section_path: Scriptural significance
section_name: Scriptural significance
paragraph_text: Scriptural significance
  
  The Bhagavad Gita is a prominent and influential Hindu scripture. While Hinduism is known for its diversity and the synthesis derived from it, the Bhagavad Gita holds a unique pan-Hindu influence. Gerald James Larson – an Indologist and scholar of classical Hindu philosophy, states that "if there is any one text that comes near to embodying the totality of what it is to be a Hindu, it would be the Bhagavad Gita." The Bhagavad Gita is part of the Prasthanatrayi, which also includes the Upanishads and the Brahma sutras. These three form the foundational texts of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The Brahma sutras constitute the Nyāya prasthāna or the "starting point of reasoning canonical base", while the principal Upanishads constitute the Sruti prasthāna or the "starting point of heard scriptures", and the Bhagavad Gita constitutes the Smriti prasthāna or the "starting point of remembered canonical base". While Upanishads focuses more on knowledge and the identity of the self with Brahman, the Bhagavad Gita shifts the emphasis towards devotion and the worship of a personal deity, specifically Krishna. The Bhagavad Gita forms a central text in the Vaishnava tradition.
  
  The Gita is one of the key texts for Vedanta, a school of thought that provides one of the theoretical foundations for Hinduism, and one that has had an enormous influence over time, becoming the central ideology of the Hindu renaissance in the 19th century. Some Hindus give it the status of an Upanishad, and some consider it to be a "revealed text". There are alternate versions of the Bhagavad Gita (such as the one found in Kashmir), but the basic message behind these texts are not distorted.
  
  The Bhagavad Gita draws heavily from the philosophical ideas presented in the Upanishads, incorporating and expanding upon them throughout the text. For example, in the Bhagavad Gita's second chapter, Krishna explains to Arjuna about the eternal nature of the soul, a concept echoed from the Katha Upanishad. It talks about the concept of karma yoga, mentioned in the Isha Upanishad, and ideal times for departing from life, echoing teachings from the Chandogya Upanishad.