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A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water: Quick Summary
The Lord accepts a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with devotion; it is the devotion that counts, not the worth of the gift (9.26).
English 8 min A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water
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Quick summary
The Lord accepts a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with devotion; it is the devotion that counts, not the worth of the gift (9.26).
English 8 min A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water
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For one who is content in the self there is no duty left to gain anything (3.17-18), yet he is told to act without attachment (3.19).
English 10 min Acting for the World
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The Lord says the right is to action alone, never to its fruit (2.47).
English 7 min Action Without Claiming the Fruit
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The Gita moves by Arjuna's questions, and the Lord sends none of them back (3.1-2).
English 11 min Arjuna's Questions
Article
Arjuna's road has seven steps: shock, freezing, arguing, asking for help, learning, doubting again and acting. None of them is a fault.
In Depth English 8 min Arjuna, Our Mirror
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Arjuna's road has seven steps, and any person in a crisis walks the same road.
English 3 min Arjuna, Our Mirror
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What is known enters life only when the intellect rests on one resolve (2.41).
English 6 min Buddhi Yoga: The Resolute Intellect
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The vision of the Lord is rare even for the gods, and no means, whether Vedas, austerity, giving or sacrifice, can pay its price (11.52-53).
English 10 min By Devotion Alone
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Arjuna asks why action if knowledge is greater, and asks the Lord for one clear road (3.1-2).
English 7 min Can We Simply Stop Acting?
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In chapter 12 Arjuna asks whether the worshipper of the form or of the unmanifest is better; the Lord says that the one who fixes his mind on Him and worships with faith is best (12.1-5).
English 10 min Chapter 12: The Yoga of Devotion, an Overview
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The Lord asks whether the teaching was heard with the whole mind and whether the delusion is gone (18.72).
English 4 min Delusion Gone: I Will Act
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Arjuna asks which knows yoga best, the one who worships the Lord in form or the one who worships the imperishable unmanifest (12.1).
English 7 min Devotion or the Unmanifest
Article
What 'be merely an instrument' (11.33) fixes is what Time will do, not Arjuna's choice. The Lord says 'arise', which is said to one who can rise or not.
In Depth English 5 min Merely an Instrument
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The Lord speaks to Arjuna in his own language: duty, name and what people will say (2.31-37).
English 7 min Duty, Honour and Fear
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Cold and heat, pleasure and pain come from the meeting of senses and objects and pass, so learn to bear them (2.14).
English 11 min Equanimity
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A person of very bad conduct who worships with undivided devotion is to be regarded as righteous, because he has resolved rightly (9.30).
English 10 min Even the Worst Offender
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Four reasons bring people to the Lord: distress, wish to know, some desire and knowledge; all four are called virtuous and noble (7.16, 7.18).
English 8 min Four Kinds of Devotees
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The highest freedom from the bond of action comes not from leaving work but from giving up attachment of the intellect, the tangle of the mind and desire (18.49).
English 9 min Freedom Through Action
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From dwelling on an object comes attachment, from attachment desire, from desire anger, from anger confusion, then loss of memory, loss of understanding and at last ruin (2.62-63).
English 8 min From Thought to Ruin
Article
The Lord's form is rare even for the gods (11.52), and none of the four great means, Vedas, austerity, charity or sacrifice, can pay for the sight (11.53).
In Depth English 13 min By Devotion Alone
Article
The Lord asks whether the teaching was heard with a steady mind and whether the delusion is gone (18.72).
In Depth English 10 min Delusion Gone: I Will Act
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Settle your intention before the work: the doing is in your hands, the fruit is not (2.47).
English 5 min Karma Yoga in Practice
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Three things are to be known: right action, wrong action and non-action, and even the wise are confused about them (4.16-17).
English 9 min Karma and Akarma: Acting Without Being Bound
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One who knows the Lord's glory in truth joins Him by unshakable devotion, and the wise who know Him as the source of all worship Him with love (10.7-8).
English 10 min Knowing His Glory Leads to Devotion
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Lord Krishna asks Arjuna to hand over all actions to Him, with the mind turned to the self, free from expectation, from the sense of 'mine' and from the fever of worry (3.30).
English 11 min Offering All Actions
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One's own duty done imperfectly is better than another's duty done well (3.35, 18.47).
English 9 min One's Own Duty
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Arjuna asks to know renunciation and relinquishment separately (18.1).
English 10 min Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action
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Arjuna asks which is the more beneficial, renunciation or karma yoga (5.1).
English 11 min Renunciation or Karma Yoga?
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The devotee dear to the Lord is known not by rituals but by a way of living: no hatred, friendliness and compassion to all, evenness in pleasure and pain (12.13-14).
English 12 min The Devotee Dear to the Lord
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Arjuna asks why a person sins even against his wish, and the Lord names desire and anger born of passion as the cause (3.36-37).
English 8 min The Enemy Called Desire
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The Lord tells Arjuna to hand all actions over to Him in the mind and to fix his thought on Him (18.57-58).
English 9 min The Final Counsel: Surrender, Think, Choose
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Maya, made of the three qualities, is the Lord's own divine energy, and it is very hard to cross alone (7.14).
English 8 min The Illusory Energy and Surrender
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Grief rests on the body and the life lived together, but the one who dwells in the body stays the same.
English 7 min The Imperishable Self
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One who offers all actions to the Lord and holds Him as the goal is soon lifted out of the ocean of births by the Lord Himself (12.6-7).
English 10 min The Ladder of Devotion
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Action, knowledge, meditation and devotion do not compete; they complete one another.
English 8 min The Paths: Action, Knowledge, Devotion
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Great souls take refuge in the divine nature, know the Lord as the origin of all, and worship with an undivided mind (9.13).
English 8 min The Steadfast Devotee and Divine Care
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The Lord steadies the faith of one who worships another god with faith, and the arranging of the fruit is His (7.21, 7.22).
English 10 min What We Worship, We Become
Article
Arjuna's hands shook, his mouth went dry and he said he would not fight (1.28-29, 2.9). The Gita does not blame him.
Simple English 4 min Arjuna, Our Mirror
Article
The Lord asks whether the teaching was heard with the whole mind and whether the confusion has gone (18.72).
Simple English 5 min Delusion Gone: I Will Act
Article
Study, austerity, charity and sacrifice are not the price of the Lord's nearness; he is found by undivided devotion (11.53, 11.54).
Simple English 5 min By Devotion Alone
Article
Whatever a respected person does, others follow (3.21), and everyone is respected by someone.
Simple English 6 min Acting for the World
Article
Arjuna asks why act at all if knowledge is higher (3.1-2); the chapter turns the question into how to act.
In Depth English 10 min Chapter 3: The Yoga of Selfless Action, an Overview
Article
Both renunciation and karma yoga lead to the highest good, but karma yoga is the better way for the one still on the road (5.2, 5.6).
In Depth English 14 min Renunciation or Karma Yoga?
Article
Give up the grip on results and the wants that drive you; do not give up your duties (18.2, 18.11).
Simple English 6 min Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action
Article
Both leaving the world and carrying on can lead to the highest good, but carrying on with a loose grip is the better way for most of us (5.2).
Simple English 6 min Renunciation or Karma Yoga?
Article
Renunciation is giving up actions driven by desire; relinquishment is giving up the fruit of every action (18.2).
In Depth English 13 min Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action
Article
Work done only for oneself ties us; work done as an offering to something beyond oneself frees us (3.9).
Simple English 6 min Work as Sacrifice
Article
The person who is content in the self has no duty to gain anything, yet the Gita tells even such a person to go on acting (3.17-20).
In Depth English 14 min Acting for the World
Article
Work done only for oneself binds; work done as an offering to something beyond oneself, free of attachment, frees (3.9).
In Depth English 14 min Work as Sacrifice
Article
Work pressure is three weights, not one: the work, the fear of the result and the wave of panic.
Simple English 6 min Working Under Pressure
Article
Evenness in the Gita has three fronts: what happens to me (2.14-15), how things turn out (2.38), and how I see people and things (5.18-20, 6.7-9).
In Depth English 12 min Equanimity
Article
Pleasure and pain, praise and blame come and go like weather; the Gita asks us to bear them (2.14).
Simple English 5 min Equanimity
Article
One's own duty is the duty that fits one's own nature and qualities; all beings act from their nature (3.33).
In Depth English 15 min One's Own Duty
Article
It is better to do your own duty imperfectly than another's duty well (3.35).
Simple English 6 min One's Own Duty
Article
The Gita names four ways, action, knowledge, meditation and devotion, and says they lead to the same place (13.25, 5.5).
Simple English 7 min The Paths: Action, Knowledge, Devotion
Article
In the Gita, doing nothing in action means that nothing binds, and it does not mean that nothing is done (4.18, 4.20).
Simple English 5 min Karma and Akarma: Acting Without Being Bound
Article
The Gita lists the ways to the goal three times, and each time the list grows and nothing is dropped (2.39, 3.3, 13.25).
In Depth English 11 min The Paths: Action, Knowledge, Devotion
Article
The right is to the work and never to the fruits, and the fruit also depends on much more than the doer (2.47, 18.14).
In Depth English 10 min Action Without Claiming the Fruit
Article
After the teaching of the self (2.11–30), Lord Krishna shows how that knowing becomes living, through one resolved intellect, not through collecting more opinions (2.39–41).
In Depth English 11 min Buddhi Yoga: The Resolute Intellect
Article
There are three things to understand, right action, wrong action and inaction, and the line between action and inaction is drawn at the claim and not at the body (4.16, 4.17).
In Depth English 9 min Karma and Akarma: Acting Without Being Bound
Article
The work is ours and the result is not, because the result depends on much more than us (2.47, 18.14).
Simple English 6 min Action Without Claiming the Fruit
Article
A mind pulled by many voices is not settled by hearing more voices; it is settled by one clear aim held steadily (2.41).
Simple English 4 min Buddhi Yoga: The Resolute Intellect
Article
The weight of a day comes less from the work than from the thought that "I alone hold it up" (18.57, 18.61).
Simple English 7 min The Final Counsel: Surrender, Think, Choose
Article
The Lord asks Arjuna to give all actions to Him in the mind and to keep a steady intellect (18.57, 18.58).
In Depth English 10 min The Final Counsel: Surrender, Think, Choose
Article
The Lord's first teaching says that the one who lives in the body is the one who stays the same through every change, cannot be cut, burnt or ended (2.13, 2.20, 2.23).
In Depth English 12 min The Imperishable Self
Article
Arjuna thinks knowing and acting are two doors and asks which one to take. The Lord shows they were never separate (3.1 to 3.3).
In Depth English 12 min Can We Simply Stop Acting?
Article
One who knows the Lord's glory in truth is joined to Him by unwavering devotion (10.7), and the wise who know Him as the source of all worship Him with love (10.8).
In Depth English 12 min Knowing His Glory Leads to Devotion
Article
Truly seeing the Lord's greatness turns devotion from habit into steady love (10.7-8).
Simple English 6 min Knowing His Glory Leads to Devotion
Article
The eighteen chapters are one conversation between Arjuna and Lord Krishna, and they answer five questions in order.
Simple English 6 min The Eighteen Chapters at a Glance
Article
The Gita is one conversation, in eighteen chapters, between Arjuna and his friend Lord Krishna, who drives his chariot.
Simple English 6 min What Is the Gita?
Article
The Lord speaks to Arjuna in the language of duty and name, because those are what Arjuna cares about (2.31-37).
Simple English 5 min Duty, Honour and Fear
Article
The questions shape the Gita: three threads run through them, the call for one decisive answer (2.7, 3.2, 5.1), the marks of the ideal person (2.54, 14.21), and which of two is better (5.1, 12.1).
Deeper English 15 min Arjuna's Questions
Article
'I am not the doer' is meant to lessen pride and dread, not to avoid a mistake (3.27, 5.8).
Simple English 3 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
One who offers all actions to the Lord and holds Him as the aim is lifted out of the ocean of worldly life by the Lord Himself, before long (12.6-7).
In Depth English 12 min The Ladder of Devotion
Article
The Lord speaks to Arjuna in his own language, of duty, name and what people will say; seven verses press one point each (2.31-37).
In Depth English 9 min Duty, Honour and Fear
Article
Chapter 12 opens with Arjuna asking whether the devotee of the Lord with form or the seeker of the unmanifest knows yoga best; the Lord names the one who fixes the mind on him with faith, and says the unmanifest path also reaches him but is harder for embodied beings (12.1-5).
In Depth English 12 min Chapter 12: The Yoga of Devotion, an Overview
Article
A person of very bad conduct who turns to the Lord with his whole mind is to be counted as good, because he has resolved rightly (9.30).
Simple English 4 min Even the Worst Offender
Article
A person of very bad conduct who worships the Lord with undivided devotion is to be regarded as righteous, because he has resolved rightly (9.30).
In Depth English 10 min Even the Worst Offender
Article
The Lord knows His dear devotee not by rites but by how the person lives: no hatred for anyone, friendly and compassionate toward all, level in pain and pleasure (12.13).
Simple English 6 min The Devotee Dear to the Lord
Article
Destiny is the fifth of five causes and efforts are the fourth (18.14), so no single cause on a list of five can be everything.
In Depth English 5 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
The Gita counts destiny as one of five causes, not as the cause of everything (18.14).
Simple English 3 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
Every task has four moments: an intention before, full attention during, handing over the result after, and three questions in the evening.
In Depth English 5 min Karma Yoga in Practice
Article
The Lord does not ask everyone to begin at the top; for the one whose mind will not stay He gives lower steps too (12.8-11).
Simple English 5 min The Ladder of Devotion
Article
Chapter 12 closes with a person, not a rule: one who hates no being, is friendly and compassionate, and has offered mind and intellect to the Lord (12.13-14).
In Depth English 13 min The Devotee Dear to the Lord
Article
Arjuna's questions change with his state of mind: first confusion (2.54, 3.1-2, 5.1), then the difficulty of practice (6.33-39), then the wish to know (8.1-2, 13.1, 14.21), then the wish to see (11.3-4).
In Depth English 14 min Arjuna's Questions
Article
Chapter 12 gives a step for every state of mind: fix the mind on the Lord if it will stay, practise if it will not, work for him if that is hard, and give up the grip on the result if nothing else works.
Simple English 6 min Chapter 12: The Yoga of Devotion, an Overview
Article
'I am not the doer' is a Gita sentence, but it belongs to someone fully at work whose pride and dread have loosened (5.8-9).
In Depth English 5 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
The Lord accepts a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with devotion; what counts is the devotion, not the cost of the gift (9.26).
In Depth English 14 min A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water
Article
Freedom from the bondage of action comes not by stopping work but by loosening the grip while you work (18.49).
Simple English 6 min Freedom Through Action
Article
The Lord calls the one who fixes the mind on Him, stays steady and has supreme faith the most perfect in yoga (12.2).
In Depth English 8 min Devotion or the Unmanifest
Article
For those who look to nothing else and stay joined to him, the Lord carries what they lack and keeps what they have (9.22).
Simple English 5 min The Steadfast Devotee and Divine Care
Article
The Lord accepts a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with devotion. The gift need not be big (9.26).
Simple English 6 min A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water
Article
Great souls take shelter in the divine nature and, knowing the Lord as the source of all, worship him with a mind on nothing else (9.13).
In Depth English 11 min The Steadfast Devotee and Divine Care
Article
The illusory energy, made of the three modes of nature, is the Lord's own divine power, and crossing it by one's own strength alone is very hard (7.14).
In Depth English 10 min The Illusory Energy and Surrender
Article
The worry is not in the work but in clinging to the result. The Gita says to do the work and then hand it over to the Lord (3.30).
Simple English 5 min Offering All Actions
Article
The Lord steadies the faith of anyone who worships a deity with faith; the Gita does not scold the one who asks (7.21).
Simple English 4 min What We Worship, We Become
Article
The Gita names four reasons that bring people to God, distress, a wish to know, a want and wisdom, and calls all four good and noble (7.16, 7.18).
Simple English 4 min Four Kinds of Devotees
Article
The illusory energy is the Lord's own power, made of the modes of nature, and the way across is refuge in him alone (7.14); refuge is where effort rests, not a replacement for it (3.30, 6.5-6).
Deeper English 14 min The Illusory Energy and Surrender
Article
Do the work with your whole self, then hand the work and your claim on its fruit to the Lord. This is what the Gita means by offering all actions (3.30).
In Depth English 12 min Offering All Actions
Article
Your effort is real, but it is never the only cause of a result. Every action has five causes (18.14).
Simple English 6 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
The result of karma yoga is not that work stops but that action no longer binds, and that freedom comes by letting go of the intellect's attachment, craving and the mind's restlessness (18.49).
In Depth English 13 min Freedom Through Action
Article
The Lord calls devotees who come for four reasons, distress, a wish to know, a want and wisdom, good and noble (7.16, 7.18).
In Depth English 9 min Four Kinds of Devotees
Article
The pull that keeps confusing the mind is the Lord's own illusory energy, and crossing it on one's own strength alone is hard (7.14).
Simple English 4 min The Illusory Energy and Surrender
Article
The Lord steadies the faith of anyone who worships a deity with faith; the Gita does not scold them (7.20, 7.21).
In Depth English 10 min What We Worship, We Become
Article
Detachment in the Gita is not indifference or not caring; it is inner freedom while fully engaged.
In Depth English 21 min
Article
In the Gita, true leadership begins with mastering one's own mind, desires and reactions.
In Depth English 16 min
Article
The Gita contains statements pointing both to distinction and to unity, so it resists a single philosophical label.
In Depth English 16 min
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