Life Lessons From The Gita

Archana Raghuram talks about how Vedanta has been repackaged in the Bhagavad Gita to make it relevant to our everyday life situations

- Archana Raghuram

The Bhagavad Gita is one of those timeless texts that speak to you at all ages. As a lifelong student of Vedanta, I want to share some timeless lessons from the Gita that have had a major influence on my life. These lessons inspired me, shaped me, and helped me navigate turbulent times.

I'd like to begin with pranamams (salutations) Paramarthananda, to whom to my guru, Swami I owe all that I know.

What makes the Bhagavad Gita so special when we have so many brilliant texts? We are not a culture which swears by a single holy book. We have the four Vedas, multiple Vedangas, many Puranas, and so many books written by great sages. There is a reason that the Bhagavad Gita stands out amongst all these texts.

Vedanta (the Upanishads)

Vedanta is the philosophy that the Vedas present at the end of each Veda as a series of texts called the Upanishads. It explores profound questions like "Where did we come from?" "Why was the universe created?" "Who am I?" and "How can I get liberation?" The first Upanishad I learnt, the Mundakopanishad, begins with the student Shounaka asking a question to his teacher Angiras: "What is that by knowing which everything else becomes as good as known?" These are typically the kind of questions that the Upanishads explore.