The Teachings of the Bhagavad Gita as a Roadmap for Mind Management and the Promotion of Values and Ethics among Secondary School Students

Abstract

Education must foster growth on all levels intellectual, emotional, ethical, and spiritual. NEP 2020's holistic vision is in line with the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, a highly regarded Indian philosophical text that promotes ethical behaviour, mindfulness, and character development. The study aimed To assess how well a mindfulness-based program inspired by the Bhagavad Gita can help secondary school pupils develop their ethical principles and mindfulness. The methodology employed was one government school in New Delhi participated in a true experimental design that included a pre-test and a post-test. 60 pupils were split into experimental and control groups at random. Themes for the 6-week structured intervention progressed from practicing basic mindfulness to applying karma and dharma. The Child Acceptance and Mindfulness Measure (Greco & Bear, 2011), the Personal Values Questionnaire (Sherry & Verma, 1998), and the Ethical Behaviour Tool (Bulach, 1999) were among the standardised instruments that were employed. ANCOVA and t-tests were used to analyse the data. The findings are the control group's mindfulness scores stayed largely unchanged, but the experimental group's increased significantly (Pre M = 27.31, Post M = 30.66, p =.001). According to ANCOVA, post-test mindfulness was significantly moderated by ethical values (p <.01). Even students with low ethical values improved (Δ = 0.81), but those with high ethical values showed the biggest gains (Δ = 5.87). The study's findings support the value of ancient spiritual writings like the Bhagavad Gita in education. Its teachings, when implemented through structured pedagogy, cultivate balanced, socially conscious people by enhancing mindfulness and ethical awareness. For the holistic development of students, these results lend credence to the inclusion of value-based spiritual education in regular curricula.