On the morning of the greatest battle in ancient Indian literature, a warrior named Arjuna puts down his bow and refuses to fight. What follows — a conversation between Arjuna and his charioteer, who reveals himself to be the god Krishna — became the most widely read, translated, and debated text in Hindu tradition.
The Bhagavad Gita ("Song of God") is technically a 700-verse episode embedded in the massive epic Mahabharata. But it has taken on a life entirely its own — read independently by Hindus, philosophers, and seekers worldwide for over two millennia.
The Setup: A Warrior's Crisis of Conscience
Arjuna sees that the enemy army is filled with his own relatives, teachers, and friends. He breaks down. Killing them to win a kingdom seems monstrous — worse than defeat. He turns to Krishna and asks what he should do.
Krishna's answer unfolds across 18 chapters and covers duty, the nature of the soul, the paths to liberation, the structure of reality, and the meaning of devotion. It is one of the most ambitious philosophical texts ever written.
The Three Paths
The Gita teaches that there are three primary paths (yogas) to liberation — and crucially, they are suited to different personalities:
Karma Yoga (the path of action) teaches that we should act without attachment to results. Do your duty perfectly, but do not cling to success or fear failure. Offer the action to God and release the outcome. This is perhaps the Gita's most famous teaching: *"You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions."* (2:47)
Jnana Yoga (the path of knowledge) teaches that suffering comes from ignorance — specifically, the mistaken belief that the self (atman) is the body, rather than the eternal soul. True liberation comes from realizing that the individual self is ultimately identical with Brahman, the universal consciousness.
Bhakti Yoga (the path of devotion) teaches that the most direct path is simply loving God completely — surrendering everything to Krishna. In chapter 12, Krishna calls this the highest path of all.
The Eternal Soul
The Gita's metaphysics are bold: the soul cannot be killed. *"The soul is never born nor dies at any time. It has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. It is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, and primeval."* (2:20)
This is why Arjuna's grief, from Krishna's perspective, is based on a misunderstanding. His relatives are not truly dying — their souls will continue. The body is like a garment, put on and taken off.
Why It Still Matters
The Gita has been carried into modern life by figures as different as Mahatma Gandhi (who called it his "eternal mother"), J. Robert Oppenheimer (who quoted it at the first nuclear test: *"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"*), and Thoreau, who read it at Walden Pond.
Its core question — how do we act rightly in a world of moral complexity, without being paralyzed by the consequences? — has not aged a day.
Traditions Covered