Bhagavad Gita

Tradition:

Hindu (Vaishnava)

Form:

scripture

Approx. date:

c. 200 BCE

Written down in:

Greco-Latin epoch

Sanskrit philosophical poem of 700 verses set in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, framed as Krishna's teaching to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Annie Besant's 1907 translation.

• 1Discourse 1: The Despondency of Arjuna — Viṣāda-yoga — Arjuna's despondency on the field

  Arjuna on the chariot between the two armies of his kinsmen. The despondency that becomes the occasion of the entire teaching: 'My limbs fail and my mouth is parched, my body quivers and my hair stands on end. The Gāṇḍīva bow slips from my hand.' The setting that frames everything to follow.

  1,058 words
• 2Discourse 2: The Yoga of Knowledge (Sankhya Yoga) — Sāṅkhya-yoga — the immortal Self; act without attachment

  Kṛṣṇa's foundational answer. The doctrine of the immortal Self (ātman) that cannot be slain — 'weapons cleave it not, fire burns it not.' The first teaching of niṣkāma-karma — action performed without attachment to fruit. The famous sthitaprajña passage on the steady-minded sage.

  1,880 words
• 3Discourse 3: The Yoga of Action (Karma Yoga) — Karma-yoga — yajña as the principle of action

  On the necessity of action: 'no one can remain even for a moment without performing some action.' Action as yajña (sacrifice) — the unfractured wheel of cosmic reciprocity. The duty of leading by example; the guṇas as the proximate cause of action.

  1,167 words
• 4Discourse 4: The Yoga of Wisdom — Jñāna-yoga — the lineage of teaching; Kṛṣṇa's incarnations

  The transmission of the teaching: Kṛṣṇa first taught it to Vivasvant, who taught it to Manu, who taught it to Ikṣvāku. 'Whenever there is decay of righteousness, then I manifest myself' — the great avatāra-verse. Action burnt in the fire of knowledge; the many forms of sacrifice.

  1,153 words
• 5Discourse 5: The Yoga of the Renunciation of Action — Sannyāsa-yoga — renunciation and action are one

  The synthesis of karma-yoga and sannyāsa (renunciation): they are not two but one. The yogi acts without attachment as effectively as the renouncer abstains; both reach the same goal. The sage who sees the same in the cow, the brahmin, the outcaste, the dog.

  780 words
• 6Discourse 6: The Yoga of Meditation — Dhyāna-yoga — the practice of meditation

  The classic technique-chapter. The selection of a seat, the upright posture, the inward gaze, the steadied mind. 'The mind is restless, O Kṛṣṇa; it is impetuous, strong, obstinate; I think it as hard to control as the wind.' Kṛṣṇa's answer: 'It is doubtless restless, but by practice and dispassion it can be held.'

  1,324 words
• 7Discourse 7: The Yoga of Wisdom and Discrimination — Jñāna-vijñāna-yoga — Kṛṣṇa's higher and lower natures

  Kṛṣṇa as the highest object of knowledge — and the great distinction between his aparā prakṛti (the eightfold lower nature: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, ego) and his parā prakṛti (the higher nature, the jīvabhūta). 'There is nothing higher than I; on me all is strung like jewels on a string.'

  784 words
• 8Discourse 8: The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman — Akṣara-brahma-yoga — the moment of death; the two paths

  On the akṣara (imperishable) Brahman and on the practice that brings the soul to it at death. The two cosmic paths — the bright-half path (devayāna) of fire and day and the northward sun, the dark-half path (pitṛyāna) of smoke and night and the southward moon. The day and night of Brahmā.

  797 words
• 9Discourse 9: The Yoga of the Royal Science and the Royal Secret — Rāja-vidyā / Rāja-guhya — sovereign science and sovereign secret

  The supreme teaching, royal in its sovereignty and royal in its secrecy. 'I am the same to all beings; none is hateful to me, nor dear; but those who worship me with devotion — they are in me, and I in them.' The merciful inclusivity: even the lowest-born, even women, even the wicked who turn — all reach the highest goal.

  884 words
• 10Discourse 10: The Yoga of the Divine Manifestations — Vibhūti-yoga — the divine glories enumerated

  Kṛṣṇa enumerates his vibhūtis — his divine glories — answering Arjuna's request to be told 'by what aspects, O Yogin, must I think of you.' Among the Adityas Viṣṇu, among lights the radiant sun, among Maruts Marīci, among mountains Meru, among horses Uccaiḥśravas, among rivers Gaṅgā, among letters A, among meters Gāyatrī…

  1,044 words
• 11Discourse 11: The Yoga of the Vision of the Universal Form — Viśva-rūpa-darśana — the cosmic vision

  The climax of the Gītā. Kṛṣṇa grants Arjuna the divine eye and reveals his cosmic form — many-armed, many-faced, mouths blazing like the fire at the end of an age, devouring the warriors of both armies. 'I am Time grown mighty, here come to destroy the worlds.' Arjuna's terror; Kṛṣṇa returns to his ordinary human form to comfort him.

  1,560 words
• 12Discourse 12: The Yoga of Devotion (Bhakti Yoga) — Bhakti-yoga — the path of devotion

  After the overwhelming vision, the gentlest chapter. The path of devotion (bhakti) commended above the path of the unmanifest, which is harder for embodied beings. The qualities of the true bhakta: one who hates none and is friendly to all, free from selfishness, equal-minded in pleasure and pain, content, restrained, devoted with mind and reason given to me.

  507 words
• 13Discourse 13: The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field — Kṣetra-kṣetrajña-yoga — the field and the knower

  The metaphysical centerpiece. The body as the kṣetra (field); the soul as the kṣetrajña (knower of the field). The twenty-four tattvas of Sāṅkhya enumerated; the marks of true knowledge (humility, sincerity, non-injury, patience, uprightness, service of the teacher); the relation of puruṣa and prakṛti.

  877 words
• 14Discourse 14: The Yoga of the Separation from the Three Qualities (Gunas) — Guṇa-traya-vibhāga-yoga — the three guṇas

  The three guṇas of prakṛti — sattva (luminosity), rajas (activity), tamas (inertia) — and how they bind even the deathless soul to the body. The marks of one who has transcended the three guṇas: equal to friend and foe, neither rejoicing nor hating, witness of the play of the qualities without identification.

  716 words
• 15Discourse 15: The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit — Puruṣottama-yoga — the upside-down aśvattha tree

  The famous opening image of the aśvattha-tree of cosmic existence — with its roots above and branches below, leaves the Vedic hymns. The chapter culminates in the doctrine of puruṣottama, the Supreme Person who transcends both the kṣara (perishable) and the akṣara (imperishable) — Kṛṣṇa's most explicit theistic self-revelation.

  579 words
• 16Discourse 16: The Yoga of Discrimination Between the Divine and the Demoniacal — Daivāsura-sampad-vibhāga-yoga — divine and demoniacal natures

  The contrast of daivī sampad (divine endowment — fearlessness, purity of heart, charity, self-restraint) with āsurī sampad (demoniacal endowment — ostentation, pride, anger, harshness, ignorance). The classic Indian moral psychology in twenty-four verses. The three gates of hell: lust, anger, greed.

  622 words
• 17Discourse 17: The Yoga of the Threefold Faith — Śraddhā-traya-vibhāga-yoga — the threefold faith

  Faith as itself threefold according to the dominant guṇa — sāttvika, rājasika, tāmasika — and how each śraddhā expresses itself in food, sacrifice, austerity, and gift. The famous closing: 'oṃ tat sat' as the threefold designation of Brahman — oṃ at the opening, tat at the offering, sat at the consummation.

  734 words
• 18Discourse 18: The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation — Mokṣa-sannyāsa-yoga — liberation by renunciation

  The closing teaching. The distinction of tyāga (relinquishment of the fruit) from sannyāsa (renunciation of action itself); the guṇa-classification of all human types — knowledge, action, actor, intellect, firmness, happiness — each in three forms; the great closing exhortation: 'Abandoning all duties, take refuge in me alone; I shall liberate you from all sins; do not grieve.'

  2,035 words

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