Nirmal Kishore
Nirmal Kishore (1940-2026) was born in Allahabad. He studied at the CAV inter college and then studied physics at Allahabad university. He also studied electric engineering at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. In his long carrier, he worked with GEC, Genelec and Bajaj Electricals.
During
the later part of his life, he wrote a book "Bhagvad Gita
and
You", which can be downloaded here in PDF
(3 MB), Epub (1.3 MB) and Mobi-Kindle
(1 MB) formats.
Here we present an extract from the chapter "Inspirations and Acknowledgements" from his book.
Bhagvad Gita and You - Extract
My parents introduced me to Krishna the God. My father’s gift of the first Gita in Hindi (‘Srimad Bhagavad-Gita’ by Mr. Jaydayal Goyandka published by Gita Press, Gorakhpur, UP) in the year 1956, when I was a student of B.Sc., did not impress me one bit. I however, I must gratefully concede that it inspired a spirit of enquiry that helped me a great deal in later life. Initially, I got confused and decided it could wait for a later date. Perhaps it was my way of persuading me then that I could even do without reading the book. But I must admit I was always awkwardly influenced by my parent’s faith; it bothered me no end. Their faith often infected me and now I can hardly thank them enough for their gift which I didn’t appreciate enough then.
I must confess, initially I took Krishna’s words in Gita literally and missed the context and the point he was making, to drive home the message to Arjuna. With my conditioned and one-dimensional mind (due to my science, engineering and marketing back-ground), I took his assertions as self- aggrandizement. It never occurred to me that he had no need for it. It took me considerable time but mercifully I could shed my scepticism at a later date.
I would ever be grateful to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for showing me the light. He introduced me to Krishna, the God, through his book ‘Bhagavad-Gita As It Is’. I however, kept on looking for Krishna the man. The struggle continued for a long time.
I was a very studious student and a committed professional engineer. Truly, I was a workaholic with a propensity for trying to achieve perfection in whatever I did. Needless to admit, I mostly failed; but in the process, I reached a level much higher than what could otherwise be doubtfully achieved by me even under the best of circumstances. True, this propensity caused me no end of problems. Then events placed me on the wrong end of destiny. I must confess, on several occasions I greatly benefited from the message of Gita. As a result of this my respect for the book started increasing and I began reading it as a reference text almost routinely.
In India in eighties and nineties the employment scene was by no means rosy. Later part of eighties was a testing time for me. I resigned my job of 30 years with a MNC on a point of principle without arranging an alternative employment. I then realised that young professionals were almost perpetually at the razor’s edge, unable to cope with the pressure. Premature burn out was common place. I felt that something had to be done to face the situation boldly; and I wanted to be a part of the solution. The problem was what to do? I decided to write a book based on Gita that would inculcate a discipline and would enable one to gain fortitude.
I realised that one needed a holistic approach, where one could practise the same as a part of his routine. This became the gensis of my essay. I started with intense study. With, considerable thought, continued search, several transformations and revisions ‘Bhagavad-Gita And You’ started becoming a reality. I sincerely believe it would be of great help to all, particularly to younger generation for success in life with the bonus of happiness that we otherwise keep chasing through life, without much success.
It was under such circumstances I read ‘Bhagavad-Gita As it Is’ by His Holiness A.C. Bhaktivedanta. In the preface he had written that one couldn’t understand the true message of Gita unless he accepted Krishna as ‘the’ God. Initially with reluctance and later as an axiom, I did it. It surely helped me in reading his book. Gradually events in my life firmed my belief and faith in Gita. I accepted Krishna as an incarnation of God; yet, kept looking for the ‘man’ in him.
Paramhans Yoganand’s book on Gita though philosophical had a fresh, modern and rational approach. He came out to be both a learned scholar, and a staunch devotee. His frequent references to ancient philosophers of the world, science, Bible along with stories from mythologies and metaphysics imparted a universal flavour to his book and perhaps made it more acceptable even to a rational mind. Gita portrayed spiritual awakening as light and life; and ignorance as darkness and death. With inspiration from this idea, he treated its message like a theatre play with intense beams of lights and shadows on different planes (ideas and characters) highlighting the true meaning. It is a skillfully nuanced interpretation.
I have quoted Swami Vivekananda, Paramhans Yogananda, Swami Bhaktivedanta and Dr.S. Radha Krishnan in my essay several times. Besides them, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi Rajneesh, Ramana Maharishi too made a significant contribution to my knowledge through their books and audios. i found their writings and audios illuminating.
I must add here that my late father, a regular and an avid reader of Gita told me so many things about the philosophy of Gita decades before I started reading the book. He tried to make a scientific (non-religious) presentation to me. He was the first person who advised me, that Gita had to be read like a course text book in order to understand its true meaning. To my loss, I did not appreciate enough the meaning of his words then. Can I ever, now apologise to him and say, ‘thank you father’? I wish I had attempted doing so when he was around.
My mother was my role model. She made the greatest contribution to creating my spiritual psyche and I learnt a great deal from her. To say thank you mother now will hurt her. All I can say is that I have tried every day of my life to be worthy of my parents. God Bless their souls.
Dr.S.L.Mathur a Homeopath and a teacher by profession stayed in our colony at ‘Raheja Estates’ Mumbai -66. Though he was 94 years of age he was in good health to the extent that he did 10 to 12 KM of walking and also performed yoga exercises every day. We met in the evenings at our club. The topic of discussion with him was mostly on Gita as he was very knowledgeable and greatly interested in the same. He gave me useful inputs. His suggestions helped me immensely. I wish him a long life and thank him from the core of my heart.
The other elderly person who too lived in the neighbourhood was Prof. Shanti Swaroop 92, an eminent scholar of Indian History, Painting, Arts and Crafts, and Architecture with several books to his credit. He was visually challenged. I met him by chance as one evening I helped him while he was walking in front of his building. We became great friends and I started helping him in his daily walks; he became a great source of information, inspiration and guidance to me. He told me so many stories and personal experiences and we occasionaly discussed my script that I read to him. He was a great help and I had the benefit of his guidance and blessings.
Likewise, another neighbour friend, a young girl Ms. Rashmi Sachdeva gave useful suggestions and extended help by way of proof reading of the manuscripts. My heartfelt thanks are due to her.
My heartfelt thanks are due to my brother-in-law Dr. Sunil Deepak who lives in Italy and my son Anshuman at Dubai (who assisted him) in editing the text of my essay. I knew that Sunil had a flair for writing both in Hindi and English but I did not know that he had special knowledge and skill in respect of editing of texts for publication. During a chance meeting about two years ago he himself offered to help me. He was god sent to me for I was looking for someone to edit the text of my essay. I thank him and of course God for this good turn.
My elder son Avijit helped me in writing this essay especially in respect of the computer and lay out etc. from time to time. Parul my daughter-in-law (a NID Ahmedabad graduate) now at Dubai gave me useful tips about the cover design. She introduced me to Mr. Santesh Rao who is a professional designer with considerable experience in the Ad field. Now he has his own Ad Agency at Dubai. He enjoys a great reputation in the field of designs and content writing. I sincerely thank him for his patience in preparing several cover designs and modifications in the same as per discussions with us.
My wife Dr. Manju Kishore and some of her colleagues at the Delhi University helped me with vital inputs. I would particularly name Dr.Kanan Jhingan who helped me with her incisive knowledge inputs and analysis while we were neighbours at staff flats at Delhi University. My wife helped me with books from University Library besides offering suggestions and encouragement at all times.
Gita is about ‘The Truth’; and my truth is that I can’t ever thank enough the persons I mentioned above and several others. They so generously, yet, unknowingly, inspired me, and created in me self-belief and faith that has been of immense help to me. I suffer a sense of guilt that I am unable to mention the names of so many others who I benefited me.
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