On Gita Jayanti, Hare Krishnas celebrate the birth of the sacred text Bhagavad Gita

(RNS) — When Patita Pavana Das was a sophomore at Indiana State University, he considered his life pretty typical: geoscience student by day, partaker in the school’s party culture by night. But as he learned more about the Earth’s billion-year history, Das, now 28, felt a nagging sense of dissatisfaction — a feeling that “there’s been a fundamental error” in how humans coexist with the natural world and each other.

That feeling became a “determination,” he said recently, “that I was going to seek out what would make me happy before I was pushed into a life path I didn’t feel was being defined by myself.”

“I felt that life was much more simple than it was being made out to be.”

Everything clicked when a group of saffron-robed Hare Krishnas arrived on his college campus, sharing copies of the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu Scripture that teaches the way to a soulful, enlightened life. Though not religious, Das accepted the book and soon after started on the dharmic path it described.

On Wednesday (Dec. 11), Das celebrated Gita Jayanti, the day that many Hindus believe Lord Krishna spoke the words of the Bhagavad Gita to the Indian Prince Arjuna more than 5,000 years ago. The anniversary is especially revered by the more than 9 million members of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, as the Hare Krishna organization is officially known.

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