Brief Introduction of Gita Press, Gorakhpur

Gita Press was established in pre‑independence India in Vikram Samvat 1980 (1923 CE). At that time, if we look at the social conditions, we find that for centuries the country had been under the rule of Mughal invaders and non‑Hindu rulers, whose sole aim was to destroy our culture and civilization, demolish our places of worship, break the idols of our deities, label our modes of worship as hypocrisy, insult our religious teachers, and burn our sacred scriptures.

A grave crisis was looming over Sanatana Dharma. Out of fear, Hindus hesitated to protest. Our scriptures had almost disappeared from public life, and even authentic images of our deities for worship were hardly available. In such circumstances there was a pressing need to propagate Sanatana Dharma. A notion had been created in people’s minds that anyone who reads the Gita becomes a renunciant, or that the Gita is meant only for ascetics. To dispel this misconception and to promote the Gita and other spiritual scriptures, Gita Press was founded.

At that time most commentaries on the Gita by traditional teachers were available only in Sanskrit, beyond the understanding of the ordinary educated reader. People wished to know the meaning of each word, with segmentation and grammatical connection, but there was no good commentary in Hindi. To fulfil this need, the revered founder of Gita Press, the late Brahmleen Shri Jayadayal Goyandka, prepared a universally useful Hindi commentary on the Gita,.

The main objective of Gita Press is to publish spiritual, moral, and character‑building books and magazines for the service of humanity, in order to promote love of God, truth, righteous conduct, and noble values. Its chief work is to spread elevating literature at the lowest possible prices. The prices of the books are generally kept below cost, yet the institution does not accept any kind of financial assistance or donations from anyone.

A powerful thought in the mind of the revered Shri Jayadayal Goyandka was how people could attain peace and happiness, and ultimately God‑realization, while remaining in the householder’s life. His constant concern was how human beings could cross this ocean of worldly existence. Many seekers believed that to realize God one must go into seclusion, to holy places or forests, and perform severe austerities there; and various misconceptions were prevalent that women, Shudras, Vaishyas, and householders could not attain spiritual welfare.

Main Work – Publication of Sacred Literature

Along with the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Gita Press publishes the Ramayana, Puranas, Upanishads, lives of saints, daily recitation books, guides for spiritual practice and devotion, children’s textbooks, books for women and for general use, picture‑story books, and more. The discourses of Shri Jayadayal Goyandka (“Sethji”), Shri Hanuman Prasad Poddar (“Bhaiji”), and Swami Ramsukhdasji have also been published in book form. By the grace of the Lord, the number of publications is increasing day by day.

For the convenience and demand of non‑Hindi speakers, books are being published not only in Hindi and Sanskrit but also in English, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Assamese, Malayalam, Punjabi, Nepali, Urdu, and other languages. At present, Gita Press has more than about 1,800 different publications and has published over 1 billion books.