Sacred Knowledge as
a Charitable Service

Gita Press was founded on a radical premise: that sacred texts should be available to every person in India regardless of economic circumstances, and that the price of a book should never prevent a sincere seeker from accessing spiritual wisdom.

The first Gita was printed in Kolkata. But the quality and accuracy could not be maintained in a commercial press. Sethji resolved to set up his own press. A small house in Gorakhpur's Hindi Bazar, rented for Rs 10 per month, was the beginning. The first hand-press was purchased on 24 September 1923 for Rs 600.

From that single machine, Gita Press has grown, through God's grace and the dedication of countless individuals, into the institution that by December 2025 had published over 101 crore (1.01 billion) books. All at or below cost. All without a single rupee of solicited donation or a single line of advertising.

The books cover the full range of India's spiritual literature: the Bhagavad Gita, Ramcharitmanas, Bhagavatam, major Puranas, Upanishads, devotional poetry, children's spiritual education, books specifically for women, biographies of saints, and the Kalyan monthly magazine. They are available in 14 Indian languages and English.