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Can We Simply Stop Acting?: Quick Summary

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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Duty, Honour and Fear: Quick Summary

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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Equanimity: Quick Summary

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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From Thought to Ruin: Quick Summary

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

Quick summary

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 Enemy Called Desire: Quick Summary

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 Illusory Energy and Surrender: Quick Summary

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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Who Is the Doer?: Quick Summary

All actions are done by the qualities of nature, but a mind deluded by ego thinks 'I am the doer' (3.27).

English 9 min Who Is the Doer?

Article

Equal in Joy and Pain, Equal to All: Will the Even Mind Go Numb? A Close Reading of Gita 2.14-15, 2.38, 5.18-20, 6.7-9

Pleasure and pain are named as real and as passing; the Gita asks that they be borne, so evenness is not numbness (2.14-15).

Deeper English 15 min Equanimity

Article

Evenness of Mind in the Gita: From Bearing Pleasure and Pain to Seeing All Alike (Gita 2.14-15, 2.38, 5.18-20, 6.7-9)

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

One's Own Duty in the Gita, Read Closely: Nature, Fear and Worship in 3.33-35 and 18.41-48

One's own duty is the duty that fits one's own nature, taken up with liking and disliking set aside and offered as worship (3.33-35, 18.45-46).

Deeper English 19 min One's Own Duty

Article

What Is Svadharma? Your Own Duty, Your Own Nature, and Why Borrowing Another's Way Costs So Much (Gita 3.33-35, 18.41-48)

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

Can the Chain Be Broken? Commentators, Objections and Answers on Gita 2.62–63

Gita 2.62–63 describes how a mind falls when nothing holds it, and 2.61 names what holds it, devotion to the Lord with the senses restrained.

Deeper English 17 min From Thought to Ruin

Article

The Enemy Called Desire: Gita 3.36–43 Verse by Verse

Gita 3.36–43 asks why a person does wrong against his will and answers that desire and anger, born of passion, are the enemy (3.36–37).

In Depth English 11 min The Enemy Called Desire

Article

The Seven Steps of the Fall: How Gita 2.62–63 Traces Thought into Ruin

Gita 2.62–63 sets seven steps between a quiet thought and ruin, and each step weakens what could stop the next.

In Depth English 12 min From Thought to Ruin

Article

Who Drives Us Against Our Will? Commentators, Objections and Answers on Gita 3.36–43

The force that drives a person against his will is a state of his own nature, desire born of passion, and not an outside power (3.36–37, 5.14, 3.27).

Deeper English 14 min The Enemy Called Desire

Article

From Knowing to Deciding: Buddhi Yoga in Gita 2.39–46 and 2.52–53

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

Why Stopping Work Does Not Make Us Free: Gita 3.1 to 3.8 Explained

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

Who Speaks in the Gita, and Why Does the Teaching Begin in a War?

Four voices carry the Gita. Dhritarashtra asks, Sanjaya reports, Arjuna questions and Lord Krishna teaches.

In Depth English 11 min What Is the Gita?

Article

Gita 11.31-35: Time, Merely an Instrument, and Arjuna's Trembling, a Closer Reading

These verses are spoken inside a vision, to one person, at the edge of a war; the Lord takes away Arjuna's claim to be the author of the outcome and his fear, not his action (11.32-34).

Deeper English 18 min Merely an Instrument

Article

Gita 12.13-20: The Devotee Dear to the Lord, a Close Reading

The eight closing verses of chapter 12 draw one person: the centre is mind and intellect offered to the Lord (12.14), and the marks are what that centre looks like in dealing with beings, feelings, events and work (12.13-19).

Deeper English 18 min The Devotee Dear to the Lord

Article

Gita 2.31-37, a Close Reading: How Far Does the Appeal to Duty, Honour and Fear Go?

The Lord speaks to Arjuna on his own ground: his duty, his name and what others will say (2.31-37).

Deeper English 12 min Duty, Honour and Fear

Article

Gita 2.31-37: What the Lord Says to Arjuna About Duty, Disgrace and Fear

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

Gita Chapter 12, Read Closely: Four Places Where It Seems to Pull Two Ways

Chapter 12 does not defeat any path: it says which road is easier for a person in a body, gives four steps by capacity, and makes conduct the proof of devotion (12.1-20).

Deeper English 14 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

Doership in the Gita: A Close Reading of 3.27, 5.8–14 and 18.13–17

The Gita does not remove the doer. It removes the claim that everything is done by me alone and belongs to me alone (3.27, 18.16).

Deeper English 16 min Who Is the Doer?

Article

Gita 12.1-5, a Deeper Reading: Both Roads Reach the Lord, So Why Is the Devotee Called Most United?

Arjuna asks who knows yoga best. The Lord answers in terms of being joined to Him, not of knowing: the one who fixes the mind on Him, stays steady and has supreme faith is the most united (12.2).

Deeper English 12 min Devotion or the Unmanifest

Article

Gita 18.49–56: Freedom Through Action, a Close Reading of the Eight Verses

The eight verses describe freedom through action as one ripening: the doer is cleared of grip, ego and craving, the mind grows serene, devotion brings knowledge of the Lord, and the freed person keeps acting (18.49–56).

Deeper English 19 min Freedom Through Action

Article

How to Cross the Illusory Energy: Gita 7.14-15 Verse by Verse

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

Maya and Refuge: A Close Reading of Gita 7.14-15

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

Who Is the Doer? The Five Causes of Action and the Mistake of 'I Do It All'

The Gita does not remove the doer. It removes the belief that I do everything and that it is all mine (3.27, 18.16).

In Depth English 13 min Who Is the Doer?