Renowned Bhagavad Gita singer, prophet, propagandist, and founder of the ‘Bhagavadgita Foundation’. Dr. LV Gangadhara Sastry, has been conferred with India’s prestigious ‘Kendra Sangeet Natak Academy’ award for the year 2023 in other major traditional music categories.
Along with the classical Carnatic music, he studied 108 of the 700 shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita, the spiritual essence of India, composed and sung by Ghantasala in his honour; the remaining 594 shlokas were sung in his own music, accompanied by Telugu interpretation, and recorded with the highest technical values, and he created the ‘Bharita Sampurna Bhagavad Gita’ which was released by Viswesha Tirtha Swamy and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. For his selfless efforts, he was given the award for dedicating his life to the Gita Pracharan.
In the past, Sri Gangadhara Sastry was honoured with the ‘Kalaratna’ award by the Andhra Pradesh government and the ‘Honorary Doctorate’ by ‘Maharshi Panini University’ in Madhya Pradesh for doing this great work. In the context of the announcement of the award, the awardee expressed his special thanks to the Union Minister for Culture and Tourism, Mr. G. Kishan Reddy, who has recognised his dedication to ‘Gita’ for the past 16 years, as well as to Sangeet Natak Academy’s Chairman, Dr. Sandhya Purecha, Jury Members, and Telangana State cultural officials, among others.
He dedicated this award to his parents, who taught him singing, ‘Gita Gana Margadarshi’ Ghantasala, Gita Sadguru, and to the teachers who taught him classical music. He said that ‘Bhagavad Gita’ means the way of thinking of India; it is a transcendental, universally accepted, practical, and excellent teaching of duty that can be read, understood, and practiced by everyone to form a selfless, best society; hence, he dedicated his life to the propagation of Gita through his ‘Bhagavad Gita Foundation’, Gangadhara Saatry said.
He requested the Government of India and the state governments to declare the Bhagavad Gita as the national scripture in order to respect the wealth of knowledge of this country, and by including the Gita as a curriculum and teaching it to children from childhood, human values can be developed. He said that he has already expressed his gratitude to the central government for protecting the self-respect of Indians by building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, changing the name of our country to Bharat in the text books, and preserving its history.