In the Vedic literature it is said, kasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati: "If you understand that one Supreme, then you will understand everything." So Rāmāyaṇa, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, not other Rāmāyaṇa, the so-called Rāmāyaṇa... Authority, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa... If you read Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, that is also as good as reading Bhagavad-gītā. But if you read Bhagavad-gītā, you understand the transcendental science very easily. There is no difficulty. So we shall advise to read Bhagavad-gītā. It is very widely read all over the world, not only by the Hindus, but others also, by all scholars, all philosophers. They read Bhagavad-gītā. So we recommend you all to read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Do not distort the meaning. Try to understand as it is. Just like in the beginning the Bhagavad-gītā is mentioned,
- dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre
- samavetā yuyutsavaḥ
- māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva
- kim akurvata sañjaya
- (BG 1.1)
The dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre... This is a fact. The kuru-kṣetra is a pilgrimage, dharma-kṣetra. Still it is. There is a railway station of the name Kurukṣetra, and that Kurukṣetra place is very big field. So why should we misinterpret, "Kuru-kṣetra means this body, and Pāṇḍava means the senses"? Why? This business distorted the meaning, so we should give up. We should understand as it is. Kurukṣetra is there, it is a pilgrimage, and in the past history, five thousand years ago, two sections of the same family, Kuru family... One section was known as Pāṇḍava and the other section as Kurus. They had to fight on political reason. This is historical. So there is no question of misinterpreting it. The difficulty is, as soon as we misinterpret to our whims, to show our scholarship, it is spoiled. Don't do that. Read it as it is and you will get the benefit.