The Gita: A Universally Acclaimed Book of Religion

On 30th August 2007 the Allahabad High Court declared that the ‘Srimad Bhagvadgita’ is the essence of all religions and it has played a great inspiring role in the freedom struggle as well. Therefore, such a scripture does deserve to be accorded the exalted status of the ‘National Religious Scripture’.

In support of its decision High Court cited the articles 51-A(B) and (F) of the National Constitution that provide for a National Flag, a National Anthem, a National Bird and a National Flower. The court observed that it is the duty of each and every citizen to follow the ideals laid down in the ‘Srimad Bhagvadgita’ and protect our cultural heritage. This is not the scripture of some particular community, but instead a guiding force to all the communities and indeed the ‘Scripture of India’.

This perhaps is the first sign of this Supreme Spiritual Scripture of the Indian Culture, which has already earned the acclaim all over the world as the greatest scripture of humanity, winning political recognition in India.

Shri S.N. Shrivastava, the Honorable Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court who spelled out the above decision of the court, deserves to be thanked for this. When we don’t hesitate to make India avail herself of the benefits of the best scientific discoveries and state of the art technologies approved respectively by the eminent scientists and technical experts of the world, why do we hesitate to adorn India with the Gita, the Supreme Scripture, that has the distinction of having been acclaimed by the great philosophers and scholars of the world?

Those who have raised objections against the above counsel of the High Court have only proved their ignorance regarding the universal glory of Sanatana Dharma and the Gita, thereby laying bare their utter narrow-mindedness and cheap intellect.

Swami Vijnananandaji has said, “The religion called Hindu Dharma is in fact the Sanatana Dharma, because it is the universal religion which includes all other religious in itself.”

Shri Lakshmi Vilas Birla has said, “Unlike Islam and Christanity, the Hindu Dharma is not merely a religion. It is the Sanatana Dharma or the religion of humanity, that is it is eternal, a religion which will live forever. It is all-inclusive. In fact it is a philosophy of life.”

Politicians have deprived society of the supreme benefits of Sanatana Dharma by confining even this great religion to sectarian limits. The scholars who have studied the religions of the whole world have liberally praised the Sanatana Dharma and its scriptures. Romain Rolland, the French scholar, had said, “I have studied all the religions of Europe and Asia, but I found Hinduism to be the greatest of them all. I firmly believe that one day the whole world will have to bow its head to Hinduism.”

To look upon such Sanatana Dharma as a mere sect is but a big error. When the people of various religions all over the world can avail themselves of the benefits of yogic science of Sanatana Dharma, when people of all religions in the world can avail themselves of the benefits of Vedic mathematics based on the Vedas, and can enjoy good health by availing themselves of the benefits of the mantra ‘Om’, when the western management institutions and the western psychologists can avail themselves of the benefits of this great scripture, the Srimad Bhagvadgita, why can’t the people of all religious in India avail themselves of the benefits of this divine scripture?

This fact has been expressed by Mahatma Gandhi in clear terms: “I wish that the Gita should be taught not only in the national schools but also in every educational institution. It should be a matter of great shame for a Hindu boy or girl to be ignorant of the Gita. It indeed is a fact that the Gita is a book of universal religion.”

Zoroastrian scholars too have acknowledged the Gita as a book of universal religion:

“When a world religion will be about to be established for the whole of mankind, the Gita will be our sole refuge, for it can be said without hesitation that none of the religious scriptures of any other religion contains so beautiful a subsumption of the basic and vital elements of world as is present in the Gita.”
-Prof. Pheroze Cawasji Dawar

Wise Muslim scholars too have acknowledged the Gita as a useful scripture for the whole of mankind:

“The precepts of Lord Sri Krishna, the teacher of the Gita, are meant not just for the Aryan race but for all living being of the world.”
-Dr. Muhammad Hafiz Sayed
The glory of the Srimad Bhagvadgita had been sung by scholars all over the world. In the west-Carlyle, Walt Whitman, Thoreau and Emerson – were the first to respond to the spiritual beauty and philosophic depth of the Gita.

Burnouf, the French translator of the Gita, wrote, “No greater book had ever come from the hands of man.”

In his preface to the English edition of the Gita, by Sir Charles Wilkins, Warren Hastings, the first British Governor General of India, declared towards the end of the eighteenth century.

“The writers of the Indian philosophies will survive, when the British dominion in India shall long have ceased to exist, and when the sources which it yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrances.”

Since then many western thinkers and poets have sung paeans to the glory of the Gita:

“How much more admirable is the Bhagvad Gita than all the ruins of the east (while talking about the pyramids of Egypt)….. 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…”
-Henry David Thoreau

“The Gita is the divine song of the Supreme Lord of all gods. Irrespective of whatever religion one believes in, he is sure to gain a deep divine institution from this scripture.”
-George Sydney Arandel
“The Gita is the religious scripture of not only the Hindus but of the people of all religious in the world. Irrespective of whatever religion or religious preceptor one believes in, he should go through this immortal scripture carefully and with an unbiased attitude. It won’t be an exaggeration to call the Gita a reservoir of divine knowledge.”
-Shri Kaikhushru J. Dastoor

“Sri Krishna, the Universal Guru, has endowed the world with a unique gift in the form of the ‘Bhagvadgita’. The eternal ideals of –Knowledge, Devotion and Karma –these always go in tandem with one another. Each of them is essential for the other two.”
- The Christian Evangelist ReverendArthur

Thus, it is a matter of great fortune for India to be privileged to have as her guiding Dharma Shastra –the Gita, which has been declared as the Supreme Scripture by the scholars and philosophers of the whole world; and the benefits of which have been and are still being availed of by the people of all religions. While this won’t add anything to the glory of the Gita, it will rather prove the prudence of Indian politicians in the eyes of the scholars of the world. This will bring about the good of not just India but of the entire world. All lovers of Sanatana Dharma should make in a point to congratulate Shri S.N. Shrivastavaji through letters, etc.