The eighteen chapters

1
अर्जुनविषादयोगःArjuna Vishada Yoga — the Yoga of Arjuna's Grief47 shlokas
2
साङ्ख्ययोगःSankhya Yoga — the Yoga of Knowledge72 shlokas
3
कर्मयोगःKarma Yoga — the Yoga of Action43 shlokas
4
ज्ञानकर्मसंन्यासयोगःJnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga — the Yoga of Knowledge and the Renunciation of Action42 shlokas
5
कर्मसंन्यासयोगःKarma Sannyasa Yoga — the Yoga of Renouncing Action29 shlokas
6
आत्मसंयमयोगःAtma Samyama Yoga — the Yoga of Self-Mastery47 shlokas
7
ज्ञानविज्ञानयोगःJnana Vijnana Yoga — the Yoga of Knowledge and Its Realisation30 shlokas
8
अक्षरब्रह्मयोगःAkshara Brahma Yoga — the Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman28 shlokas
9
राजविद्याराजगुह्ययोगःRaja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga — the Yoga of the Royal Knowledge and the Royal Secret34 shlokas
10
विभूतियोगःVibhuti Yoga — the Yoga of Divine Glories42 shlokas
11
विश्वरूपदर्शनयोगःVishvarupa Darshana Yoga — the Yoga of the Vision of the Universal Form55 shlokas
12
भक्तियोगःBhakti Yoga — the Yoga of Devotion20 shlokas
13
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञविभागयोगःKshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga — the Yoga of the Field and the Knower of the Field34 shlokas
14
गुणत्रयविभागयोगःGunatraya Vibhaga Yoga — the Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas27 shlokas
15
पुरुषोत्तमयोगःPurushottama Yoga — the Yoga of the Supreme Person20 shlokas
16
दैवासुरसम्पद्विभागयोगःDaivasura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga — the Yoga of the Divine and the Demoniac Natures24 shlokas
17
श्रद्धात्रयविभागयोगःShraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga — the Yoga of the Threefold Faith28 shlokas
18
मोक्षसंन्यासयोगःMoksha Sannyasa Yoga — the Yoga of Liberation through Renunciation78 shlokas

01A dialogue on a chariot

The first words belong to Dhritarashtra: "dharmakshetre kurukshetre", on the field of dharma, at Kurukshetra, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do? Sanjaya, given divine sight by Maharshi Vyasa, answers. Arjuna asks Krishna to draw the chariot between the armies, sees his grandsire Bhishma and his teacher Drona, and sits down weeping. Seventeen chapters follow. The duty of the warrior, the nature of the deathless Self, action without craving for its fruit, the meditating yogi, the Vishvarupa that Arjuna cannot bear to look at, and at last the call to surrender: "sarvadharman parityajya".

02Where it sits in the Mahabharata

The Gita is part of the Bhishma Parva, the sixth of the eighteen parvas. In the Gita Press and other popular editions it runs from chapter 25 to chapter 42; in the Critical Edition of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, the same 700 shlokas are chapters 23 to 40. Sanjaya tells it to Dhritarashtra after Bhishma has fallen, ten days into the war, looking back to the morning the armies first faced each other. Every chapter closes with the same colophon, which calls the Gita an Upanishad, a brahmavidya and a yogashastra, spoken as a dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjuna.

03Chapters 1 to 6: the one who acts

Yamunacharya, and after him Madhusudana Sarasvati, read the eighteen chapters as three sets of six. The first six are about the seeker who must act. Arjuna's grief in chapter 1 is answered in chapter 2 with the deathless Self, "na jayate mriyate va kadachit", and with the sthitaprajna, the one whose wisdom is steady. Chapter 3 says no one can stay without action even for a moment, so act as yajna. Chapter 4 gives the avatara's promise and the fire of knowledge. Chapter 5 weighs sannyasa against karma yoga and finds them one in the wise. Chapter 6 seats the yogi on a firm seat of kusha grass, deerskin and cloth, and turns him inward.

04Chapters 7 to 12: the one who is loved

The middle six turn from the seeker to Bhagwan himself. Chapter 7 names his two prakritis and the four who worship him: the distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the jnani, who is dear above all. Chapter 8 teaches that whatever a man remembers at the last, to that he goes. Chapter 9 is the royal secret, and its twenty-sixth shloka asks only a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water, given with love. In chapter 10 Krishna lists his vibhutis until he says the list has no end. Chapter 11 is the Vishvarupa. Chapter 12, only twenty shlokas long, gives the marks of the bhakta who is dear to him.

05Chapters 13 to 18: the knower and the known

The last six set out what is known and who knows it. Chapter 13 parts the field, body and mind, from the knower of the field. Chapter 14 shows how sattva, rajas and tamas bind, and chapter 15 the upside-down ashvattha tree, cut down with the axe of detachment. Chapter 16 sorts the divine qualities from the demonic; chapter 17 sorts faith, food, yajna, tapas and dana into three kinds and ends on Om Tat Sat. Chapter 18 gathers everything up. Then comes the last instruction, "sarvadharman parityajya", and Arjuna answers that his delusion is gone. Sanjaya closes: where Krishna, lord of yoga, and Partha the archer stand, there are fortune, victory, prosperity and sure policy.

06One of the three foundations

Vedanta rests on three texts, the prasthanatrayi: the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Gita. Every acharya who founded a school of Vedanta wrote on all three. Adi Shankaracharya's Gita Bhashya, which begins its line-by-line comment at 2.10, reads it as the path of knowledge. Ramanujacharya's reads it as surrender to Narayana, Madhvacharya's as devotion to Vishnu as the supreme. Abhinavagupta in Kashmir wrote the Gitartha Sangraha. Later came Shridhara Svami's Subodhini, loved in Bengal and Odisha, and Madhusudana Sarasvati's Gudhartha Dipika, which holds Advaita and bhakti in one hand.

07In the languages of the people

Sant Jnaneshwar retold the Gita in Marathi ovis at Nevasa in 1290, and the Dnyaneshwari is still sung on the road to Pandharpur. Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote Gita Rahasya in Mandalay jail and published it in 1915, reading the Gita as a call to action. Mahatma Gandhi called it his mother and wrote Anasaktiyoga in Gujarati. In 1932 Vinoba Bhave gave his Gita Pravachan as Sunday talks to fellow prisoners in Dhule jail, and Sane Guruji took them down. Sri Aurobindo wrote Essays on the Gita. In Gorakhpur, Gita Press published Jayadayal Goyandka's Tattva Vivechani and Swami Ramsukhdas's Sadhak Sanjivani, and has printed the Gita in crores of copies.

08How it is kept today

Gita Jayanti falls on Margashirsha Shukla Ekadashi, Mokshada Ekadashi, the day tradition holds the teaching was given, and Kurukshetra holds a festival around it. In many homes a chapter is read each day. The fifteenth adhyaya is recited before meals in some households, and the twelfth, on bhakti, is often the first a child learns by heart. At the hour of death families read the Gita aloud beside the dying, as the eighth chapter speaks of the last thought.

09Every shloka, on this site

All 700 shlokas are given below, chapter by chapter, from Arjuna Vishada Yoga to Moksha Sannyasa Yoga. Each chapter page carries the Sanskrit, a transliteration, and the meaning of every shloka in English and in Hindi, with a short account of the chapter at the top. Read one chapter at a sitting, the way the Gita has always been read in the home. Begin with the second if you are short of time, or with the twelfth if you want the shortest. Chapter 13 counts 34 shlokas in this reading; some editions add a question from Arjuna at its head and count 35.

10Read across the world

Charles Wilkins's English version, printed in London in 1785 with a letter of praise from Warren Hastings, was the first Sanskrit book to be translated straight into English. Wilhelm von Humboldt studied it closely in Berlin and wrote of it with awe. At Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau said he bathed his intellect each morning in the philosophy of the Bhagvat Geeta. Swami Vivekananda carried it to Chicago in 1893. Today it is read in nearly every language on earth, and when Indian leaders give a gift of one book abroad, it is often the Gita.

What it contains

1
1. Arjuna Vishada Yoga अर्जुनविषादयोगः
The two armies, the conches, and Arjuna's grief at the sight of his kin. 47 shlokas.
2
2. Sankhya Yoga साङ्ख्ययोगः
The undying Self, the duty of the warrior, action without attachment to fruit, and the man of steady wisdom (sthitaprajna). 72 shlokas.
3
3. Karma Yoga कर्मयोगः
Why one must act, yajna as the wheel of the world, and the warning against desire and anger. 43 shlokas.
4
4. Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga ज्ञानकर्मसंन्यासयोगः
Bhagwan tells of his descent in every age to protect dharma, and of the fire of knowledge that burns karma. 42 shlokas.
5
5. Karma Sannyasa Yoga कर्मसंन्यासयोगः
Renunciation and action compared; the one who acts while offering all to Brahman is untouched, like a lotus leaf by water. 29 shlokas.
6
6. Atma Samyama Yoga (Dhyana Yoga) आत्मसंयमयोगः
The seat, posture and discipline of meditation, and the restless mind tamed by practice and detachment. 47 shlokas.
7
7. Jnana Vijnana Yoga ज्ञानविज्ञानयोगः
Bhagwan's lower and higher prakriti, and the four kinds of devotees who worship him. 30 shlokas.
8
8. Akshara Brahma Yoga अक्षरब्रह्मयोगः
The imperishable Brahman, the last thought at death, and the bright and dark paths of departure. 28 shlokas.
9
9. Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga राजविद्याराजगुह्ययोगः
The royal secret: a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with love is accepted by Bhagwan. 34 shlokas.
10
10. Vibhuti Yoga विभूतियोगः
Bhagwan names his glories: among rivers the Ganga, among mountains Meru, among months Margashirsha. 42 shlokas.
11
11. Vishvarupa Darshana Yoga विश्वरूपदर्शनयोगः
Given divine eyes, Arjuna sees the universal form, with the warriors of both armies entering its mouths, and begs to see the four-armed form again. 55 shlokas.
12
12. Bhakti Yoga भक्तियोगः
Worship of the formless and of the form compared, and the marks of the devotee dear to Bhagwan. 20 shlokas.
13
13. Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञविभागयोगः
The field (the body) and the knower of the field, and what true knowledge is. 34 shlokas in this reading.
14
14. Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga गुणत्रयविभागयोगः
Sattva, rajas and tamas, how each binds, and the one who rises beyond them. 27 shlokas.
15
15. Purushottama Yoga पुरुषोत्तमयोगः
The ashvattha tree with roots above and branches below, and the Supreme Person beyond the perishable and the imperishable. 20 shlokas.
16
16. Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga दैवासुरसम्पद्विभागयोगः
The divine and the demonic natures, and the three gates to ruin: desire, anger and greed. 24 shlokas.
17
17. Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga श्रद्धात्रयविभागयोगः
Threefold faith, food, yajna, tapas and charity, and the words Om Tat Sat. 28 shlokas.
18
18. Moksha Sannyasa Yoga मोक्षसंन्यासयोगः
The whole teaching gathered up, the call to take refuge in Bhagwan alone, and Arjuna's reply: my delusion is gone, I will do your word. 78 shlokas.

Famous verses

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः । अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे
The Self is never born and never dies. Having been, it does not cease to be. Unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient, it is not slain when the body is slain.Bhagavad Gita 2.20

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि
Your right is to the work alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruit be your motive, and do not cling to inaction.Bhagavad Gita 2.47

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत । अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्
Whenever dharma declines, O Bharata, and adharma rises, then I bring myself forth.Bhagavad Gita 4.7

पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति । तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः
Whoever offers me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, that offering of love from a pure heart I accept.Bhagavad Gita 9.26

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज । अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः
Leave aside all dharmas and take refuge in me alone. I will free you from every sin; do not grieve.Bhagavad Gita 18.66

Influence

Commented on by Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Abhinavagupta, Jnaneshwar and countless others; Charles Wilkins's 1785 English version was the first translation of a Sanskrit work into English.