How exactly are the Gita's verses your friends?

“How exactly are the Gita’s verses your friends?” I was asked this question during a recent podcast. The host was a tall, bespectacled young man of Indian origin who had settled in the UK. “I have heard you say in several of your talks that the Gita’s verses are like your close personal friends,” he explained. “But friends talk with us. They interact with us. What exactly do you mean when you say that the Gita’s verses are your friends?” “Before I explain what I mean by ‘friends,’” I replied, “let me first clarify what I mean by ‘the Gita’s verses.’ I don’t mean only their literal Sanskrit wording. I mean the wording of the verses, the wisdom contained in those words, and also the insights and inspirations that arise from contemplating them. For me, all these are ways in which I connect with Krishna. “In fact, it is through the Gita’s verses that I have experienced Krishna’s presence most strongly.” “More than through the holy name or the deities?” he asked with a surprised look. “Yes,” I said. “But I am not making a theological judgment about which manifestation of Krishna is more potent. I am simply describing my own journey and experience. “The way I understand Bhagavad-gita 4.11, Krishna reciprocates with us not just according to where He is, but also according to where we are. Someone with a musical nature may experience Krishna strongly through devotional music. Someone with a visual aesthetic may experience Him especially through the beauty of the deities. Someone who loves traveling may experience Him through pilgrimage to holy places. Someone with a gregarious nature may feel His presence especially through the association of saintly people. And someone with an intellectual and analytical nature, as I have, may experience Krishna especially through His wisdom—through the ideas, insights, and inspirations that arise from contemplating His words.” Becoming more thoughtful, he asked, “But what do you mean when you say that you ‘experience Krishna’s presence’?” “That is difficult to put into words. In spiritual vocabulary, there is a word, ‘ineffable’: something that cannot be adequately expressed in words. We are perhaps more familiar with the word ‘inconceivable,’ which means something beyond the conception of the mind. ‘Ineffable’ refers to something beyond adequate description in words. “That doesn’t mean nothing can be said about it. Words can be indicative without being exhaustive. “At my level, experiencing Krishna’s presence often begins with a sublime sense of peace—a peace that does not depend on anything external. I feel as if I am transported to another world even while physically remaining here. The anxieties and uncertainties of this world no longer seem to matter so much. “I felt this especially strongly after a painful fall and fracture in 2011. At that time, reciting the Hare Krishna mantra did not absorb my consciousness enough to take me beyond the pain. But when I started reciting verses from the Gita, I became so absorbed that I could rise above the pain. “Sometimes there is something beyond peace—a kind of divine pleasure. If peace makes the anxieties of the world recede, this pleasure makes its cravings pale into insignificance. And sometimes there is also a sense of power—not power over others, but an inner confidence that even if many things seem wrong in my life, or even wrong with me, everything is still moving somewhere purposefully.” The host listened for a few moments and then asked, “But doesn’t experiencing Krishna’s presence mean actually seeing Him—His threefold-bending form, His flute, His peacock feather?” “Yes. Saintly devotees in our tradition have experienced Krishna in that personal way. I am nowhere near that level. But I don’t think Krishna remains inaccessible to us till then, nor do I think we need to discount the ways in which we may experience Him at our present level. “Suppose a little boy is asleep and the temperature suddenly falls. His mother notices him shivering and places a warm comforter around him. His eyes remain closed, so he doesn’t see his mother, but he feels the warmth and understands that she is there and caring for him. “Similarly, when absorption in the Gita’s verses brings me a peace that seems to come from beyond the circumstances around me, I see that peace as one way in which I am experiencing Krishna’s presence.” The host nodded thoughtfully. “I think I understand what you mean by experiencing Krishna through the Gita. But coming back to your original metaphor, why do you call the verses your friends?” “I mean it in two senses. We go to our friends when we need them. And sometimes our friends come to us when they know we need them. “I have found both happening with the Gita’s verses. “When I feel confused, conflicted, or confounded, I consciously go to particular verses. I recite them, remember them, and reflect on them. Gradually, I begin to feel sheltered, solaced, and strengthened in their presence. “But occasionally the movement happens in the other direction. A verse comes to me. “I remember this happening especially when my passport was stolen in Chicago. Amid the agitation and anxiety, Bhagavad-gita 18.61 suddenly came to my mind: from within my heart, Krishna is guiding my wanderings. The verse seemed almost to speak to my situation. Even amid my troubled wanderings to report the theft to the airport police, Krishna was there with me. The same Krishna who had brought me to this point would also take me through this point. He had not abandoned me in the past. He was not abandoning me now. And He would not abandon me in the future. “As the import of the verse sank into me, calmness seemed to rise from the innermost core of my being. The precise way that verse consoled and strengthened me in that situation made me feel that this was not just a memory surfacing—it was a friend speaking. “So just as during times of need we go to our friends, or they come to us, both these dynamics hold true in my relationship with the Gita’s verses. If those who actually help us during difficult times are our friends—a friend in need is a friend indeed—then the Gita’s verses have shown themselves to be my time-tested friends.” The host nodded, and the conversation moved on. Later, when I reflected on our exchange, I realized that there was another dimension of friendship that I had not articulated during the podcast. A good friend doesn’t merely meet us where we are, but also helps us move toward where we need to go. The Gita’s verses do both for me. Not only do they comfort me where I am, but they also point me beyond where I presently am—toward greater purity, deeper devotion, and ultimately toward Krishna Himself. From the Gita, I have come to appreciate that Krishna is both my companion and my destination. I know I have a long way to go, but that is what makes companionship all the more important for me. A destination can inspire me from afar, but a companion strengthens me along the way. The more consciously I go to the Gita’s verses, the more I feel that Krishna is not only waiting at the end of my spiritual journey; He is accompanying me right now along the journey. Cherishing that thought, I offered a prayer: My dear Krishna, You have mercifully revealed to me a spark of Your presence through the words You have spoken in the Bhagavad-gita. Please bless me so that I can cherish Your presence as You mercifully reveal it to me now. Please motivate me to pursue You ultimately by striving for greater purity and intensity in my devotion. *** 18.61 The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. The post How exactly are the Gita’s verses your friends? first appeared on Chaitanya Charan Das, Bhagavad Gita ISKCON .