Bhagavad gita
The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Sanskrit text, taken from Canto 6, Chapters 25-42 of the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad-Gita has 700 verses in 18 chapters. It is commonly referred to as the Holy Gita. Krishna, the speaker of the Bhagavad Gita, is Bhagavan, the Supreme Being, Lord Krishna, Himself in about 3,100 years BCE. The Bhagavad Gita is the holy scripture of the majority of Hindu traditions. Gita has the essence of Hinduism, Hindu philosophy on the Highest Reality, and a guide to peaceful life and ever lasting world peace.
Henry David Thoreau says:
“In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson on the Gita:
“I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagwad-Gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.”
Mahatma Gandhi says:
“When disappoint stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagvad Geeta. I find a verse here and a verse there, and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies.”
Dr. Annie Besant on the Gita
“It is meant to lift the aspirant from the lower levels of renunciation, where objects are renounced, to the loftier heights where desires are dead, and where the yogi dwells in calm and ceaseless contemplation while his body and mind are actively employed in discharging the duties that fell to his lot in life.”
Swami Vivekananda says:
“The Gita is a bouquet composed of the beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Vedas and the Upanishads.”
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The Gita was preached as a preparatory lesson for living worldly life with an eye to Release, Nirvana. My last prayer to everyone, therefore, is that one should not fail to thoroughly understand this ancient science of worldly life as early as possible in one’s life.
— Lokmanya Tilak
The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the perennial philosophy ever to have been done. Hence its enduring value, not only for the Indians, but also for all mankind. It is perhaps the most systematic spiritual statement of the perennial philosophy.
— Aldous Huxley
I believe that in all the living languages of the world, there is no book so full of true knowledge, and yet so handy. It teaches self-control, austerity, non-violence, compassion, obedience to the call of duty for the sake of duty, and putting up a fight against unrighteousness (Adharma). To my knowledge, there is no book in the whole range of the world’s literature so high above as the Bhagavad-Gita, which is the treasure-house of Dharma nor only for the Hindus but foe all mankind.
— M. M. Malaviya
