A path through the Gita
12 key ideas of the Gita
Twelve words carry most of the Gita’s teaching. Read in this order, each one makes the next easier to understand, from duty and action through the mind and the Self to devotion and freedom.
- From dharma to moksha
- Each idea leads to the next
कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावःपृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसंमूढचेताः । यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मेशिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम् ॥
kārpaṇyadoṣopahatasvabhāvaḥpṛcchāmi tvāṃ dharmasaṃmūḍhacetāḥ | yacchreyaḥ syānniścitaṃ brūhi tanmeśiṣyaste'haṃ śādhi māṃ tvāṃ prapannam ||
My nature is overwhelmed by weakness, and my mind is confused about duty. I ask you: tell me with certainty what is best for me. I am your student; instruct me, for I have taken refuge in you.
The path, in order
Each idea opens into its own page with every verse on it. The line under each says why it sits where it does.
Dharma
धर्मDharma is the duty that fits your nature and your place in life, and the Gita opens on the field of dharma (1.1) with Arjuna unsure of his. Krishna answers that your own dharma, done imperfectly, is better than another’s done well (3.35).
The Gita opens with a man unsure of his duty, so the path starts where Arjuna does.
Read the verses on dharmaSeven verses for comparison and self-worth
Karma
कर्मKarma means action, and the Gita says no one can remain even for a moment without acting, because the gunas of nature move every being to act (3.5). Action done as yajna, as an offering, does not bind; it is action done for anything else that binds (3.9).
Once you know your duty, the next question is action itself, and the Gita says no one can stay without acting.
Karma yoga
कर्मयोगKarma yoga is doing your work fully while giving up attachment to its results, with an even mind in success and failure (2.48). Shankaracharya reads it as the practice that clears the mind for knowledge, and Ramanujacharya as a path that can itself lead to seeing the Self.
If action cannot be avoided, Krishna turns it into a practice: full effort, with attachment to results set down.
Read the verses on karma yogaSeven verses for stress and heavy days
Nishkama karma
निष्काम कर्मNishkama karma is action done without desire for its fruit, stated in 2.47: your right is to the work alone, never to its results. The same verse asks you not to cling to inaction either, so the teaching is full effort with a quiet mind about the outcome.
Karma yoga rests on one inner attitude, acting without desire for the fruit, which 2.47 states in a single line.
Read the verses on nishkama karmaSeven verses for fear of failure
Prakriti
प्रकृतिPrakriti is material nature, the source of the body, the senses, the mind and the three gunas, and the Gita sets it apart from purusha, the conscious knower (13.20). All actions are done by the gunas of prakriti, Krishna says, and only one deluded by ego thinks “I am the doer” (3.27).
To act without craving you need to see who is acting, and the Gita says it is nature, prakriti, that moves body and mind.
The three gunas
त्रिगुणThe three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas, are born of prakriti and bind the embodied self to the body (14.5). Sattva binds through attachment to happiness and knowledge, rajas through attachment to action, and tamas through heedlessness and sleep (14.6 to 14.8); Krishna asks Arjuna to rise above all three (2.45).
Prakriti works through three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas, and they explain the pull you feel behind each choice.
Manas, the mind
मनस्Manas is the mind, the restless seat of thought and desire, which Arjuna says is as hard to hold as the wind (6.34). Krishna agrees, and says it is held through steady practice and dispassion, abhyasa and vairagya (6.35).
The gunas show first in the mind, which Arjuna himself calls as hard to hold as the wind.
Read the verses on manas, the mindSeven verses for overthinking
Buddhi, the intellect
बुद्धिBuddhi is the intellect, the power that discerns and decides, and the Gita places it above the senses and the mind (3.42). Krishna asks for a buddhi that is resolute and one-pointed (2.41), and describes the person of steady wisdom, the sthitaprajna, at the close of chapter 2 (2.55 to 2.72).
Above the restless mind sits buddhi, the power to discern, which the Gita asks you to make steady.
Read the verses on buddhi, the intellectSeven verses for hard decisions
Atman, the Self
आत्मन्Atman is the Self, the conscious reality in every being, which is never born, never dies, and is not slain when the body is slain (2.20). Krishna’s teaching to the grieving Arjuna begins here (2.11 to 2.30), and Shankaracharya reads it this way: grief and delusion end with knowledge of the Self.
Beyond even buddhi is the Self, the atman, which the Gita says is never born and never dies.
Vairagya
वैराग्यVairagya is dispassion, a loosening of craving for sense objects, and the Gita pairs it with practice as the way to hold the mind (6.35). Krishna also says that pleasures born of contact with objects have a beginning and an end, so the wise do not delight in them (5.22).
Knowing the Self as lasting makes it easier to loosen your grip on what passes, and that loosening is vairagya.
Bhakti
भक्तिBhakti is loving devotion to God, and Krishna says that by undivided devotion alone he can be truly known, seen and entered (11.54). Ramanujacharya reads the Gita’s teaching as leading to this devotion, with action and knowledge as its supports.
With the grip loosened, the heart turns toward God, and Krishna calls the one who worships him with faith the most steadfast in yoga.
Moksha
मोक्षMoksha is liberation from the cycle of birth and death, which the Gita describes as reaching the supreme abode from which there is no return (8.21, 15.6). The teaching closes on it in 18.66: give up all dharmas and take refuge in me alone, Krishna says, and I will free you from all sins.
The Gita ends at freedom: in 18.66 Krishna asks for complete refuge and promises release from all sin.
Read the verses on mokshaSeven verses for guilt and past mistakes
How these are read
The intros follow the traditional Sanskrit commentators, Shankaracharya and Ramanujacharya, and the Hindi of the Gita Press. Where they read a word differently, we say so. Verse numbers follow the verse pages on this site.
The order is a reading order, one way in. The Gita itself moves back and forth between these ideas across its eighteen chapters.
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