Bhagavad Gītā

श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता

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The Gītā is 700 verses of the Bhīṣma Parva of the Mahābhārata — a conversation between Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa in the moments before a war, while both armies wait. It is technically smṛti, and yet it stands with the Upaniṣads and the Brahma Sūtra as one of the three foundations of Vedānta, because every Vedānta teacher had to comment on it.

Why the setting is a battlefield

Because a battlefield is where duty is unavoidable and unpleasant at once. Arjuna's argument for withdrawal is intelligent, compassionate and wrong — wrong because it is paradharma dressed as virtue. The entire teaching is Kṛṣṇa's demonstration that renunciation of action is not available to an embodied being, and that what must be renounced is not the action but the attachment to its fruit.

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥

karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo'stv akarmaṇi

Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits. Let not the fruit of action be your motive; nor let your attachment be to inaction.

— Bhagavad Gītā 2.47

The eighteen chapters

Ch.	Name	Subject
1	Arjuna Viṣāda Yoga	The despondency: Arjuna sees his own people and puts down his bow
2	Sāṅkhya Yoga	The whole teaching in summary: the imperishable Self, and the sthitaprajña
3	Karma Yoga	Action cannot be avoided; the wheel of yajña; svadharma over paradharma
4	Jñāna Karma Sannyāsa Yoga	Divine descent; the fourfold order by guṇa and karma; knowledge as fire
5	Karma Sannyāsa Yoga	Renunciation and action lead to the same place; the one who acts without acting
6	Dhyāna Yoga	The practice of meditation; the seat, the posture, the wandering mind
7	Jñāna Vijñāna Yoga	The two natures — lower and higher; the four kinds who turn to God
8	Akṣara Brahma Yoga	The imperishable; the moment of death; the two paths after it
9	Rāja Vidyā Rāja Guhya Yoga	The sovereign knowledge; a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water — offered with devotion
10	Vibhūti Yoga	The divine manifestations: 'among mountains I am Meru; among Vedas, Sāma'
11	Viśvarūpa Darśana Yoga	The universal form; the vision Arjuna asks for and cannot bear
12	Bhakti Yoga	The path of devotion; the qualities of the devotee dear to God
13	Kṣetra Kṣetrajña Vibhāga Yoga	The field and the knower of the field
14	Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yoga	The three guṇas — sattva, rajas, tamas — and how to pass beyond them
15	Puruṣottama Yoga	The aśvattha tree with roots above; the supreme Person
16	Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāga Yoga	The divine and the demonic dispositions
17	Śraddhā Traya Vibhāga Yoga	The three kinds of faith, food, sacrifice, austerity and giving
18	Mokṣa Sannyāsa Yoga	The summation: the fourfold order by nature, svadharma, and the final instruction

The three ways, and why they are one

Karma yoga is action offered without claim on its fruit. Jñāna yoga is discrimination between the Self and what is not the Self. Bhakti yoga is the offering of oneself to the Divine. The Gītā does not rank them as separate religions; it treats them as three temperaments approaching one thing, and it insists that whichever is taken up, it must be taken up as one's own — because a path adopted out of admiration for someone else is paradharma again.

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज। अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः॥

sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvā sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

Abandoning all dharmas, come to Me alone for refuge. I shall free you from all sins; do not grieve.

— Bhagavad Gītā 18.66 — the carama śloka

Bhagavad Gītā

Why the setting is a battlefield

The eighteen chapters

The three ways, and why they are one

The sources of knowledge in Sanātana Dharma

Śruti — that which was heard

Smṛti — that which was remembered

Nigama and Āgama — the two revealed streams

The four Vedas

Ṛgveda