28 results
Article
Sunday evening and your stomach is already tight over Monday's meeting, deadline or target. The Gita splits work pressure into three weights and gives a small handle for each, with a practice for tonight.
Level: Simple English 6 min Working Under Pressure
Article
Gita 9.26-29 in order: why the Lord accepts a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, how to make all your actions an offering, what the offering frees you from, and how He is equal to all yet near to a devotee.
Level: In Depth English 14 min A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water
Article
Four choices decide how you read the Gita: the order, the translation, the commentary and the question you bring. Here is a practical way to make each one, with the Gita's own advice on study.
Level: In Depth English 10 min How to Read the Gita
Article
In Gita 12.13-20 the Lord lists over thirty marks and says of each group, 'such a one is dear to Me'. The marks fall into four relationships and hang from one centre. Each verse explained, with a table, common misreadings, an example and a seven-day practice.
Level: In Depth English 13 min The Devotee Dear to the Lord
Article
A chapter-by-chapter map of the Bhagavad Gita: the name, size and job of each of the eighteen chapters, and how Arjuna's questions carry the book from despair to decision.
Level: In Depth English 14 min The Eighteen Chapters at a Glance
Article
Where the Gita speaks to deadlines, targets and the fear of failing: three layers of work pressure, the handle the Gita gives for each, common misreadings, an example and a practice for one working day.
Level: In Depth English 12 min Working Under Pressure
Article
What does Arjuna ask in the Gita, when, and why? Fourteen main questions in the order of the book, what each shows about his state of mind, the first line of Lord Krishna's answer, and where to read the full reply.
Level: In Depth English 14 min Arjuna's Questions
Article
Four voices carry the Bhagavad Gita: a blind king asks, his minister reports, Arjuna questions and Lord Krishna teaches. See why the teaching is given on a battlefield and how Arjuna's questions move it along.
Level: In Depth English 11 min What Is the Gita?
Article
Why does the Gita say all work except sacrifice binds? Gita 3.9 to 3.16 verse by verse: the meaning of sacrifice, the wheel of giving and receiving, the thief, and a life lived in vain.
Level: In Depth English 14 min Work as Sacrifice
Article
What does the Gita say about worshipping other deities and praying for things? The Lord steadies faith and arranges the result, but the result is perishable. Gita 7.20-23 and 9.20-25 in order, with an example and a practice.
Level: In Depth English 10 min What We Worship, We Become
Article
Do Arjuna's questions only open the door to the Gita, or do they shape it? Their wording, three threads that run through them, the echo of that wording in the replies, two streams of commentators, and objections answered.
Level: Deeper English 15 min Arjuna's Questions
Article
After the universal form the Lord says that no Veda, austerity, charity or sacrifice wins this sight, and undivided devotion does. A close reading, the hard questions, two streams of commentators and a table of parallels.
Level: Deeper English 16 min By Devotion Alone
Article
Gita 12.13-20 lists over thirty marks and keeps saying 'such a one is dear to Me'. Is it a test? How can anyone be dear to a Lord who is equal to all? A close reading, two streams of commentators, five objections and five questions answered.
Level: Deeper English 18 min The Devotee Dear to the Lord
Article
A close reading of Gita 3.9 to 3.16: what sacrifice means, why the one who takes without giving is called a thief, where the readings differ, four objections answered, and the questions the verses raise.
Level: Deeper English 19 min Work as Sacrifice
Article
In Gita 7.20-23 and 9.20-25 the Lord steadies the faith of those who worship other deities and grants what they seek, yet calls the result perishable. Is that respect or criticism? A close reading, four difficulties and the commentators.
Level: Deeper English 13 min What We Worship, We Become
Article
A close reading of Gita 9.26-29: why the Lord accepts a leaf, what offering all actions means, how both good and bad results bind, and how He is equal to all yet near to devotees. Eight objections answered, with two streams of commentators.
Level: Deeper English 18 min A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water
Article
Gita chapter 12 seems to pull two ways in four places: who is best, the order of the steps, giving up undertakings against working for the Lord, and disturbing no one. The wording of each verse, the commentators' streams and the open questions.
Level: Deeper English 14 min Chapter 12: The Yoga of Devotion, an Overview
Article
Is the order of the Gita's eighteen chapters an argument or a gathering? A close look at the narrator's frame, Arjuna's sixteen questions, the verse counts, the chapter names and the verses that return.
Level: Deeper English 12 min The Eighteen Chapters at a Glance
Article
A close reading of the Gita's hardest lines on war and killing: 2.31-37, 2.19-20, 11.33 and 18.17. Who is addressed, in what hour, and under what measure, and how readers differ on the field itself.
Level: Deeper English 8 min Arjuna's Despondency
Article
A close reading of the Gita verses that speak to work pressure: what the right to action covers, why the fruit is given up, what mental fever means, and how skill and evenness fit, with objections answered.
Level: Deeper English 14 min Working Under Pressure
Quick summary
A short revision of Gita 9.26-29: the Lord accepts a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with devotion, asks that every act become an offering, frees the offerer from the bonds of results, and stays near the devotee while being equal to all.
English 8 min A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water
Quick summary
A short revision of Arjuna's fourteen questions in the Gita: where each one comes, what puzzle of the mind lies behind it, and where the answer is found.
English 11 min Arjuna's Questions
Quick summary
Want to read the Gita but unsure where to begin and how to go on? Plain advice here on the order of reading, and on choosing a translation and a commentary, in three levels.
English 9 min How to Read the Gita
Quick summary
At the end of the twelfth chapter the Lord draws the picture of one dear to Him: free of hatred, friendly and compassionate, even in pleasure and pain, skilful and steady. Three readings of verses 12.13-20 and the question of what 'dear' means.
English 12 min The Devotee Dear to the Lord
Quick summary
A quick summary of the eighteen chapters of the Gita: the name, verse count and work of each chapter, in five groups, so that the whole map can be revised and explained to someone.
English 13 min The Eighteen Chapters at a Glance
Quick summary
What is the Gita, who is speaking to whom, why did this conversation happen on a battlefield, and what is the book for? Answers in three readings for someone reading the Gita for the first time.
English 8 min What Is the Gita?
Quick summary
In Gita 7.20-23 and 9.20-25 the Lord tells that He steadies the faith of one who worships other gods and gives the fruit by His own law, but that fruit is perishable. What we worship, we reach.
English 10 min What We Worship, We Become
Quick summary
Why does work feel like a burden, and what does it mean in Gita 3.9-16 to make work a sacrifice? See how work done for a good larger than oneself frees instead of binds.
English 12 min Work as Sacrifice