THE GITA for children (Roopa Pai)

Bhagavad-Gita, one of the most important Indian scripture which forms the core of epic Mahabharata. Many of it's versions are available & various books are already published on it. But, this book is written by Roopa Pai especially keeping children in mind in simple to understand language. Even I decided to go for it by just looking in title "FOR CHILDREN", assuming it will be comparatively easy to understand. And yes, it is easy to understand the philosophy of karma & bhakti through this book.

The book starts with the background & scenarios that leads to the situation of war between Pandavas & Kauravas, involving almost whole of Indian kingdoms participating on either of the sides. With both the sides just ready for the war on battlefield at kurukshetra, Arjuna request his charioteer & friend Srikrishna to take him in the middle of the battlefield to have last close look at his elderly family members & gurus standing in front as opponents. And to his own dismay, Arjuna gets confused about; why he need to fight against his very own relatives & gurus and is it really worthy a win, which means the killing of them? And here starts the whole of question-answer-conversation between Arjuna & Srikrishna; which is known to all of us as Bhagavad-Gita or simply Gita.

Roopa has explained all of 18 chapters of Gita including most important verse from that chapter followed by the lesson to learn for readers, giving simple examples from day to day life & making it quiet relatable to children. And these lessons are the real take away for children at the end of each chapter, although implementing that wisdom in life is the real task. But, it's a simpler book to attempt getting into the ocean of wisdom from Bhagavat-gita.

During conversation, Srikrishna tries all the ways to make Arjuna convinced about; why he needs to stand-up & fight the war.

• Being a kshatriya - a doer's category, it's his duty to get into action & lead his followers

• He need not really bother much about his kith & kin in opposition getting succumb to death as a result of war. Everyone was born many times earlier & will get rebirth even latter, as ATMAN remain immoral & only changes body after each birth-death cycle.

• Srikrishana even shows his Vishwaroopam to Arjuna & ask him to just surrender his wish, will, sacrifice & just do his duty. 

Although our generation has seen the Mahabharata on television in our childhood, our focus was more into the rest of the actions other than Gita part, being more of a Gyan for that age to grasp. And hence this book appeals to elders as well while going into simplified details as an attempt to enter into the vastness of all the practical wisdom that Gita offers.

So go on readers to immerse into the ocean of wisdom - THE GITA and I am sure you will come out dwelling joyfully upon the waves of knowledge through this book.