BHU Opens Sunday Gita Discourse Series for New Academic Session

VARANASI: Banaras Hindu University’s Sunday Gita discourse series opened for the 2026–27 academic session at Malaviya Bhavan on September 13. The Gita Committee has scheduled the weekly programme for Sundays from 10 am to 11.30 am through the session.

The opening brought together teachers, employees, research scholars and students. Veda Department students began with an invocation, followed by the university song and bhajans presented by students from the Faculty of Performing Arts.

Registrar Rajan Srivastav chaired the programme. He called for greater student engagement with Indian knowledge traditions and suggested including Gita-related activities in induction programmes for new entrants. The remarks were a proposal made during the gathering, not an announcement of a compulsory course or attendance rule.

Prof. Hriday Ranjan Sharma connected the Sunday tradition with university founder Madan Mohan Malaviya’s understanding of education. He described that approach as extending beyond intellectual training to include ethical and spiritual development.

Study, reflection and conduct

Chief guest Sadguru Madhav Priyadas, associated with the Swaminarayan Gurukul in Ahmedabad, emphasised reading the Gita, reflecting on its ideas and considering how they relate to conduct. His address centred on humility and self-restraint rather than treating familiarity with a text as an end in itself.

He also discussed the difficulty of explaining a large philosophical subject in a short address. These were views expressed as part of a religious and educational discourse, not the findings of a scientific study.

Malaviya Bhavan honorary director Prof. Patanjali Mishra spoke about the relevance he saw in the text’s ideas amid contemporary pressures. Gita Committee secretary Prof. Upendra Kumar Tripathi highlighted duty, self-control and ethical behaviour in his account of the tradition.

Tripathi also recalled Malaviya’s appeal to the university community to contribute an hour and a half each Sunday to the programme. The recollection placed the new session within a continuing campus practice rather than presenting Sunday’s gathering as the creation of an entirely new institution.

A weekly place in the campus calendar

The practical detail for interested members of the university community is the Sunday morning slot at Malaviya Bhavan. The announced duration is 90 minutes. The opening account did not publish a complete list of future speakers or weekly subjects.

Prof. Sharadindu Kumar Tripathi, coordinator of the Bharat Adhyayan Kendra, conducted the proceedings. Gita Committee joint secretary Prof. Suman Jain delivered the vote of thanks.

The session opening establishes the programme’s return for the academic year. Any subsequent decision about induction activities, additional sessions or changes in access would need a separate university announcement. For now, the confirmed arrangement is the recurring Sunday discourse, with the opening speakers placing reflection and conduct at the centre of their addresses.