Bhagavad Gita is one of the most sacred Hindu religious scripture. Many famous personalities have highly praised the Gita- Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Herman Hesse, Abdul Kalam, Albert Einstein and many other people.
"The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race a living creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a new meaning for every civilization." ~ Rishi Aurobindo
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| Arjuna and Krishna at Kurukshetra |
- Gita is a part of Mahabharata. It is part of Bhishma Parva of Mahabharata (Chapters 25 to 42). Mahabharata is a epic scripture of Hinduism.
- Bhagavad Gita consists 18 Chapters and it has 700 verses. It is written in Sanskrit.
- It is a conversation between Arjuna and Krishna at the battlefield of Kurukshetra. In the battlefield when Arjuna was unable to decide what is right and what is wrong, he asked several questions to Krishna, Gita captures this questions of Arjuna and Krishna’s answers to those questions.
- The literal meaning of Gita is “Song of God”.
- The main theme of Gita is Dharma (Holy Duty). It descripes the different Yoga- Bhakti, Karma, Jnana; and Moksha or liberation.
- Several commentaries have been written on Gita. Such as Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bhāskara, Madhva. These commentaries vary from each other in views and meaning.
- Charles Wilkins translated the Gita in English for the first time in 1785. Later it was also translated into different European languages.
- It is believed that three other person besides Arjuna listened the Gita directly from Krishna. They were Sanjay, Hanuman, Barbarik son of Ghatotkach.