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Arjuna's Questions: Quick Summary

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 Seven Steps: The Road Through a Crisis

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, Our Mirror: Quick Summary

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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By Devotion Alone: Quick Summary

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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Chapter 12: The Yoga of Devotion, an Overview: Quick Summary

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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Devotion or the Unmanifest: Quick Summary

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

Does 'Be Merely an Instrument' Mean Arjuna Had No Free Choice?

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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Freedom Through Action: Quick Summary

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

Article

Gita 11.52-55 Verse by Verse: How the Lord Is Reached and the Five Marks of the Devotee

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

Gita 18.72-78 Verse by Verse: Delusion Destroyed and Arjuna's Resolve

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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The Devotee Dear to the Lord: Quick Summary

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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The Imperishable Self: Quick Summary

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

Article

When Everything Falls Apart: Arjuna Shows the Way

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

You Do Everything Right and God Still Feels Far: What the Gita Says

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

The Self That Stays: Gita 2.11–30 Read in Order

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's Questions in the Gita: Wording, Order and Replies, a Closer Reading

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

Gita Chapter 12 at a Glance: A Way to the Lord for Every Kind of Person

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

The Devotee Dear to the Lord: Gita 12.13-20, Verse by Verse

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

What Arjuna Asks in the Gita: The Fourteen Main Questions, One by One

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

Where to Start When the Mind Won't Stay on God: Gita Chapter 12

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

Devotion or the Unmanifest: Gita 12.1-5 Verse by Verse

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

Where Does Karma Yoga End? Gita 18.49–56, Verse by Verse

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