The Bhagavad Gita (Sanskrit: भगवद् गीता - Bhagavad Gītā) is an ancient Sanskrit text comprising 700 verses of the Mahabharata (Bhishma Parva chapters 23 – 40). The verses, using the range and style of Sanskrit meter (chandas) with similes and metaphors, are very poetic; hence the title, which translates to "the Song of the Divine One", of Bhagavan in the form of Krishna. It is revered as sacred by the majority of Hindu traditions, and especially so by followers of Krishna. In general speech it is commonly referred to as The Gita. The content of the Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna taking place on the battlefield of Kurukshetra just prior to the start of a climactic war. Responding to Arjuna's confusion and moral dilemma, Krishna explains to Arjuna his duties and elaborates on number of different Yogic and Vedantic philosophies, with examples and analogies. This has led to the Gita often being described as a concise guide to Hindu philosophy. During the discourse, Krishna reveals his identity as the Supreme Being Himself (Bhagavan), blessing Arjuna with an awe-inspiring glimpse of His divine absolute form. The Bhagavad Gita is also called Gītopanishad, implying it to be an 'Upanishad'.[1] While technically it is considered a Smriti text, it has singularly achieved a status comparable to that of śruti, or revealed knowledge. - Wikipedia, 2006 Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer tearfully recalls quoting The Gita upon watching the first atomic test.

"When I read the Bhagavad Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous." ~ Albert Einstein

"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

"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 seems puny and trivial." - Henry David Thoreau

"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." - Carl Jung

"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." "The Bhagavad Gita is an empire of thought and in its philosophical teachings Krishna has all the attributes of the full-fledged monotheistic deity and at the same time the attributes of the Upanishadic absolute." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue ... perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show." - Alexander von Humboldt

"The secret of karma yoga which is to perform actions without any fruitive desires is taught by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita." - Vivekananda

"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 Sankara

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