Sri Lanka hosts largest-ever International Gita Mahotsav

Cultural event at the Mahotsav
Sri Lanka concluded the fifth edition of the International Gita Mahotsav on March 4, 2024, marking the largest iteration of the event ever held outside of India.   
The four-day celebration, held in Colombo, aimed to promote the message of peace, fraternity, and harmony enshrined within the Bhagavad Gita.   
This collaborative effort involved the Kurukshetra Development Board of Haryana (India), Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, and the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre in Colombo.   
 Additionally, roughly 30 religious and social organizations from Sri Lanka participated in the event.   

A highlight of the festival was the “Sadhbhavna Yatra” procession, which took place on March 3rd. Nearly a thousand artists showcased Sri Lankan performing arts alongside floats representing organizations like ISKCON, the Ramakrishna Mission, and the Mayurapathy Sribhadrakali Temple.   
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, along with several ministers and representatives from India, participated in witnessing the procession.   
The event also featured an International Discourse on the Gita, along with various seminars led by experts.   
 The theme for these discussions centred on the timeless and universal message of peace and harmony conveyed within the Bhagavad Gita. This edition of the International Gita Mahotsav surpassed previous iterations held in Australia (2023), Canada (2022), the United Kingdom (2019), and Mauritius (2019) in terms of scale.   
 Within India, the Kurukshetra Development Board has been organizing the Gita Mahotsav annually since 1989 in Kurukshetra, the land where the Bhagavad Gita is believed to have been revealed by Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the epic Mahabharata.