6 Gita Book Series You Must Read , Reflect and Apply in Your Life
I’ve read and seen somewhere, a meme saying — I am not a web series person who watches series from Netflix/Amazon which simply kills your time without adding any value to your life. Few documentaries, although are worth watching! In this context, I will reveal a Book series today that you must try if you want to transform your life forever.
Gita for Daily Enrichment provides condensed nuggets of insight gleaned from the Vedic wisdom tradition and re-presented in an idiom and style that resonates with contemporary needs, interests, and concerns.
The Vedic (Indian) wisdom tradition has provided some of the loftiest philosophical insights in the world, yet most contemporary people — both Indians and non-Indians — find it difficult to see the relevance of those insights to their daily lives and contexts. This difficulty is caused not by the irrelevance of those insights, but by their inaccessibility: they are generally written in Sanskrit, often using words that have multiple meanings embedded in them. Moreover, they frequently presume familiarity with the subtle nuances of the thought systems within which they developed.
Making the totality of Vedic thought accessible to the modern mind requires comprehensive research and exhaustive writing, a massive task upon which many scholars worldwide are working vigorously. Even if this thought becomes accessible, not many people have the time — or, more importantly, the interest — to access this giant body of wisdom. Gita-Daily makes the humble attempt to stimulate interest in Vedic thought by mining and bringing forth small nuggets of wisdom that the contemporary mind can find accessible, relevant, and illuminating.
This book is available here.
The Bhagavad-gita provides us the eye of spiritual knowledge (jnana-chakshu) to make sense of our inner landscape and recognize the unknown knower who looks back at us when we look in a mirror.
We get the eyes to see not when we take birth, but when we get the knowledge to make sense of what we see.
The Eye to See the I makes that spiritual knowledge easily accessible through 121 brief reflections on various verses of the Gita. Some of the reflections are:
•Money talks — and walks away as it is talking
•We can’t replace the mind, but we can replace it
•The soul seems far out because it is far in
•Free love is a self-contradiction
•The heart of knowledge is the knowledge of the heart
•Let repetition be a re-petition
•The past won’t last if to Krishna we hold fast
With punchy titles that distill each article’s central message, these articles provide the Gita’s insights on a wide variety of issues, all meant to help us realize and relish the innermost core of our being.
This book is available here.
3. Belong :
Belong addresses our heart’s longing to belong to something bigger than ourselves — a longing that is nourished and fulfilled by the Bhagavad-gita’s transformational message of spiritual love. While presenting that message inaccessible 300-word nuggets, Belong shines the light of the Gita on many themes important for our inner growth:
Optimism: Our willingness is more important than our willpower
Resentment: Possibilities expand when we begin from where we are instead of where we should be-
Happiness: Temporary relief from self-inflicted torture is not pleasure
Association: Our desires are not just linear, but also triangular
Temptation: We don’t have to defeat our lower desires — we can just let them lose
Discipline: Rules free you to be you
Devotion: Krishna is the master before whom we stand truly tall
These 121 reflections prompt the head and the heart to move closer towards belonging to the one in whom our potentials attain the fullest development and we find the deepest fulfillment.
This book is available here.
4. Mind It ! :
Mind It! This book in the series offers sixty-four reflections on ten verses of the Bhagavad-gita, an ancient classic on mind management. Each of these reflections is like an inner torchlight for observing whether our mind is working for our interests or against them.
Nothing shapes our perceptions, emotions, actions, and ultimately our destiny as much as our mind. Though the mind is a constant inner presence, we rarely realize its presence, leave alone evaluate its effect.
Some of the reflections from this book are:
•The mind is a tormentor, not a mentor
•The mind may replay, but we don’t have to play
•If we let the mind fill in the blanks, it will overwrite the sentence
•The mind is like a dog that barks, but can’t bite — unless we let it
•When the mind cries wolf, know that the mind is the worst wolf
•Play the part of the part and the whole will fill the hole
•Meditation minimizes inner friction and maximizes the outer contribution
•The mind is the TV — and the TV-thief
•When you shake an apple tree, don’t be blind to the falling of mangoes
With catchy, concise titles that convey the gist of each of its reflections, Mind It! is a ready resource for spiritual empowerment in our inner battle for fulfilling our potential.
This book is available here.
5. Inner Change :
Drawing from the timeless philosophical classic, the Bhagavad-gita, Inner Change features 121 thought-provoking, action-inspiring reflections on a wide gamut of human issues. Each reflection is encapsulated in an attractive title that doubles as a tangible carry-home message.
Managing the mind:
We are not our feelings — we are the feelers of our feelings
Cultivate a tender heart, but cover it with a thick skin
Growing through pain:
We can’t delete our memories, but we can choose what we remember
Focus not on letting go of things — focus on taking hold of your thoughts
Relationships:
In the war of egos, the winner is the bigger loser
We may be unloved, but we are never unlovable
Inner Change is your aid to a richer life, today and every day
This book is available here.
6. Bhagavad Gita 365 — Reflections for daily mindfulness
The Bhagavad-gita is a time-honored guidebook for conscious living. Bhagavad Gita: 365 Reflections for Daily Mindfulness takes the insights of the Gita and presents them as brief, practical reflections. Each reflection comes with a title that succinctly summarizes the key point and three thought-provoking questions for further contemplation and application. These 365 reflections are classified into three major sections:
Nourish yourself,
Nourish your relationships and
Nourish your devotion
While reading, I created a mind map for the same as below:
Each section is further divided into relevant categories such as Growing through Adversities, Mindfulness, Empower Yourself, Emotional Maturity,
From Ritual to Spiritual and Overcoming Temptation. Each reflection is your pathway to a deeper, richer, better life.
This book is available here
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