The reading and the completion of reading the BhagwadGita

The BhagwadGita… A book that I had first heard of as a child, out of the innocent curiosity to know that if our (Muslims) book is the Quran then what is their (Hindus) book?

In my ears still ring the voice of the innocent sweet little Rumii asking this question to her mother. Ammi said the BhagwadGita, in hushed tone, as if uttering something unutterable.

The innocence and love of the mother eternally bound to her one true faith and religion, Islam. Slowly treading on waters, not withholding answers, but also explaining it’s not “our” book.

I would assume the little Rumii left it at that, and so went on with life. Knowing there exists many Abrahamic books and one non Abrahamic book, but very little conscious awareness of the huge strife and rift tearing these religions apart or rather tearing people apart in the madness of religions.

So many years, decades passed and I never picked up the book, not even out of curiosity to learn more about the religion of my then boyfriend, my now ex-partner. How often do we really try to be curious about the fundamental parts of the core of a person we so easily find a home in?? Not often! Most often we are only looking for our own self in another person.

Comes the most “unprecedented” year, 2020. The onset of COVID-19. Death everywhere, chaos and mayhem everywhere. Silence everywhere outside. Our worlds confined to our homes, our homes confined to our inner selves, our inner selves confined to all things material we have become slaves of.

Amidst all this somehow magically my then housemate was given the BhagwadGita as a gift from a Krishna bhakt on the streets of Dublin. She brought it home and showed me the book. She was delighted! Ecstatic! And now little Rumii was curious again! Curious enough to want to read it.

But there is something about mot sharing your divine book, something about everyone wanting to keep their book to themselves and wanting each to adhere to their own books.

Arrived then in my life again my then ex-boyfriend, but always a dear friend. The shared experience of the confusion and loss of meaning in that tumultuous period of life was beyond my comprehension and my heart wanted to find solace and answers.

So I took to two types of reading- The BhagwadGita and Books from Buddhist Zen monks.

Slowly steadily I started reading the Zen learnings for my self and the Gita for both myself and my friend.

It is in this very room that I started reading this book. It is in this room that I was destined to complete this book.

The book states that The BhagwadGita is a transcendental book. And I can after reading and completing the book over a span of almost 4 years attest to the transcendence of this book.

In these 4 years our world changed, internal and external. We changed in our relationship and our friendship. The world survived a pandemic and went back to the “new normal”. We met, we loved, we fought, we separated. But what stayed with me is how the book arrived to me at the most crucial points of learnings in the journey of souls.

Am I a convert for reading the Gita? Only as much as I am a convert for going to the church for mass or to the Gurudwara for the Gurugranth paath.

But am I a transformed soul? Only as much as I can remember how many times across the book I have made notes like “This is similar to Islam”, “This reminds me of him”, “This is exactly what I am feeling”, “This is the attainment I am working towards”.

So may be I am converted in my views about the division of religions based solely on the arguments of supremacy of one over the other.

Since childhood I was taught that we are born in the best religion. We are “Ashraf-ul-makhluqat”. But I saw people in my surroundings and in the world behave like very disturbed, distressed and lost souls.

So now as I have read the book, which I know many Hindus themselves might not have read, I can share two emotions with you:

One is of profound grief and sadness, that we have divided our worlds and ourselves into such deeply seeded and rooted divisions of religions that we almost have forgotten to even look within the souls and identify the God within each other.

Second is of ecstatic fondness and happiness, that so much, so much of the teachings of our religions, most notably in this context Islam and Hinduism (which by the way I cannot recall a single page where the book says it is a book for the Hindus* only)… so much of the teachings overlap, they are similar if not in words then in the essence of those words.

I set two intentions at the beginning of this year:

One is to not disrespect the God within, which starts from my God within and the God within my loved ones and all whom I come connect with or who pass my by.

Second was to be intentional with what I do with my time, my heart, my love, my soul. How I show up and what, how and in what limits I give of myself.

I am grateful for receiving so much deep transcendental wisdom in acceptance, forgiveness, love, dharma, surrender, devotion, devotional service, kindness, dutifulness, and the true meaning of Allah, the merciful, the beneficent, the most powerful and all knowing.. to him that power is Krșņa. To me that power is Allah. We are not competing against each other. Nor are these names competing against each other.

The one true powerful supreme energy, the one true creator, the one true merciful, the one true all knower, is in harmony and peace.

And so peace be upon you, peace be upon him, peace be upon me and peace be upon all the people who are searching for the meaning of this life.

Please God may we all respect each other for the God within ✨🕊️💜