How has reading Bhagavad Gita changed your life?

I read a small paperback edition of Bhagavad Gita with no commentary in a friend’s house and nothing much changed. He had brought it back from India and it was in his bookshelf collecting dust. The pages were yellowed and soft and the print was a bit erratic. I flicked through it and wondered who Krishna/Bhagavan was and what he was saying to Arjuna. To be honest, I didn’t really understand any of it, and I was done looking at it after about an hour. There wasn’t a great storyline I could follow, just a couple of people talking before a battle. It had a sort of profound and ‘holy’ feel to it because of the words, like some of the King James Bible does, but no message jumped out at me. Arjuna also seemed to have trouble deciding what to do. I was interested in Indian ‘spirituality’ having read Autobiography of a Yogi many years earlier, but I wasn’t that interested, so I put it back and went down the road for a beer.

Many months later I had another copy of Bhagavad Gita, this was a very solid, hardbound copy with hundreds of pages, lots of illustrations and a commentary on almost every verse. I was reading it in a Hare Krishna temple with devotees answering any questions I had as I read through it. The commentaries were by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.

It seemed a wild idea that Krishna was God and He was on a chariot instead of on a throne with cherubs hovering around him, but the commentary was quite clear that this was exactly what the verses said. God wasn’t fair complexioned with a white beard, but He was a blackish-blue colour and appeared only 16 years old.

I don’t know how it sank in that Krishna is God, but it did, and then every word of Bhagavad Gita was automatically true.

Gradually one point after another became clear.

The soul is eternal, separate from the body, temporarily joined with a body one life at a time.

Every living thing is spirit-soul and every body is dead matter, animated by the soul.

The world is a place of suffering, with a veneer of enjoyment spread thinly over it to stop everyone going mad.

Many people have seen God, He drives chariots for His friends when needed.

I can also see Him if I qualify. He will appear before me and look me in the eye and smile at me.

What changes did I see? I dropped everything and got busy qualifying myself to see Krishna face to face.

I willingly accepted all the restrictions, which was a very major redirection of my life. Up till then, I was a regular guy growing up in the Western culture who ate non-veg at every meal, drank, smoked cigarettes and dope, had girl-friends, liked fast motorbikes and rock music. I had long hair, a scraggly beard, and some pretty rank jeans. I considered it a fair deal to trade all that and add chanting Hare Krishna for the chance to come face to face with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

I thought in ten years I’d be able to do it.

After a couple of years I revised that, and after a few more years I revised it again. Now after 40 years I don’t have a figure. I’ve discovered that it doesn’t work like that. We don’t ascend to Krishna by our own efforts, He descends to us when He is pleased. I’ve had some tantalizing glimpses so however long it takes, it’s going to be worth it.