Excerpts from Shri Uddhava Gita

Like the bee gathering honey

From many blossoms,

Those who aspire to be sages

Must take something of wisdom

From all the scriptures -

Both the great and the small. ||Shri Uddhava Gita- 5:10||

It is vital for the true seeker to keep the company of holy men, be it in the form of direct association, listening to their recorded talks or reading the holy scriptures written by the Sages. It is the beauty of Upanisads that most of them were written in the form of logical question answer discourse. The most famous of the Upanisads is Shrimad BhagwatGita, which is the dialogue between Shri Krishna and his companion, a young warrior Arjuna. Another important text, which comes from a much larger text called the Bhagavatha Purana, is Uddava Gita. In the Uddhava Gita, it is an old friend and humble counselor of Shri Krishna who asks spiritual advice on the eves of Shri Krishna's departure from earth. To fully understand the message of Shri Krishna, we need both the urgent questioning of Arjuna, the young warrior faced with overwhelming odds, and the gentle probing of the wise, older man, Uddava.

Glimpse of God

A young seeker used to to go temple religiously. One day he gathered courage and asked the priest, “Sir, please tell me the truth. Have you ever had the glimpse of God?”

The old priest kept silence for a while and then with the tears in his eyes, he said, “Son, I am close to eighty years old and have been performing these rituals in the temple for more than sixty years. But it seems I am not fortunate enough to get the glimpse of God.”

Astonishingly the young seeker asked, “But Sir, you have been giving bhog (offerings) to the God before every meal throughout your life. Still you think that God is not real to whom you give offerings and to whom you perform prayers day and night.”

The old priest couldn't say a word. But the young seeker couldn't rest peacefully. He went to the saint who used to live in the adjacent town and asked him about his doubt the very next morning.