I realize a lot of stuff I think about and talk about never makes it to my blog. Most of it shouldn’t, probably. All the prajalpa and joking around needs to be highly redacted. Most of the pissing and moaning too.
Still, occasionally I find myself on some point I hammer at that reflects my philosophical view of life, but, for some reason, never blog. I make predictions sometimes, and those should be put in writing, I guess.
So not to disappoint after that buildup, but here is a Gosh overview of scripture.
The Bhagavad -Gita is the basis of all scripture. It gives the essential concepts of how the material world works, and how we act and how we should or could cope with it. In this sense, it is like the rules of chess.
Chess is a game that has relatively straight forward rules that can be learned easily. Even small children learn to play. Still, realization of how to play well can take decades.
That is where other books come in — they explain the BG in terms designed for particular time and circumstances. This would be like learning particular gambits, or tactics, of how to apply the rules in an advantageous way.
One technique for learning how to play chess is to study actual games played by the Grandmasters of chess. The equivalent in scripture would be like reading the Srimad Bhagavatam.
The Grandmasters are those who have played their way to the top of the chess world. When they play, every move is recorded and studied by devotees of chess.
In the SB, the stories of great sages are recorded. How they applied the principles of the BG in their lives and the circumstances they encounter is instructive for all of us. We can learn from others how to live our own lives.
I use the example of the rules of chess and games of chess when I am talking to someone who is a little overwhelmed about sorting out all the different books we have, someone who is new to the movement. It seems to help.
