Dr. Sachchidanand Padhy, author of the book ‘The Bhagvadgita – A Lucid Presentation’ has done a splendid job bringing out this easily comprehensible version of the divine ancient scripture.
He begins with describing the birth-and-death chakra and recycling of the soul in the first chapter. In the gist of this chapter of The Bhagavad Gita, he says that the wise never lament for the living or the dead. The soul experiences childhood, youth and old age. After death, it gets re-embodied.
Then he elaborates the working of the senses, saying that the contact of various objects with different senses, causes feelings – hot and cold, happiness and distress, etc.
He continues with mentioning that someone who can manage balance well between pain and pleasure, etc. never gets tormented. And this kind of personality is eligible for immortality.
The soul neither kills, nor is killed. The soul is neither born, nor dies. It is not affected but only the body is. Death is certain for the born, re-birth for the dead is inevitable, then why lament over the unpreventable. Any being, not manifested before birth, turns unmanifested after death.
The author has given some wise advice in this interpretation, like – You have the rights to perform your prescribed duty, but never claim over the fruits of your activity. Another one being that – Confused intelligence spoils reason and loss of reason causes destruction. Yet another wise advice is – The unasked enjoyments you desire are gifts bestowed by Nature. Do not enjoy without giving any return, be not a thief, of that divine obligation.
Dr. Padhy has used some smart metaphors to explain his viewpoint at places. Like, in the following – The fickle mind lacks wisdom and meditation. For the un-meditative, there is neither peace nor co-ordination. How the peaceless can enjoy happiness? As the wind pushes away a ship on the waters, similarly a person loses discrimination roving over senses.
Few of the greatest meaningful lines from the compilation go as –
In a human body,
senses are superior,
above the senses,
mind is greater,
compared to mind,
intellect is higher,
Supreme to intellect
the Aatman is topper.
And a glimpse of his interpretation of the most significant sloka of the scripture is here –
On decay of Dharma and rise of Adharma, I appear myself
for virtuous protection and wicked destruction, age after age, I am born. My divine birth and activity, he, who knows it’s reality.
Never reborn again, comes Me to join.
Reviewed By: Neha Sharma, The Literature Times