The song of Krishna

When Anuradha Iyer sought the Bhagavad Gita’s help to overcome difficult life situations, she felt personally held by Lord Krishna, who patiently revealed the real meaning of its verses to her

- Anuradha Iyer

It was in the year 2006 that I picked up the Bhagavad Gita to read it seriously and try and understand what Shri Krishna was trying to teach Arjuna and all spiritual aspirants. Before that, I used to read it once in a while, but it had not made much sense to me.

How can one be equal in pain and pleasure, honour and dishonour, joy and sorrow, victory and defeat? How can we see all creatures as same when we are attached to our loved ones and repelled by people who bring us down? What is the Atman which cannot be cleaved by weapons, burnt by fire, wetted by water, and dried by air? Why can’t I see the Atman, touch it with my hands, or hear it with my own ears? Why is it beyond the reach of my senses? I could not answer these questions in the early days of reading the Bhagavad Gita, as I had not plumbed the depths of this great Hindu scripture.

I had kept the Bhagavad Gita in my pooja room (home altar) and worshipped it and prayed to it, like all the other idols in my altar, but understanding it was still a distant dream. Nevertheless, I trusted Krishna and intuitively knew that He would make the meaning of the shlokas (couplets of Sanskrit verse) clear to me when the time was right.

Understanding starts to dawn

When I picked up the Bhagavad Gita in 2006, it was a different phase in my life. I was defeated, depressed, and at my lowest. Nothing seemed to make sense to me anymore, similar to Arjuna’s condition in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. I wanted answers to my questions and solutions to my problems. And I intuitively knew that no one but Krishna had all the answers.

I began to read the Bhagavad Gita, one shloka at a time, one chapter at a time, slowly and painstakingly. It was as if Krishna was standing in front of me and I was kneeling down at His Lotus Feet, talking with Him one on one. I would read all the time and talk to Him when not reading.