Top 5 Misconceptions About the Bhagavad Gita..

Gita only for the intellectual:

Animals do not have an intellect, it’s a privilege enjoyed by only the humans. This means that no matter what the IQ of a person is, every human will have a certain level of intellect enough to grasp the concepts of Gita without misinterpreting them. In fact a higher IQ could only mean that you have too much ego to accept the truth stated in the Gita, contrary to not understanding its essence. Gita is a simple message of love, and anyone reading it from the heart will be able to understand it to the core.

 The central message of Gita is unclear:

Gita is centered on the two concepts of Tvam i.e. you and Isvara i.e. Godhead. These concepts can be a bit confusing, because they tell you things that seem contradictory to the reality. For example, people say they are a doctor, a lawyer, a writer, son of so and so, and things similar to this when they introduce themselves. But, according to Gita, this is not who you are. All these are only your individual attributes, which are based in the mind and the body, while you means the free you, free from any kind of worldly bondage.

Gita has little applicability in the recent times:

The youngsters especially believe that Gita is ancient, and therefore holds no relevance in their lives, completely forgetting that the basics of the humans haven’t changed since times immemorial. The sun still shines the same way, despite being the most ancient, and similarly, the Gita is not just a story book from the past. We’ve become so mesmerized by the material things around us that we’ve started neglecting the universal eternal truth that remains just the same.

 Gita advocates fight against irreligious people:

Many believe that Lord Krishna prompts Arjuna to wage violence against the irreligious people of the world, who are considered to be the enemy of all mankind. People of different faiths around the world have questioned this premise several times. They propose that if Lord Krishna is the God, shouldn’t he have attempted to win the hearts and minds of the irreligious people of world, instead of waging a war. But, these very people must realize that the same Bhagavad Gita inspired Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, and made him the epitome of peace

The vision of God as a destroyer:

In the 11^th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, the universal form of God is described as emitting blazing flames of destruction. Sure this makes God appear rather ghastly and brutal, but the truth is that death and destruction too are an inevitable part of living. Further reading the chapter, Arjuna seeks to see the two handed form of Krishna. The destruction of the world takes Arjuna to the beauty of Krishna, similarly death and destruction beset the world to lead us to the beautiful eternity.