Bhagavad gita and Management .

[Guest guest]

Bhagavad Gita and Management

 

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by M.P. Bhattathiri, Retired Chief Technical Examiner to the Government of

Kerela

Mind is very restless, forceful and strong, O Krishna, it is more difficult

to control the mind than to control the wind ~ Arjuna to Sri Krishna

Introduction

One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is Holy Gita. Arjuna

got mentally depressed when he saw his relatives with whom he has to fight.

The Bhagavad Gita is preached in the battle field Kurukshetra by Lord

Krishna to Arjuna as a counseling to do his duty while multitudes of men

stood by waiting . It has got all the management tactics to achieve the

mental equilibrium and to overcome any crisis situation. The Bhagavad Gita

can be experienced as a powerful catalyst for transformation. Bhagavad Gita

means song of the Spirit, song of the Lord. The Holy Gita has become a

secret driving force behind the unfoldment of one's life. In the days of

doubt this divine book will support all spiritual search.This divine book

will contribute to self reflection, finer feeling and deepen one's inner

process. Then life in the world can become a real education—dynamic, full

and joyful—no matter what the circumstance. May the wisdom of loving

consciousness ever guide us on our journey. What makes the Holy Gita a

practical psychology of transformation is that it offers us the tools to

connect with our deepest intangible essence and we must learn to participate

in the battle of life with right knowledge.

There is no theory to be internalized and applied in this psychology.

Ancient practices spontaneously induce what each person needs as the

individual and the universal coincide. The work proceeds through

intellectual knowledge of the playing field (jnana yoga), emotional devotion

to the ideal (bhakti yoga) and right action that includes both feeling and

knowledge (karma yoga). With ongoing purification we approach wisdom. The

Bhagavad Gita is a message addressed to each and every human individual to

help him or her to solve the vexing problem of overcoming the present and

progressing towards a bright future. Within its eighteen chapters is

revealed a human drama. This is the experience of everyone in this world,

the drama of the ascent of man from a state of utter dejection, sorrow and

total breakdown and hopelessness to a state of perfect understanding,

clarity, renewed strength and triumph.

Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in

the office or factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group

of human beings assemble for a common purpose, management principles come

into play through the management of resources, finance and planning,

priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of

carrying out activities in any field of human effort.

Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their

weaknesses irrelevant, say the Management Gurus. It creates harmony in

working together - equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and

achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves

situations of scarcity, be they in the physical, technical or human fields,

through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve

the goal. Lack of management causes disorder, confusion, wastage, delay,

destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and materials in the

best possible way, according to circumstances and environment, is the most

important and essential factor for a successful management.

"We're discovering that what we thought was fine, which was to be more

efficient, harder working and richer, doesn't actually lead to the Nirvana

we hoped for ... those who are making the most money are not sure it's worth

it. Who wants to be rich in the graveyard? And those who aren't making any

money think that the world doesn't make sense, because money is supposed to

be the only thing worth having and they haven't got any."

“Tomorrow we are going to wake up in a world in which we all need to realise

that we are condemned to freedom ... There is no escape. Institutions won't

shoulder responsibility because they are in a state of confused flux. There

is no church, no nation state, no market to rely on. There are no cut and

dried values to use as escape tools ... we are faced with the prospect of

taking charge of our own freedom ... responsibility for our own health, for

our own education, for our own careers - responsibility for our own lives."

"The recent anti-capitalist protests indicate a growing frustration with the

institutional arrangements currently in place. They also, largely, miss the

point. Global market capitalism is not a political ideology. It is neither

good or bad, right nor wrong - it just is."

 

Management guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita

There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in

managing.

Effectiveness is doing the right things.

Efficiency is doing things right.

 

The general principles of effective management can be applied in every

field, the differences being more in application than in principle. The

Manager's functions can be summed up as:

Forming a vision

Planning the strategy to realise the vision.

Cultivating the art of leadership.

Establishing institutional excellence.

Building an innovative organisation.

Developing human resources.

Building teams and teamwork.

Delegation, motivation, and communication.

Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for.

 

Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed

to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of

excellence.

The critical question in all managers’ minds is how to be effective in their

job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad Gita,

which repeatedly proclaims that “you must try to manage yourself.” The

reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and

effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd.

Old truths in a new context

The Bhagavad Gita, written thousands of years ago, enlightens us on all

managerial techniques leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of

affairs in place of the conflict, tensions, poor productivity, absence of

motivation and so on, common in most of Indian enterprises today – and

probably in enterprises in many other countries.

The modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation,

excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making

and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita. There is one major

difference. While Western management thought too often deals with problems

at material, external and peripheral levels, the Bhagavad Gita tackles the

issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking

of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions

and their results.

The management philosophy emanating from the West, is based on the lure of

materialism and on a perennial thirst for profit, irrespective of the

quality of the means adopted to achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its

source in the abundant wealth of the West and so 'management by materialism'

has caught the fancy of all the countries the world over, India being no

exception to this trend. My country, India, has been in the forefront in

importing these ideas mainly because of its centuries old indoctrination by

colonial rulers, which has inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western

is good and anything Indian is inferior.

The result is that, while huge funds have been invested in building temples

of modem management education, no perceptible changes are visible in the

improvement of the general quality of life - although the standards of

living of a few has gone up. The same old struggles in almost all sectors of

the economy, criminalisation of institutions, social violence, exploitation

and other vices are seen deep in the body politic.

The source of the problem

The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are not far to seek. The Western

idea of management centres on making the worker (and the manager) more

efficient and more productive. Companies offer workers more to work more,

produce more, sell more and to stick to the organisation without looking for

alternatives. The sole aim of extracting better and more work from the

worker is to improve the bottom-line of the enterprise. The worker has

become a hireable commodity, which can be used, replaced and discarded at

will.

Thus, workers have been reduced to the state of a mercantile product. In

such a state, it should come as no surprise to us that workers start using

strikes (gheraos) sit-ins, (dharnas) go-slows, work-to-rule etc. to get

maximum benefit for themselves from the organisations. Society-at-large is

damaged. Thus we reach a situation in which management and workers become

separate and contradictory entities with conflicting interests. There is no

common goal or understanding. This, predictably, leads to suspicion,

friction, disillusion and mistrust, with managers and workers at cross

purposes. The absence of human values and erosion of human touch in the

organisational structure has resulted in a crisis of confidence.

Western management philosophy may have created prosperity – for some people

some of the time at least - but it has failed in the aim of ensuring

betterment of individual life and social welfare. It has remained by and

large a soulless edifice and an oasis of plenty for a few in the midst of

poor quality of life for many.

Hence, there is an urgent need to re-examine prevailing management

disciplines - their objectives, scope and content. Management should be

redefined to underline the development of the worker as a person, as a human

being, and not as a mere wage-earner. With this changed perspective,

management can become an instrument in the process of social, and indeed

national, development.

Now let us re-examine some of the modern management concepts in the light of

the Bhagavad Gita which is a primer of management-by-values.

Utilisation of available resources

The first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and utilise

scarce resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata

War, Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna

selected Sri Krishna's wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue

as to the nature of the effective manager - the former chose numbers, the

latter, wisdom.

Attitudes towards work

Three stone-cutters were engaged in erecting a temple. An HRD Consultant

asked them what they were doing. The response of the three workers to this

innocent-looking question is illuminating.

'I am a poor man. I have to maintain my family. I am making a living here,'

said the first stone-cutter with a dejected face.

'Well, I work because I want to show that I am the best stone-cutter in the

country,' said the second one with a sense of pride.

'Oh, I want to build the most beautiful temple in the country,' said the

third one with a visionary gleam.

Their jobs were identical but their perspectives were different. What the

Gita tells us is to develop the visionary perspective in the work we do. It

tells us to develop a sense of larger vision in our work for the common

good.

Work commitment

A popular verse of the Gita advises “detachment” from the fruits or results

of actions performed in the course of one's duty. Being dedicated work has

to mean “working for the sake of work, generating excellence for its own

sake.” If we are always calculating the date of promotion or the rate of

commission before putting in our efforts, then such work is not detached. It

is not “generating excellence for its own sake” but working only for the

extrinsic reward that may (or may not) result.

Working only with an eye to the anticipated benefits, means that the quality

of performance of the current job or duty suffers - through mental agitation

of anxiety for the future. In fact, the way the world works means that

events do not always respond positively to our calculations and hence

expected fruits may not always be forthcoming. So, the Gita tells us not to

mortgage present commitment to an uncertain future.

Some people might argue that not seeking the business result of work and

actions, makes one unaccountable. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita is full of

advice on the theory of cause and effect, making the doer responsible for

the consequences of his deeds. While advising detachment from the avarice of

selfish gains in discharging one's accepted duty, the Gita does not absolve

anybody of the consequences arising from discharge of his or her

responsibilities.

Thus the best means of effective performance management is the work itself.

Attaining this state of mind (called “nishkama karma”) is the right attitude

to work because it prevents the ego, the mind, from dissipation of attention

through speculation on future gains or losses.

Motivation – self and self-transcendence

It has been presumed for many years that satisfying lower order needs of

workers - adequate food, clothing and shelter, etc. are key factors in

motivation. However, it is a common experience that the dissatisfaction of

the clerk and of the Director is identical - only their scales and

composition vary. It should be true that once the lower-order needs are more

than satisfied, the Director should have little problem in optimising his

contribution to the organisation and society. But more often than not, it

does not happen like that. (“The eagle soars high but keeps its eyes firmly

fixed on the dead animal below.”) On the contrary, a lowly paid

schoolteacher, or a self-employed artisan, may well demonstrate higher

levels of self-actualisation despite poorer satisfaction of their

lower-order needs.

This situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded

in the Gita. Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others

before oneself, emphasising team work, dignity, co-operation, harmony and

trust – and, indeed potentially sacrificing lower needs for higher goals,

the opposite of Maslow.

“Work must be done with detachment.” It is the ego that spoils work and the

ego is the centrepiece of most theories of motivation. We need not merely a

theory of motivation but a theory of inspiration.

The Great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, known as "Gurudev")

says working for love is freedom in action. A concept which is described as

“disinterested work" in the Gita where Sri Krishna says,

“He who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through

work done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all sins. On the contrary

those who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration

and failure.”

Disinterested work finds _expression in devotion, surrender and equipoise.

The former two are psychological while the third is determination to keep

the mind free of the dualistic (usually taken to mean "materialistic") pulls

of daily experiences. Detached involvement in work is the key to mental

equanimity or the state of “nirdwanda.” This attitude leads to a stage where

the worker begins to feel the presence of the Supreme Intelligence guiding

the embodied individual intelligence. Such de-personified intelligence is

best suited for those who sincerely believe in the supremacy of

organisational goals as compared to narrow personal success and achievement.

Work culture

An effective work culture is about vigorous and arduous efforts in pursuit

of given or chosen tasks. Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of work

culture – “daivi sampat” or divine work culture and “asuri sampat” or

demonic work culture.

Daivi work culture - involves fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice,

straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding,

absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride.

Asuri work culture - involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper

performance, work not oriented towards service.

 

Mere work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal exhibits an excellent

work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work.

It is in this light that the counsel, “yogah karmasu kausalam” should be

understood. “Kausalam” means skill or technique of work which is an

indispensable component of a work ethic. “Yogah” is defined in the Gita

itself as “samatvam yogah uchyate” meaning an unchanging equipoise of mind

(detachment.) Tilak tells us that acting with an equable mind is Yoga.

(Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 1856-1920, the precursor of Gandhi, hailed by the

people of India as "Lokmanya," probably the most learned among the country's

political leaders. For a description of the meanings of the word "Yoga", see

foot of this page.)

By making the equable mind the bed-rock of all actions, the Gita evolved the

goal of unification of work ethic with ethics in work, for without ethical

process no mind can attain an equipoise. The guru, Adi Sankara (born circa

800 AD), says that the skill necessary in the performance of one's duty is

that of maintaining an evenness of mind in face of success and failure. The

calm mind in the face of failure will lead to deeper introspection and see

clearly where the process went wrong so that corrective steps could be taken

to avoid shortcomings in future.

The principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work

done is the Gita’s prescription for attaining equanimity. It has been held

that this principle leads to lack of incentive for effort, striking at the

very root of work ethic. To the contrary, concentration on the task for its

own sake leads to the achievement of excellence – and indeed to the true

mental happiness of the worker. Thus, while commonplace theories of

motivation may be said to lead us to the bondage or extrinsic rewards, the

Gita’s principle leads us to the intrinsic rewards of mental, and indeed

moral, satisfaction.

The Gita further explains the theory of “detachment” from the extrinsic

rewards of work in saying:

If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not

be appropriated by the doer alone.

If the result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does

not accrue to the doer.

 

The former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter

prevents excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these

dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability, the

cause of the modem managers' companions of diabetes, high blood pressure and

ulcers.

Assimilation of the ideas of the Gita leads us to the wider spectrum of

“lokasamgraha” (general welfare) but there is also another dimension to the

work ethic - if the “karmayoga” (service) is blended with “bhaktiyoga”

(devotion), then the work itself becomes worship, a “sevayoga" (service for

its own sake.)

(This may sound a peculiarly religious idea but it has a wider application.

It could be taken to mean doing something because it is worthwhile, to serve

others, to make the world a better place – ed.)

Manager's mental health

Sound mental health is the very goal of any human activity - more so

management. Sound mental health is that state of mind which can maintain a

calm, positive poise, or regain it when unsettled, in the midst of all the

external vagaries of work life and social existence. Internal constancy and

peace are the pre-requisites for a healthy stress-free mind.

Some of the impediments to sound mental health are:

Greed - for power, position, prestige and money.

Envy - regarding others' achievements, success, rewards.

Egotism - about one's own accomplishments.

Suspicion, anger and frustration.

Anguish through comparisons.

 

The driving forces in today's businesses are speed and competition. There is

a distinct danger that these forces cause erosion of the moral fibre, that

in seeking the end, one permits oneself immoral means - tax evasion,

illegitimate financial holdings, being “economical with the truth”,

deliberate oversight in the audit, too-clever financial reporting and so on.

This phenomenon may be called as “yayati syndrome”.

In the book, the Mahabharata, we come across a king by the name of Yayati

who, in order to revel in the endless enjoyment of flesh exchanged his old

age with the youth of his obliging youngest son for a thousand years.

However, he found the pursuit of sensual enjoyments ultimately unsatisfying

and came back to his son pleading him to take back his youth. This “yayati

syndrome” shows the conflict between externally directed acquisitions

(extrinsic motivation) and inner value and conscience (intrinsic

motivation.)

Management needs those who practise what they preach

“Whatever the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow,” says Sri

Krishna in the Gita. The visionary leader must be a missionary, extremely

practical, intensively dynamic and capable of translating dreams into

reality. This dynamism and strength of a true leader flows from an inspired

and spontaneous motivation to help others. "I am the strength of those who

are devoid of personal desire and attachment. O Arjuna, I am the legitimate

desire in those, who are not opposed to righteousness," says Sri Krishna in

the 10th Chapter of the Gita.

In conclusion

The despondency of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita is typically

human. Sri Krishna, by sheer power of his inspiring words, changes Arjuna's

mind from a state of inertia to one of righteous action, from the state of

what the French philosophers call “anomie” or even alienation, to a state of

self-confidence in the ultimate victory of “dharma” (ethical action.)

When Arjuna got over his despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna

reminded him of the purpose of his new-found spirit of intense action - not

for his own benefit, not for satisfying his own greed and desire, but for

the good of many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics over

unethical actions and of truth over untruth.

Sri Krishna's advice with regard to temporary failures is, “No doer of good

ever ends in misery.” Every action should produce results. Good action

produces good results and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore, always

act well and be rewarded.All clouds will vanish. Light will fill the heart

and mind. I assure him of this. This is the message of Holy Gita.

My purport is not to suggest discarding of the Western model of efficiency,

dynamism and striving for excellence but to tune these ideals to India's

holistic attitude of “lokasangraha” - for the welfare of many, for the good

of many. There is indeed a moral dimension to business life. What we do in

business is no different, in this regard, to what we do in our personal

lives. The means do not justify the ends. Pursuit of results for their own

sake, is ultimately self-defeating. (“Profit,” said Matsushita-san in

another tradition, “is the reward of correct behaviour.” – ed.)

 

Let us go through what scholars say about Holy Gita.

 

"No work in all Indian literature is more quoted, because none is better

loved, in the West, than the Bhagavad-Gita. Translation of such a work

demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the

theme and a verbal artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen

in all things. . . . The Swami does a real service for students by investing

the beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may be, we

should all be grateful for the labor that has lead to this illuminating

work."

Dr. Geddes MacGregor, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy

University of Southern California

 

"The Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great religious

civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The

present translation and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent

living importance of the Gita."

Thomas Merton, Theologian

 

"I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's scholarly

and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-Gita. It is a most valuable work for

the scholar as well as the layman and is of great utility as a reference

book as well as a textbook. I promptly recommend this edition to my

students. It is a beautifully done book."

Dr. Samuel D. Atkins Professor of Sanskrit, Princeton University

 

"As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of Bhagavad-Gita As

It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the majestic title of His

Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The great interest that

his reading of the Bhagavad-Gita holds for us is that it offers us an

authorized interpretation according to the principles of the Caitanya

tradition."

Olivier Lacombe Professor of Sanskrit and Indology, Sorbonne University,

Paris

 

"I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes published by the

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and have found them to be of excellent quality and

of great value for use in college classes on Indian religions. This is

particularly true of the BBT edition and translation of the Bhagavad-Gita."

Dr. Frederick B. Underwood Professor of Religion, Columbia University

 

"If truth is what works, as Pierce and the pragmatists insist, there must be

a kind of truth in the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, since those who follow its

teachings display a joyous serenity usually missing in the bleak and

strident lives of contemporary people."

Dr. Elwin H. Powell Professor of Sociology State University of New York,

Buffalo

 

"There is little question that this edition is one of the best books

available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada's translation is an ideal

blend of literal accuracy and religious insight."

Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins Professor of Religion, Franklin and Marshall College

 

"The Bhagavad-Gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as yet a common

part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less because it is alien per

se than because we have lacked just the kind of close interpretative

commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta has here provided, a commentary

written from not only a scholar's but a practitioner's, a dedicated lifelong

devotee's point of view."

Denise Levertov, Poet

 

"The increasing numbers of Western readers interested in classical Vedic

thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a

new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has

increased our understanding manyfold."

Dr. Edward C Dimock, Jr. Department of South Asian Languages and

Civilization University of Chicago

 

"The scholarly world is again indebted to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-Gita has been translated many times,

Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his commentary."

Dr. J. Stillson Judah, Professor of the History of Religions and Director of

Libraries Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

 

"Srila Prabhupada's edition thus fills a sensitive gap in France, where many

hope to become familiar with traditional Indian thought, beyond the

commercial East-West hodgepodge that has arisen since the time Europeans

first penetrated India.

"Whether the reader be an adept of Indian spiritualism or not, a reading of

the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is will be extremely profitable. For many this will

be the first contact with the true India, the ancient India, the eternal

India."

Francois Chenique, Professor of Religious Sciences Institute of Political

Studies, Paris, France

 

"As a native of India now living in the West, it has given me much grief to

see so many of my fellow countrymen coming to the West in the role of gurus

and spiritual leaders. For this reason, I am very excited to see the

publication of Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada. It will help to stop the terrible cheating of false and

unauthorized 'gurus' and 'yogis' and will give an opportunity to all people

to understand the actual meaning of Oriental culture."

Dr. Kailash Vajpeye, Director of Indian Studies Center for Oriental Studies,

The University of Mexico

 

"It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained work. I

don't know whether to praise more this translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, its

daring method of explanation, or the endless fertility of its ideas. I have

never seen any other work on the Gita with such an important voice and

style. . . . It will occupy a significant place in the intellectual and

ethical life of modern man for a long time to come."

Dr. Shaligram Shukla Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University

 

"I can say that in the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is I have found explanations and

answers to questions I had always posed regarding the interpretations of

this sacred work, whose spiritual discipline I greatly admire. If the

aesceticism and ideal of the apostles which form the message of the

Bhagavad-Gita As It Is were more widespread and more respected, the world in

which we live would be transformed into a better, more fraternal place."

Dr. Paul Lesourd, Author Professeur Honoraire, Catholic University of Paris

 

"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this

universe everything else seems so superfluous."

Albert Einstein

 

"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see

not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse

to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming

sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new

meanings from it every day."

Mahatma Gandhi

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal

philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world

and its literature seem puny and trivial."

Henry David Thoreau

"The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its

devotion to God which is manifested by actions."

Dr. Albert Schweitzer

"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."

Sri Aurobindo

"The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current

in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his

Timaeus in which it states 'behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly

plant.' This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in

chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita."

Carl Jung

 

"The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human

existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of

life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the

universe."

Prime Minister Nehru

 

"The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's

wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion."

Herman Hesse

 

"I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-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."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full

understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it."

Rudolph Steiner

 

"From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita all the goals of human

existence become fulfilled. Bhagavad-Gita is the manifest quintessence of

all the teachings of the Vedic scriptures."

Adi Shankara

 

"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution

of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive

summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is

subject not only to India but to all of humanity."

Aldous Huxley

 

"The Bhagavad-Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna to reveal the science of

devotion to God which is the essence of all spiritual knowledge. The Supreme

Lord Krishna's primary purpose for descending and incarnating is relieve the

world of any demoniac and negative, undesirable influences that are opposed

to spiritual development, yet simultaneously it is His incomparable

intention to be perpetually within reach of all humanity."

Ramanuja

The Bhagavad-Gita is not seperate from the Vaishnava philosophy and the

Srimad Bhagavatam fully reveals the true import of this doctrine which is

transmigation of the soul. On perusal of the first chapter of Bhagavad-Gita

one may think that they are advised to engage in warfare. When the second

chapter has been read it can be clearly understood that knowledge and the

soul is the ultimate goal to be attained. On studying the third chapter it

is apparent that acts of righteousness are also of high priority. If we

continue and patiently take the time to complete the Bhagavad-Gita and try

to ascertain the truth of its closing chapter we can see that the ultimate

conclusion is to relinquish all the conceptualized ideas of religion which

we possess and fully surrender directly unto the Supreme Lord.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati

"The Mahabharata has all the essential ingredients necessary to evolve and

protect humanity and that within it the Bhagavad-Gita is the epitome of the

Mahabharata just as ghee is the essence of milk and pollen is the essence of

flowers."

Madhvacarya

Yoga has two different meanings - a general meaning and a technical meaning.

The general meaning is the joining together or union of any two or more

things. The technical meaning is “a state of stability and peace and the

means or practices which lead to that state." The Bhagavad Gita uses the

word with both meanings. Lord Krishna is real Yogi who can maintain a

peaceful mind in the midst of any crisis."

Mata Amritanandamayi Devi