I have finished reading the second chapter of 'Bhagwad Geeta - As It Is' and will start with the next one in a day or two. Must confess that sometimes the going seems a bit tough as the explanations that follow a shloka are couched in a very heavy (at least for me!) philosophical language. But I am not the one to give up. :-)

It is both fun and frustrating to try to read the original Sanskrit verses and try to understand their meaning without looking at their English translation. It has been years since my 3 years of Sanskrit study in school. Obviously, I don't know many words and many times it is nearly impossible to bring them in order so as to construct the sentence. It is fun when I get it right and frustrating when I don't. But I am happy because I think this whole activity is serving two purposes - one is obviously to read the holy book (which I have thought of doing since quite a few years) and the other one is to engage in study of the language. I agree that this is not a proper study but I think it is one tiny step in that direction. Better a baby step than none, right?

But I guess it will be a difficult task to learn by heart the whole book. Roughly, even if I take 3 months to learn one chapter by heart, it will be four and a half years before I can learn the whole book - provided I keep at it diligently.

Well, I guess I shouldn't worry about it as of now. If that's meant to be, it will happen :-)