The Nirvana of Brahman

My original motive, when delving into the Bhagavad Gita, while researching my book The Temple of Hanuman, was to dissect those few verses in which Krishna refers to reincarnation. I had hoped, and I feel that I was moderately successful, to dispel the notion of reincarnation as a necessarily literal concept.

However, now as I delve more deeply into the Gita, I realize that its central message, which is detachment from the world and the things of the world, has nothing at all do with reincarnation, whether understood literally or figuratively. One can easily dispose of the notion of reincarnation entirely yet Krishna’s message is undiminished. Nirvana is not something achieved in death or in future lives; it is not a wistful hope. Krishna plainly describes its attainment by practice here and today. Like heaven, it is not a place you go when you die; it is within you now. To the disciplined mind, free from passion and desire, the Nirvana of Brahman is everywhere present at all times. Such detachment is the surest cure for the twin evils that beset the world: depravity and fanaticism. For this reason, the Gita deserves careful study not merely by Hindus but by anyone who takes belief in God seriously.