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Mahatma Gandhi on Mahabharata
The following is taken from
Gitarthasara of Abhinavagupta
Translated with an Introduction by Arvind Sharma
Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1983.
.. it is important to realize that one of the reasons why Mahatma Gandhi thought that the message of the Gita was non-violence, was because, according to him that was the message of Mahabharata itself, of which, as he said, "the Gita is a minute part". Thus he wrote while remarking on the message of Gita:
The author of the Mahabharata has not established the necessity of physical warfare; on the contrary he has proved its futility. He has made the victors shed tears of sorrow and repentance and has left them nothing but a legacy of miseries.
(page 49).