Bhagvad Gita

Bhagvad Gita is an authoritative scripture of Vedic culture. Gita essentially is a part of the famous Hindu epic, Mahabharata, and consists of 700 verses (shlokas) compiled together in 18 chapters.

As the most famous of yoga literature, it is suffused with the essence of India’s spiritual wisdom.

It explains the concept of creation and the nature of consciousness and the soul through the individual soul’s eternal relationship with Krishna (or God) in the context of action and time in the perceived material world. It delves deeper on our relationship with Him, and lays out in great detail the spiritual path of Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga to reaching the highest state of consciousness.

The Bhagvad Gita is a discourse between the Pandava prince Arjuna (representing the human) and Lord Shri Krishna (representing the Divine), set during the beginning of the Mahabharata war. In the events leading to Lord Shri Krishna instructing Arjuna, his most beloved disciple in the science of self realization, the nature and purpose of his descent (avatara) into the material world acquires paramount importance. In the greatest revelation of truth, Lord Krishna’s divine manifestation of his transcendental nature, as the cause of all causes, as the beginning of all beings, brings out his omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence in the entire manifest and non-manifest world.

Gita's teachings discuss virtue under its Indian generic name of dharma or ‘the right action’. To the disillusioned Arjuna tormented by the thought of losing friends and relatives on the battlefield, the spiritual conversation brings out the supreme knowledge ‘Jnana’ described as convergence of the paths of Karma and Jnana Yogas. Arjuna obtains liberation by knowledge (Jnana) and performs his duties as a Kshatriya (warrior) thus putting up a determined fight and destroying his enemies.

Bhagvad Gita represents a synthesis of diverse philosophical views expressed in diverse concepts like Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, the Upanishads and Bhakti ideas. In the ‘Path of Karma Yoga’ Lord Krishna emphasizes the importance of societal duties and responsibilities, while in ‘The Path of Devotion’ he describes the ever-steadfast equanimity of devotees who employ ‘Bhakti’ practices. The Karma Yoga is described as the path of performing actions in this mortal world with the mind devoted to the supreme god. At the core of the teachings lie the concept of action with detachment and repudiation to results of actions.

While complexities of these ideas have intrigued philosophical minds of both the east and west, the Bhagvad Gita has the final answers to a plethora of questions posed by philosophers for centuries. Henry David Thoreau eulogized the Bhagvad Gita and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the famous physicist read the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. The Bhagvad Gita continues to enlighten and inspire men on the path of spiritual practice and self-knowledge.

Full text translations of Bhagvad Gita could be downloaded from attachments below: