How can I understand and apply the Gita?
From: vivek
how can i best understand the gita and its practical application? do you have a book or lectures that i can listen to which explains the gita the best?
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Vivek Prabhu.
How can I best understand the Gita and its practical application? Do you have a book or lectures that you can listen to, which explains the Gita the best? Answer. The Gita is understood best by associating with those who are living according to Gita. Because the Gita is not just a book of textual statements.
It is a manual for living. And only when we see those who are living according to its wisdom, can we understand the wisdom properly. So, the first and most important principle for understanding the Gita is to associate with devotees who are living with the message of the Gita.
Then, in their association, we’ll understand the philosophical principles as well as their practical applications. And Srila Prabhupada established the Krishna Consciousness Movement primarily to facilitate seekers like you and thousands of similar people all over the world to live according to the timeless principles of universal truths that are taught in the Bhagavad Gita. Now, along with this practical application, we can also acquire an intellectual understanding of the Gita so that we can remove our doubts and better apply the Gita.
So, Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita as it is, is an excellent book which gives us an understanding of how devotion is the essence of the message of the Gita and how that can be applied in our life. I also run this Gita Daily feature where I write a small 300-word meditation in the Bhagavad Gita on one specific verse per day and that will also be helpful in understanding the practical application of the Gita. Apart from that, on this website itself, I have given a number of lectures which are available here especially if you want a systematic understanding of the Gita, there is a Gita overview in 50 hours there is another Gita overview in 100 hours but at an introductory level there is one lecture on the emotional exchanges between Krishna and Arjuna there is a transcription of that lecture also available which also you can go through if you don’t want to hear the lecture and there are several articles brief articles, if you just do a search for the Bhagavad Gita, the article Song of God, is the Gita an extremist book, is the Gita pessimistic so if you search on the Bhagavad Gita on the website you will find a lot of content but essentially associated with devotees Rishi Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita as it is and the Gita daily feature all these will help you in understanding the Bhagavad Gita and applying it in your life Thank you