BhagavadgĪtĀ
BHAGAVADGĪTĀ. The Bhagavadgītā is perhaps the most widely read and beloved scripture in all Indian religious literature. Its power to counsel and inspire its readers has remained undiminished in the almost two thousand years since its composition.
The Bhagavadgītā (Song of the Blessed Lord) is sacred literature, holy scripture—it is a text that has abundant power in its persistence and its presence. The pious Hindu, even if his piety is mild, will inevitably have access to the book or will be able to recite, or at least paraphrase, a few lines from it. The devout turn to it daily; they read it ritually, devotionally, with a sense of awe. The text is intoned during the initiation ceremony wherein one becomes a saṃnyāsin (renunciant); teachers and holy men expound upon it; professors translate it and write about it; the more humble listen to the words that, though heard countless times before, remain vibrant. The text is read by all Hindus, esteemed by Śaivas as well as by Vaiṣṇavas, venerated by the lower caste as well as by the high, savored by villagers as well as by the more urbane. Many times each day in India the consoling words of the Gītā are read or whispered into the ear of someone who, with eyes looking to the south in fear or hope or both, awaits death: "And whoever remembers Me alone when leaving the body at the time of death attains to My status of being" (8.5).
