Bhagavad Gita - A Walkthrough for Westerners

Before my recent trip to India, I was frantically looking about for a good read on the long flights to and from home. A long standing desire of mine was always to explore the Bhagavad Gita. My desire was partially fulfilled, when I found the book, "The Bhagavad Gita - A Walkthrough for Westerners", by Jack Hawley, who has spent 30+ years in love with this poem. This author spends 6 months every year in India learning the scriptures and spends rest of the time providing insights and motivating employees in various organizations in the US.

About the Book: They say "You have to read the Gita through your heart" and the book enables you to do so. This book contains the full translation of the Gita with terms adapted to the modern world. The book is religion agnostic and can be read by anyone regardless of religion, caste or creed, gender and profession (including the non-God fearing person). It is more of a guide book for peaceful living rather than a religious preaching and that is most impressive of the Bhagavad Gita.

The Gita outlines ways to merge your soul with the divine through different yogas. These yogas are Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga and Jnana yoga. It never dictates you to follow a particular yoga and the seeker is free to choose his/her path. The Gita also doesn't tell you to renounce everything and become an ascetic. It rather urges you to perform all your worldly duties without expecting any fruits for your actions. The Gita also outlines the qualities of people/nature (gunas). The 3 gunas are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. To attain the merging of your soul with the divine a person has to rise from Tamas to Rajas and then to Sattva and beyond (free from nature). There are details on how to rise above these gunas in the book.

My impression: Personally, I felt it was a very light but extremely interesting read. But as most good things, application of the tenets from the Gita are hard. The Gita says that "abhyasa" or relentless practice is the only way you perfect the application of its essence. The good part is you never feel bored reading the Gita. This has urged me to get a copy of the Gita, so that I can go back to it whenever I feel the need to. Also, I'm sure that everytime I return to the Gita it is going to give me a new incremental perspective of life and duties. Such is its profoundness masked in its simplicity. The calmness in thought experienced while reading this book cannot be articulated, but has to be experienced.

"The point is not to hope for a good birth but to aim for a good death"

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