What are the rules for reading Bhagabat Gita?

[shuvo]

Namskar....

 

 

I think there are many rules for starting to read the Bhagabat Gita..

I am not sure of the rules..As there can be mantras which we need to chant before starting to read.

 

Can anyone give me the information about the rules for starting to read the Bhagabat Gita.

 

 

Thank-you

[Pankaja_Dasa]

Just so happens, I uploaded a file called:

02._Understanding_Bhagavad-gita.mov

 

This is the url to download:

http://www.archive.org/download/Bhaktivedanta-Swami-Prabhupada108/02._Understanding_Bhagavad-gita.mov

 

http://www.archive.org/details/Bhaktivedanta-Swami-Prabhupada108

 

 

You'll need Quicktime Movie Player

[shuvo]

 

Just so happens, I uploaded a file called:

02._Understanding_Bhagavad-gita.mov

 

This is the url to download:

http://www.archive.org/download/Bhaktivedanta-Swami-Prabhupada108/02._Understanding_Bhagavad-gita.mov

 

http://www.archive.org/details/Bhaktivedanta-Swami-Prabhupada108

 

 

You'll need Quicktime Movie Player

 

 

Can you give me a text version of it...

The rules for starting to read Bhagabad Gita....like the direction in which we should sit, the mantras we should chant, etc.

 

 

Thank-you

[Guest guest]

before my sikhsa guru read from the Gita, He first chants the "Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" mantra couple of times.. maybe this is sumthing helpfull to ur question prabhu

[Pankaja_Dasa]

ok my memory in the movie SP says..

 

In the beginning Krishna says I have selected you (arjuna) as my student because you are my friend and my devotee, so in other words we can understand that, Bhagavad-gita can understood by one who has intimate realationship with Krishna.

 

==

 

I used to read it on Paltalk Messanger with devotees, and it helped me. Becuase they used to discuss it (never done it before). Don't know. Reading bymyself is boring sometimes. Reading with others makes me feel better.

 

I don't know rules. I read it with anyway I want lol. Anyway thats just me..

[gHari]

The great saintly guru Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada prepares people to read the Bhagavad-gita in his Introduction to Bhagavad-gita As It Is. A segment of His Divine Grace's advice follows:

 

Bhagavad-gItA is also known as GItopaniSad. It is the essence of Vedic knowledge and one of the most important UpaniSads in Vedic literature. Of course there are many commentaries in English on the Bhagavad-gItA, and one may question the necessity for another one. This present edition can be explained in the following way. Recently an American lady asked me to recommend an English translation of Bhagavad-gItA. Of course in America there are so many editions of Bhagavad-gItA available in English, but as far as I have seen, not only in America but also in India, none of them can be strictly said to be authoritative because in almost every one of them the commentator has expressed his own opinions without touching the spirit of Bhagavad-gItA as it is.

 

 

The spirit of Bhagavad-gItA is mentioned in Bhagavad-gItA itself. It is just like this: If we want to take a particular medicine, then we have to follow the directions written on the label. We cannot take the medicine according to our own whim or the direction of a friend. It must be taken according to the directions on the label or the directions given by a physician. Similarly, Bhagavad-gItA should be taken or accepted as it is directed by the speaker Himself. The speaker of Bhagavad-gItA is Lord SrI KRSNa. He is mentioned on every page of Bhagavad-gItA as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, BhagavAn. Of course the word bhagavAn sometimes refers to any powerful person or any powerful demigod, and certainly here bhagavAn designates Lord SrI KRSNa as a great personality, but at the same time we should know that Lord SrI KRSNa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as is confirmed by all great AcAryas (spiritual masters) like SaGkarAcArya, RAmAnujAcArya, MadhvAcArya, NimbArka SvAmI, SrI Caitanya MahAprabhu and

 

many other authorities of Vedic knowledge in India. The Lord Himself also establishes Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-gItA, and He is accepted as such in the Brahma-saMhitA and all the PurANas, especially the SrImad-BhAgavatam, known as the BhAgavata PurANa (kRSNas tu bhagavAn svayam [sB 1.3.28]). Therefore

we should take Bhagavad-gItA as it is directed by the Personality of Godhead Himself

. In the Fourth Chapter of the GItA (4.1–3) the Lord says:

 

<center>

 

imaM vivasvate yogaM

 

proktavAn aham avyayam

 

vivasvAn manave prAha

 

manur ikSvAkave 'bravIt

 

[bg. 4.1]

 

 

evaM paramparA-prAptam

 

imaM rAjarSayo viduH

 

sa kAleneha mahatA

 

yogo naSTaH parantapa

 

[bg. 4.2]

 

 

sa evAyaM mayA te 'dya

 

yogaH proktaH purAtanaH

 

bhakto 'si me sakhA ceti

 

rahasyaM hy etad uttamam

 

[bg. 4.3]

 

</center>

 

Here the Lord informs Arjuna that this system of yoga, the Bhagavad-gItA, was first spoken to the sun-god, and the sun-god explained it to Manu, and Manu explained it to IkSvAku, and in that way, by disciplic succession, one speaker after another, this yoga system has been coming down. But in the course of time it has become lost. Consequently the Lord has to speak it again, this time to Arjuna on the Battlefield of KurukSetra.

 

 

He tells Arjuna that He is relating this supreme secret to him because Arjuna is His devotee and His friend. The purport of this is that Bhagavad-gItA is a treatise which is especially meant for the devotee of the Lord. There are three classes of transcendentalists, namely the jJAnI, the yogI and the bhakta, or the impersonalist, the meditator and the devotee. Here the Lord clearly tells Arjuna that He is making him the first receiver of a new paramparA (disciplic succession) because the old succession was broken. It was the Lord's wish, therefore, to establish another paramparA in the same line of thought that was coming down from the sun-god to others, and it was His wish that His teaching be distributed anew by Arjuna. He wanted Arjuna to become the authority in understanding the Bhagavad-gItA. So we see that

Bhagavad-gItA is instructed to Arjuna especially because Arjuna was a devotee of the Lord, a direct student of KRSNa, and His intimate friend. Therefore Bhagavad-gItA is best understood by a person who has qualities similar to Arjuna's. That is to say he must be a devotee in a direct relationship with the Lord. As soon as one becomes a devotee of the Lord, he also has a direct relationship with the Lord

. That is a very elaborate subject matter, but briefly it can be stated that a devotee is in a relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one of five different ways:

1. One may be a devotee in a passive state;

 

2. One may be a devotee in an active state;

 

3. One may be a devotee as a friend;

 

4. One may be a devotee as a parent;

 

5. One may be a devotee as a conjugal lover.

Arjuna was in a relationship with the Lord as friend. Of course there is a gulf of difference between this friendship and the friendship found in the material world. This is transcendental friendship, which cannot be had by everyone. Of course everyone has a particular relationship with the Lord, and that relationship is evoked by the perfection of devotional service. But in the present status of our life, not only have we forgotten the Supreme Lord, but we have forgotten our eternal relationship with the Lord. Every living being, out of the many, many billions and trillions of living beings, has a particular relationship with the Lord eternally. That is called svarUpa. By the process of devotional service, one can revive that svarUpa, and that stage is called svarUpa-siddhi--perfection of one's constitutional position. So Arjuna was a devotee, and he was in touch with the Supreme Lord in friendship.

 

How Arjuna accepted this Bhagavad-gItA should be noted. His manner of acceptance is given in the Tenth Chapter (10.12–14):

<center>

arjuna uvAca

paraM brahma paraM dhAma

pavitraM paramaM bhavAn

puruSaM zAzvataM divyam

Adi-devam ajaM vibhum

 

Ahus tvAm RSayaH sarve

devarSir nAradas tathA

asito devalo vyAsaH

svayaM caiva bravISi me

 

sarvam etad RtaM manye

yan mAM vadasi kezava

na hi te bhagavan vyaktiM

vidur devA na dAnavAH

</center>

"Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as NArada, Asita, Devala, and VyAsa confirm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me. O KRSNa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality."

 

After hearing Bhagavad-gItA from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Arjuna accepted KRSNa as paraM brahma, the Supreme Brahman. Every living being is Brahman, but the supreme living being, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the Supreme Brahman. ParaM dhAma means that He is the supreme rest or abode of everything; pavitram means that He is pure, untainted by material contamination; puruSam means that He is the supreme enjoyer; zAzvatam, original; divyam, transcendental; Adi-devam, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ajam, the unborn; and vibhum, the greatest.

 

Now one may think that because KRSNa was the friend of Arjuna, Arjuna was telling Him all this by way of flattery, but Arjuna, just to drive out this kind of doubt from the minds of the readers of Bhagavad-gItA, substantiates these praises in the next verse when he says that KRSNa is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead not only by himself but by authorities like NArada, Asita, Devala and VyAsadeva. These are great personalities who distribute the Vedic knowledge as it is accepted by all AcAryas. Therefore Arjuna tells KRSNa that he accepts whatever He says to be completely perfect. Sarvam etad RtaM manye: "I accept everything You say to be true." Arjuna also says that the personality of the Lord is very difficult to understand and that He cannot be known even by the great demigods. This means that the Lord cannot even be known by personalities greater than human beings. So how can a human being understand Lord SrI KRSNa without becoming His devotee?

 

Therefore Bhagavad-gItA should be taken up in a spirit of devotion. One should not think that he is equal to KRSNa, nor should he think that KRSNa is an ordinary personality or even a very great personality. Lord SrI KRSNa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So according to the statements of Bhagavad-gItA or the statements of Arjuna, the person who is trying to understand the Bhagavad-gItA, we should at least theoretically accept SrI KRSNa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and with that submissive spirit we can understand the Bhagavad-gItA. Unless one reads the Bhagavad-gItA in a submissive spirit, it is very difficult to understand Bhagavad-gItA, because it is a great mystery.

 

[shuvo]

 

 

That is to say he must be a devotee in a direct relationship with the Lord. As soon as one becomes a devotee of the Lord, he also has a direct relationship with the Lord. That is a very elaborate subject matter, but briefly it can be stated that a devotee is in a relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one of five different ways:

 

1. One may be a devotee in a passive state;

 

2. One may be a devotee in an active state;

 

3. One may be a devotee as a friend;

 

4. One may be a devotee as a parent;

 

 

5. One may be a devotee as a conjugal lover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bhagavad-gItA should be taken up in a spirit of devotion. One should not think that he is equal to KRSNa, nor should he think that KRSNa is an ordinary personality or even a very great personality. Lord SrI KRSNa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So according to the statements of Bhagavad-gItA or the statements of Arjuna, the person who is trying to understand the Bhagavad-gItA, we should at least theoretically accept SrI KRSNa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and with that submissive spirit we can understand the Bhagavad-gItA. Unless one reads the Bhagavad-gItA in a submissive spirit, it is very difficult to understand Bhagavad-gItA, because it is a great mystery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hare Krishna:pray:

[shuvo]

Hare Krishna,

 

 

I have asked if there is any compulsory rules needed to maintain before starting to read Bhagabad Gita. Like if there is any compulsory Mantra which we should chant before starting to read. .......The direction in which we should sit and start reading...........etc.

 

 

Hare Krishna:pray:

[Guest noparam]

I love srimad bhagwad gita