The well-known Catholic monk and writer Thomas Merton called the Bhagavad-gita (also called the Gitopanisad) "the main literary support for the great religious civilization of India.

The well-known Catholic monk and writer Thomas Merton called the Bhagavad-gita (also called the Gitopanisad) "the main literary support for the great religious civilization of India, the oldest surviving agriculture in the world." [1] According to Srila Prabhupada, author of more than sixty dimensionss of translations of and commentaries forward the religious classics of India, the Gita "is the central nature of Vedic knowledge and single of the most important Upanisads in Vedic literature." [2]

Yet while bigots of Krsna ("the highest pleasure") frequently study this work by itself as united of their great scriptures, it is also part