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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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Buddhi Yoga: The Resolute Intellect: Quick Summary

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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Delusion Gone: I Will Act: Quick Summary

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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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

Quick summary

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

When the Confusion Clears: How to Tell, and How to Begin

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

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

Why Do I Keep Doing What I Know Is Wrong? The Gita's Answer

Arjuna asks why a person does wrong even against his will, as if pushed by force, and the Lord names desire and anger born of passion (3.36–37).

Simple English 6 min The Enemy Called Desire

Article

Putting Down the Load You Think Only You Can Carry: The Gita's Last Counsel

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

Does the Gita Teach War and Violence? What the Verses Say

The Gita opens with the warrior refusing to fight (1.28-47). Everything that follows is an answer to that refusal.

In Depth English 4 min Arjuna's Despondency

Article

When You Cannot Go On and Cannot Decide: What Arjuna Did First

Arjuna, the best archer of his day, trembles and cannot stand on the field (1.29-30). The Gita reports it plainly and does not call it shame.

Simple English 5 min Arjuna's Despondency

Article

Prayer Feels Dry and No One to Talk To? What the Gita Says

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

What Is in the Gita's Eighteen Chapters? A Plain Guide to Where to Start

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

What Is the Bhagavad Gita? A Plain Answer for First-Time Readers

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

When Your Resolve Meets a Face: What Arjuna Saw Between the Two Armies

Arjuna arrived on the field ready to fight, then asked to stand between the armies and see whom he must face.

Simple English 4 min Arjuna on the Field

Article

Afraid of What People Will Say? What the Gita Says About Duty and Disgrace

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

Does a Small Offering Reach God? What the Gita Says About a Leaf and Water

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

How to Stop Worrying About the Result: Offer Your Work

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

Is It Wrong to Ask God for Things? What the Gita Says

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

Is It Wrong to Remember God Only in Trouble?

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

Why Do I Keep Falling into the Same Pattern? What the Gita Says

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