The Bhagavad Gita

The Mahabharata war is about to begin. Arjuna, the greatest archer of the Pandavas, asks his charioteer Krishna to drive between the two armies. There he sees grandfather Bhishma, his teacher Drona, cousins and friends, all ready to fight. His bow slips from his hands and he refuses to fight. The Gita is Krishna's answer.

The whole conversation is reported to the blind king Dhritarashtra by his minister Sanjaya, who has been granted divine sight by Vyasa to see the battle from afar. That is why the Gita begins with Dhritarashtra's question, 'dharmakshetre kurukshetre', 'on the field of dharma, the field of Kuru'. Each chapter ends with a colophon naming it a yoga, and the text calls itself an Upanishad, a brahmavidya (knowledge of Brahman) and a yogashastra (scripture of yoga).

The Gita has 700 verses in 18 chapters, mostly in the anushtubh metre, with some longer trishtubh verses, especially in chapter 11. Inside the Mahabharata it falls in the Bhishma Parva; depending on the edition, it is numbered as chapters 25–42 (the common vulgate) or 23–40 (the Critical Edition). One chapter of the Mahabharata (6.43 in some versions) speaks of 745 verses, but 700 is the accepted standard. Traditional teachers often divide the 18 chapters into three groups of six, emphasising action, devotion and knowledge in turn, though every school reads this division in its own way.

Chapter names below follow the colophons used in common editions; verse counts follow the standard 700-verse text.

Tradition holds that the Gita is the very word of Bhagavan Shri Krishna, spoken to Arjuna before the war at Kurukshetra, and recorded by Veda Vyasa as part of the Mahabharata. Because it comes from God himself and condenses the Upanishads, the classical saying compares the Upanishads to cows, Krishna to the milker, Arjuna to the calf and the Gita to the nectar-like milk.

Scholars see the Gita as a carefully composed work that brings together Vedic ritual, Upanishadic philosophy, Sankhya, yoga and bhakti. They usually date it to around the 2nd or 1st century BCE, though some place it as early as the 5th–4th centuries BCE and others in the 1st century CE. Some argue that it was part of the Mahabharata from the start; others see it as a later insertion into the epic. Its earliest surviving commentary is by Adi Shankaracharya (around the 8th century CE).

The eternal Self. The Atman is never born and never dies; only bodies change, like clothes. So Arjuna should not grieve.

Karma yoga. Everyone must act. The secret is to do one's duty (svadharma) well, offering the results to God, without being driven by the craving for fruits. Such action purifies rather than binds.

Jnana and dhyana. The steady-minded sage (sthitaprajna) sees the same Self in all beings. Chapter 6 teaches meditation: a quiet seat, a steady posture, a mind gently brought back again and again.

Bhakti. Krishna reveals himself as the source of all, shows Arjuna his cosmic form, and promises that a loving devotee is never lost. The final call is surrender: 'take refuge in me alone'.

The great acharyas read the Gita differently: Shankaracharya stresses knowledge and the identity of the Self with Brahman; Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya stress devotion to a personal God; in modern times Lokmanya Tilak (Gita Rahasya) and Mahatma Gandhi, who called it his 'spiritual dictionary', stressed selfless action.

The Sanskrit below follows the text given on Sanskrit Wikisource.

Many families read a chapter, or at least one verse, every day. Gita Jayanti, celebrated on Margashirsha Shukla Ekadashi (Mokshada Ekadashi), marks the day the Gita was spoken; at Kurukshetra it is now marked with a large public festival. The fifteenth chapter is commonly recited before meals in many households and ashrams, and the Gita is often read beside a person in their last days and during the period of mourning.

Complete recitations (parayana) of all 700 verses are held in temples and homes, and many children learn to chant whole chapters. The Gita is also among the most translated books from Sanskrit: Charles Wilkins published the first English translation in 1785.

Gita Press, Gorakhpur publishes inexpensive editions with Sanskrit text and Hindi meaning, from the pocket 'Shrimad Bhagavad Gita' to the detailed 'Gita Tattva Vivechani' by Jayadayal Goyandka. Swami Ramsukhdas's 'Sadhak Sanjivani' (also Gita Press) is a much-loved Hindi commentary. In English, Swami Chinmayananda's commentary, Eknath Easwaran's readable translation, and the scholarly translations of Winthrop Sargeant (word by word) and Barbara Stoler Miller are widely used. For the classical commentaries, Swami Gambhirananda's translation of Shankara's bhashya (Advaita Ashrama) is standard. The Sanskrit text with several commentaries is on Sanskrit Wikisource.

For a first reading, start with chapter 2 (the core teaching), then chapters 3, 12 and 18. Read slowly; many find that one verse a day, with a short reflection, works better than finishing the book quickly.