Quotes

"That the spiritual man need not be a recluse, that union with the divine life may be achieved and maintained in the midst of worldly affairs, that the obstacles to that union lie not outside us but within us – such is the central lesson of the Bhagavad Gita." - Annie Besant

"The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries and systematic spiritual statements of the perennial philosophy ever to have been done." - Aldous Huxley

"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 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 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

"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. 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 not only for the Hindus but for all mankind." - M. M. Malaviya

"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.." - 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

"A performance of great originality, of a sublimity of conception, reasoning and diction almost unequalled, and single exception among all the known religions of mankind." - Warren Hastings

"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 marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life’s wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion." - Herman Hesse

"The Bhagavad-Gita calls on humanity to dedicate body, mind and soul to pure duty and not to become mental voluptuaries at the mercy of random desires and undisciplined impulses." - Mahatma Gandhi

"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