Four types of devotees worship me: the distressed (Aart), doer of good deeds who wants blessings for his family (Arthaarthi), the curious ones (Jigyaasu) and the knowledgeable (Gyaani) (Bhagvad Gita, Chapter 7).

We used to hear stories from our grandmother about Vishnu’s ten avatars, and I was curious where they were written. When I was a child, my father and I purchased both of these books from a Gitapress mobile van parked at a market near our house. I immediately tried to read the Dashavataar stories from Shrimad Bhagavatam back then. But it was not until I was 30 and had a strong faith that I read it in its entirety. It took me a year to finish Shrimad Bhagavatam, but I thoroughly felt elevated by the experience.

I have been a devotee of Lord Krishna since I was a child. During my twenties, I heard a lot about the Bhagavad Gita. People frequently debated whether the outcomes of their actions were important or not. I picked up the Gita-as-it-is book at ISKCON but was unable to read it thoroughly. I had purchased the Mahabharat DVD Collection for my father and watched B. R. Chopra’s TV series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Just around that time, Gurcharan Das released his book The Difficulty of Being Good, which was centred around the Mahabharata, and so soon after watching the TV series, I read his book too. The appendix contained a list of all the Bhagavad Gitas that the author had read. Based on his recommendation, I purchased Barbara Stone Miller’s Bhagavad Gita. This was the first time I read the Gita in its entirety. It was a small book, with no commentary and only English poetry. All this was because I was curious to know (Jigyaasu) about what Krishna said.

A few years later, after experiencing some personal and family distress, I returned to the Bhagavad Gita in search of peace and answers to life’s problems. Also, I had read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography and learned that he believed in the Bhagavad Gita a lot. On mkgandhi.org, I discovered Vinoba Bhave’s Talks on the Gita. This was the first commentary on the Gita that I had read in full.

It was easy to understand, and Vinoba Bhave explained all the chapters with practical examples relevant to today. My favourite chapters of the Gita have been from 9 to 12, due to the devotional aspect of them. Since then, I have read many more Gita commentaries, maybe due to devotion or curiosity.

To summarise, I got inspired to read thanks to Krishna’s grace. Without that, it is impossible to understand His words. His grace, combined with devotion, curiosity, and some distress — a mix of all these — inspired me to read and learn these two books.