave you all. I thank the Principal once again for involving me in this Gita distribution
program. Thank you all.
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