2.1.4 Bhagavad Gita: chapters and teachings

Explained

Why the Gita is spoken. Arjuna asks Krishna to place the chariot between the two armies. He sees teachers, grandfathers and cousins in the enemy ranks. He fears that the ruin of families (kulakshaya) will destroy dharma, puts down Gandiva and refuses to fight (Ch. 1). Unsure of his duty, he says "I am your disciple; teach me" (2.7). Krishna answers him over the next 17 chapters. At the end Arjuna says nashto mohah smritir labdha: his delusion is gone and his memory regained, and he will act as told (18.73).

The three gunas (Ch. 14). All of nature (prakriti) is made of three qualities.

A person who goes beyond all three is gunatita: the same in praise and blame, honour and insult, friend and foe. Chapters 17 and 18 classify faith, food, sacrifice, austerity, charity, knowledge, action, doer, intellect, firmness and happiness by the three gunas.

Three (four) paths.

• Karma yoga (Ch. 2, 3, 5): do your duty, give up attachment to the result, offer action to God. Inaction is not freedom; even the body cannot be kept alive without action.
• Jnana yoga (Ch. 4, 13): know the self as distinct from the body and the field of nature. Knowledge is the greatest purifier.
• Dhyana yoga (Ch. 6): meditation with a steady seat, controlled mind and moderate food and sleep.
• Bhakti yoga (Ch. 7–12): loving, single-minded devotion. Krishna promises to carry what his devotees lack and to keep what they have (9.22).

A common way to read the Gita: Chapters 1–6 stress karma, 7–12 bhakti, 13–18 jnana. The three paths are not rivals; each school puts a different one first (see Deeper).

Sthitaprajna (2.54–72). Arjuna asks how a person of steady wisdom speaks, sits and walks. Krishna's answer: he gives up all desires of the mind, is content in the self, is unshaken by sorrow and pleasure, and draws in his senses as a tortoise draws in its limbs. The chain of ruin (2.62–63): brooding on objects → attachment → desire → anger → delusion → loss of memory → loss of reason → ruin.

Key ideas by verse.

• 2.13: as the body passes through childhood, youth and old age, so the soul passes into another body.
• 2.20, 2.22, 2.23: the Atma is never born and never dies; it changes bodies as a person changes worn-out clothes; weapons do not cut it, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, wind does not dry it.
• 2.48, 2.50: samatvam yoga uchyate (evenness of mind is yoga); yogah karmasu kaushalam (yoga is skill in action).
• 3.20: act for lokasangraha (the welfare and holding together of the world), as Janaka did.
• 3.35 (and 18.47): one's own dharma (svadharma), even done imperfectly, is better than another's dharma done well. For Arjuna, a Kshatriya, svadharma is to fight a righteous war.
• 4.34: learn from a teacher by humility, questions and service.
• 5.10: one who acts without attachment is untouched by sin, like a lotus leaf by water.
• 4.13: the four varnas were made by Krishna according to guna and karma.
• 6.5–6: lift yourself by yourself; the controlled mind is one's friend, the uncontrolled mind one's own enemy.
• 6.16–17: yoga is not for one who eats or sleeps too much or too little: moderate food and sleep.
• 6.19: the steady mind of a yogi is like a lamp in a windless place.
• 6.34–35: Arjuna says the mind is as hard to hold as the wind; Krishna: it is held by practice (abhyasa) and detachment (vairagya).
• 6.40: one who falls away from yoga midway is never lost; no good effort is wasted.
• 7.16: four kinds of people worship Krishna: the distressed (arta), the seeker of knowledge (jijnasu), the seeker of wealth (artharthi) and the wise (jnani); the jnani is the dearest.
• 7.4: the eightfold lower nature: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and ego.
• 9.22: Krishna himself carries the welfare (yogakshema) of those who worship him with exclusive devotion (ananya bhakti).
• 12.8–11: the graded advice: fix the mind on God; if not, practise; if not, work for him; if not even that, give up the fruit of action.
• 12.13–19: the devotee dear to Krishna hates no one, is compassionate, free of ego and pride, and the same in joy and sorrow.
• 13.22: the Self is the witness (sakshi) of body, senses, mind and intellect, which belong to prakriti.
• 15.16–18: the perishable (kshara), the imperishable (akshara) and, above both, Purushottama, the Supreme Person.
• 16.1–3: the divine qualities (daivi sampat) begin with fearlessness (abhayam), then purity, charity, self-control, non-violence, truth, forgiveness; pride, arrogance, anger and cruelty are demonic (asuri).
• 16.21: three gates of hell: desire (kama), anger (krodha) and greed (lobha).
• 17.23: Om Tat Sat is the threefold name of Brahman.
• 18.66: sarva dharman parityajya: give up all dharmas and take refuge in Krishna alone (complete surrender); he will free Arjuna from all sins. Sri Vaishnavas call it the charama shloka, one of their three secrets (rahasyas) with the Ashtakshari (Tirumantra) and the Dvaya.
• 18.78: Sanjaya's last verse: where Krishna, lord of yoga, and Arjuna the archer are, there are fortune, victory and justice.

Vibhuti Yoga (Ch. 10): favourite pairs.

Vishwarupa (Ch. 11). Arjuna asks to see the universal form. Krishna gives him a divine eye. Arjuna sees all worlds and gods within one body and the Kaurava warriors rushing into its mouths. Krishna says kalo'smi lokakshayakrit: he is Time (Kala), the destroyer of the worlds, and the warriors are already slain; Arjuna is only the instrument (nimitta-matra). Krishna had shown the cosmic form once before, in the Kuru assembly during his peace mission (Udyoga Parva), when Duryodhana tried to seize him. Frightened, Arjuna asks to see the gentle four-armed form again, and then the two-armed human form.

Ch. 8 and Ch. 15 images. Ch. 8: whatever one thinks of at the moment of death, one reaches; the bright path (fire, day, bright fortnight, Uttarayana) leads to no return, the dark path (smoke, night, dark fortnight, Dakshinayana) leads back. Ch. 15: the world is an Ashvattha (peepal) tree with roots above and branches below; its leaves are the Vedas; it is cut with the axe of detachment.

Commentaries and other Gitas.

• Later readings. Jnaneshwar's Jnaneshwari or Bhavartha Dipika (Marathi, 13th century); Bal Gangadhar Tilak's Gita Rahasya (written in Mandalay jail; stresses karma yoga); Gandhi's Anasakti Yoga (Gujarati; the gospel of selfless action); Sri Aurobindo's Essays on the Gita; Vinoba Bhave's Gita Pravachan.
• Other "Gitas". Do not confuse: Anu Gita (Ashvamedhika Parva, Krishna to Arjuna after the war), Uddhava Gita (Bhagavatam, Skandha 11), Ashtavakra Gita, Vyadha Gita (Vana Parva: the righteous hunter, Dharmavyadha of Mithila, teaches the Brahmin Kaushika).

Names used in the dialogue. Arjuna: Partha, Kaunteya, Dhananjaya, Gudakesha (conqueror of sleep, 1.24), Savyasachi (ambidextrous archer), Bharata. Krishna: Keshava, Madhava, Madhusudana, Hrishikesha, Janardana, Achyuta, Govinda, Vasudeva, Yogeshwara.