Five Aspects of The Absolute Truth- A Bhagavad Gita Study Guide

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Bhagavad Gita is not an ordinary book of knowledge, it is the oldest knowledge on the planet, and the king o of all types of education. These days online courses are very common in the world, and especially there are many courses on the Juble. I got the idea originally from the systematic correspondence courses on Bible and I had suggested Dr. Lila Purushottam Das to design an online systematic course on Bhagavad Gita. I want to thank De Lila Purushottam Das for putting together a team to produce a systematic online course on Bhagavad Gita. This initiative has been rightly called as Learn Gita Live Gita as the knowledge contained in Bhagavad Gita is the way of life.

What is knowledge! Knowledge is essentially of two types’ spiritual knowledge and material knowledge. There is no shortage of people teaching material knowledge as there are so many schools and colleges. A few years back, I was giving a lecture at Stanford University in California. They had over 300 departments, but not one department that tells you what happens after death. This knowledge is very important, Bhagavad Gita gives this knowledge in many aspects. It makes us understand that time has to be very consciously used. The great sage Chanakya Pandit said that a minute lost cannot be gained with all the riches available in the entire world. So we should use our time productively to lead a peaceful life.

Today, if you were to do a survey, you will find that there is so much stress and tension in society. People are confused and they need guidance, but you can only guide somebody if you know the ultimate knowledge yourself. A blind man cannot lead other blind men. If a blind man is leading another blind man then all will end up falling in the ditch. So, we need to be guided by those where know the purpose of human life and have adapted the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita and othe Vedic literature. Bhagavad Gita is a book of peace, a book of real knowledge. It will enlighten you and take away your stress.

Bhagavad Gita is not a religious text-it is a universal science meant for the entire humanity With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, consciousness has become the general talk of the town. There does not exist a book better than Bhagavad Gita that can teach us about consciousness in the most comprehensive manner And it is important to note that consciousness is neutral to religion, race, gender and nationality. Any person can embrace the appealing concept of universal brotherhood and peace by introspecting on the message contained in 700 verses of Bhagavad Gita.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, the author of the world's most widely read Bhagavad Gita As It is, often said that the Bhagavad Gita discourse took place between the Absolute Truth Lord Krishna and His devotee Arjuna. Only as a devotee of Lord Krishna, one can understand Bhagavad Gita as it is, not otherwise. Naturally, such a discourse cannot be anything but bhakti yoga or devotional service. Thus all 700 verses of Bhagavad Gita are reflective of Krishna Consciousness-the art of unconditionally loving the Absolute Truth.

I have been studying Bhagavad Gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupada since 1993, and have discussed each verse with students of IIT Kanpur during the evening Bhagavad Gita sessions and a myriade of other forums as well. However, until 2012, I had never taught this course the way we teach a technical course at IIT Kanpur- covering the topics theme-wise and engaging students in examination mode. When I was entrusted with the service of Bhaktivedanta Gurukula in 2010 by HH Gopal Krishna Goswami, His Holiness instructed me that I must develop a course by which the message of Bhagavad Gita can be disseminated to a wider audience. This led me to start a week-long course on Bhagavad Gita in a systematic manner at IIT Kanpur in the beginning of the semester in July-Aug 2012 which has been successfully continuing to date. In 2013-2014, 1 also had the opportunity to teach this course as a credited course at IIM Indore for two consecutive