The Bhagavad Gītā, literally “Blessed Lord’s Song,” often referred to as merely the Gītā, is a Hindu scripture rendered in Sanskrit. Considered the most pleasing and profound religious writing in India, it is consulted more than any other Hindu text as a source of spiritual truth and wisdom.
The Bhagavad Gītā is a compilation of 700 verses (divided into eighteen sections) presented as a discourse rendered by the divine charioteer Kṛṣṇa, an incarnation of Viṣṇu, one of the central deities of Hinduism, to the warrior Arjuna at the onset of the legendary battle of Kurukshetra between Arjuna and his brothers on one side and their cousins on the other. The Arjuna has abruptly been overwhelmed by questions about the mass killing that the battle will occasion. Kṛṣṇa answers that Arjuna must abide by his proper social role or dharma as a member of the warrior caste, without considering the outcome.
The Bhagavad Gītā stresses the importance of doing one’s duty and faith in God. Like the great scriptures of the other religions, the Gītā discusses various beliefs, values, and disciplines central to the conduct of a good and meaningful life: devotion, attachment, conflict of motives, ethical actions and consequences, sense of duty, and misgivings from right actions.
Scholars believe that the poem was composed sometime between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE, and part of Book VI of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Popular translations and commentaries include the writings of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya (Bhagavadgītābhāṣya,) Rāmānuja, Madhvācārya, Eknath Easwaran, Annie Besant, Sri Aurobindo and Prabhūpada. Sir Edwin Arnold’s renowned Victorian rendering, The Song Celestial (1885,) introduced Mahatma Gandhi to the Bhagavad Gita.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by The Bhagavad Gita
Recommended Reading
- ‘The Bhagavad Gita‘ by Eknath Easwaran
- ‘Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation‘ by Stephen Mitchell
- ‘Bhagavad-Gita As It Is‘ by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
- ‘God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita‘ by Paramahansa Yogananda
- ‘Mahabharata‘ by C. Rajagopalachari
Inspirational Quotes from the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)
The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant: a man should not be ruled by them; they are obstacles in his path.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Difficulty, Obstacles
Valor, glory, firmness, skill, generosity, steadiness in battle and ability to rule—these constitute the duty of a soldier. They flow from his own nature.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: The Military, Navy, Army
Governing sense, mind and intellect, intent on liberation, free from desire, fear and anger, the sage is forever free.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Greed
As person abandons worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Discovery, Self-Discovery
The person whose mind is always free from attachment, who has subdued the mind and senses, and who is free from desires, attains the supreme perfection of freedom from Karma through renunciation.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Karma
All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?
—The Bhagavad Gita
If you perform the sacrifice of doing your duty, you do not have to do anything else. Devoted to duty, man attains perfection.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Doing, Perfect, Failure, Perfection
Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Knowledge, Meditation
When your mind becomes fixed on Me, you shall overcome all difficulties by My grace. But, if you do not listen to Me due to ego, you shall perish.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Ego
In Karma-yoga no effort is ever lost, and there is no harm. Even a little practice of this discipline protects one from great fear [of birth and death].
—The Bhagavad Gita
The egoistic man thinks, “I am the doer”. In reality Prakriti does everything. A Jnani who remains as a silent witness and who knows the essence of the division of the quality and functions is not bound.
—The Bhagavad Gita
One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus is untouched by water.
—The Bhagavad Gita
It is better to perform one’s own duties imperfectly than to master the duties of another. By fulfilling the obligations he is born with, a person never comes to grief.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Purpose, Vision
Let a man lift himself by his own self alone, let him not lower himself; for this self alone is the friend of oneself and this self alone is the enemy of oneself.
—The Bhagavad Gita
The self-controlled soul, who moves amongst sense objects, free from either attachment or repulsion, he wins eternal Peace.
—The Bhagavad Gita
He is not elevated by good fortune or depressed by bad. His mind is established in God, and he is free from delusion.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: The Mind, Mind
The disunited mind is far from wise; how can it meditate? How be at peace? When you know no peace, how can you know joy?
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: The Mind, Mind
There is more happiness in doing one’s own (path) without excellence than in doing another’s (path) well.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart—a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water—I accept with joy.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Gratitude
The actions of a great man are an inspiration for others. Whatever he does becomes a standard for others to follow.
—The Bhagavad Gita
There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed.
—The Bhagavad Gita
When a man dwells on the objects of sense, he creates an attraction for them; attraction develops into desire, and desire breeds anger.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Faithful, intent, his senses subdued, he gains knowledge; gaining knowledge, he soon finds perfect peace.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Those who are interested in self-realization, in terms of mind and sense control, offer the functions of all the senses, as well as the vital force (breath), as oblations into the fire of the controlled mind.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Set thy heart upon thy work but never its reward.
—The Bhagavad Gita
The sage awakes to light in the night of all creatures. That which the world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Ignorance
When a man dwells on the objects of sense, he creates an attraction for them; attraction develops into desire, and desire breeds anger.
—The Bhagavad Gita
We have been told, O Krishna, that people whose family traditions are destroyed necessarily dwell in hell for a long time.
—The Bhagavad Gita
When the senses contact sense objects, a person experiences cold or heat, pleasure or pain. These experiences are fleeting they come and go. Bear them patiently.
—The Bhagavad Gita
Topics: Feelings, Difficulty
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