Swami Shivapadananda on the spirit of the Gita
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
Taken from Mother Radha's notes, written at Swamiji's feet.
Day 417
Ramakrishna said, "A man is learned who knows God, otherwise he is unlearned."
One must pray: O Lord, give me the strength to forgive my enemies. Jesus Christ forgave them, saying: "Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do." But perhaps we are asking our Father to kill our enemy.
If reading the Bhagavad Gita makes you more of a sinner than you are, why should you read the Gita? Why do you read books on chemistry, or law? To know how to keep the law. So why do you read spiritual books? To know the Spirit.
Sri Ramakrishna told a story of how a Brahmin went to a king. Everyone thought the Brahmin was a learned man. The king asked him, "What do you want?" "I want to teach you the Bhagavad Gita." Then the king said, "Read it again and then come back." So the Brahmin read it again and after two years he returned. Then the king said: "You read it? You understood it?" "Yes," came the reply. "Go, and read it again, and come again," said the king. Two years passed but the Brahmin did not return. The king wondered about this. So he went to the man's village and asked the old Brahmin's wife what had happened. She said: "The Gita turned his head, he has gone off to the forest and left me alone."
God is the opposite of this world – he is the head and this is the tail.
The king went looking for the Brahmin and found him. The Brahmin prostrated to the king – before it was the king who prostrated to the Brahmin. Then the king said: "Please, I want you to teach me the Gita." "But how will I teach you the Gita?" The king said: "Ah, now I know you know the meaning of the Gita."
Repeat "Gita" ten times and it become tyagi [renunciation]. The Master [Sri Ramakrishna] said this is the essence of the Gita.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's
words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave
was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in
red in the posting for further explanation
or links.
Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Sri Ramakrishna Dham