Bhagavad Gita's Contribution to the Future of India

Bhagavad Gita is most widely known and accepted Indian scripture in the world. As part of the threefold scriptural corpus (prasthanatraya) Gita has been placed high among the holy scriptures of the d Hindu heritage and hence this book has a uniquely representative character. The bhakti movements, which had a wide popular appeal and prophetic thrust, as well as the major philosophi­cal schools, which shaped the patterns of Indian thought, found in the Gita an authentic source of inspiration. Over the last two hundred years the Gita has considerably influenced the sages of the Indian renaissance and the leaders of the Freedom Struggle. For Mahatma Gandhi, the Bhagavad Gita has been like a consoling mother and guiding teacher; he found in the Gita “the essence of dharma, the highest knowledge that evolved out of experience.