"The argument that whereas the Hindus accepted the Bhagavad-Gita as their supreme scripture and unquestioned guide, they failed to act upto the ideals preached by Sri Krishna does not hold water. When members of a society apotheosize a person they have the ambition to emulate him and to fashion their lives in accordance with the principles taught by him. They cease to do so only when the hero loses charm and fails to captivate. If there is agreement on the statement that the Bhagavad-Gita has been the most popular scripture of the Hindus for the past fifteen centuries, it is absurd to hold that the sufierings of the community have been caused not by the doctrines venerated by them but because they acted in defiance of those doctrines." – Prem Nath Bazaz, _The Role of the Bhagavad-Gita in Indian History_ (1975)