Why to read gita ?

Why to read gita ?
An old farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad-gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad-gita just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad-gita do?”

The grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went outside to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.

The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See Grandpa, it’s useless!”
“So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.

“Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bhagavad-gita. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Lord Krishna in our lives.”

Here are Some quotes on Gita from Great People

When I read the Bhagavad-Gita, the only question left is how God created the universe. Everything else seems to be superfluous.” - Albert Einstein.

“The balance of mind which few highly-civilized individuals, such as Arjuna, the hero of Bhagavad-Gita, can maintain in action is difficult for most of us even as observers.”
T. S. Eliot. - American-English Poet.

“The deeper you dive into it, richer the meaning you get…with every age, the important words will carry new and expanding meanings. But its central teachings will not vary.”
Mahatma Gandhi.

“Let the Gita be to you a mine of diamonds as it has been to me. Let it be your constant guide and friend on life’s way. Let it light your path and dignify your labor.” 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.” - Mahatma Gandhi.

“It gives utterance to the aspirations of the pilgrims of all sects who seek to tread the inner way to the city of God.” - Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.

“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.

“In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of all ages, climes and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge”. - Thoreau. - American Thinker.

“It is already becoming clearer that a chapter which has a western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race… At this supremely dangerous moment in history the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian Way”.- Dr. Arnold Toynbee.- British Historian 1889-1975.