Have you ever wondered what would happen if we treated our Bhagavad Gita like we treat our mobile phone? An interesting question, isn't it?
If we are honest, we all (or at least most of us) must admit, that to some degree we are addicted to our mobile phone.
Some facts: 2.71 billion people in the world own a smartphone, by 2023 it will most likely increase to 7.33 billion users. Smartphone usage statistics suggest that an average person spends 2 hours and 51 minutes per day on their mobile device.(1) The typical cellphone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times every day, extreme cellphone users — meaning the top 10% — touch their phones more than 5,400 times daily. (Actions like typing, tapping, and swiping the phone's screen count as a „touch.“) As for iPhone users, Apple recently confirmed that its device users unlock their phones 80 times every day.(2)
What if we would touch the Bhagavad Gita (or any Holy Scripture) as many times a day as we touch our mobile phone?
What if we would feel such a strong urge to keep the Bhagavad Gita close to us all the time?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to children as gifts?
What if we used it when we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
This is something to make you go “Hmm… Where is my Bhagavad Gita?” (3)
Yes, a mobile phone can connect us to the people we love, we can get important messages from it and get guidance and directions in times of need, but that is also true for the Bhagavad Gita.
For one who carefully reads and studies Holy Scriptures, deeply absorbs the knowledge and actually applies the wisdom will start to see the world with different eyes. For such a person the Holy Scripture becomes a means to directly connect with the Lord. After all, the Lord and His instructions are non-different.
Realizing this fact, should we not become more eager to carry the Gita with us and study it whenever we can? Should we not strive to become addicted to gain more spiritual knowledge?
And to answer our question at the beginning: Have you ever wondered what would happen if we treated our Bhagavad Gita like we treat our mobile phone? Most probably we would make a lot of advancement in our spiritual journey:
„…first thing is to become knowledgeable in Krishna Consciousness, then the tapasya or voluntary life of austerity will result automatically. So I am requesting all of my students to read my books very seriously every day without fail. In this way, if your mind becomes absorbed at least one or two hours daily in the transcendental subject matter of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, and other books then very easily you will make your advancement in Krishna Consciousness.“ (4)
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1 - https://leftronic.com/smartphone-usage-statistics/
2 - https://www.businessinsider.com/dscout-research-people-touch-cell-phones-2617-times-a-day-2016-7?r=US&IR=T
3 - These where some thoughts presented at a book vernissage that took place some time in December at our temple on ` Die Bhagavad Gita für Unterwegs` a Bhagavad Gita for on the way, produced by Gita Production, Gaura Lila Dasa. Questions were originally from a message that was sent in a pamho free forum some years ago (Text PAMHO:15443173).
4 - Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Bhargava — Los Angeles 13 June, 1971
