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Action Without Claiming the Fruit: Quick Summary

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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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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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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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

Quick summary

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

Quick summary

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

Karma Yoga in Practice: Quick Summary

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

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

Life Feels Too Heavy: What to Give Up and What to Keep, According to the Gita

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

Dreading Monday on Sunday Night: Three Weights of Work Pressure and How the Gita Lightens Each

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

Worn Out From Copying Someone Else? What the Gita Says About Doing Your Own Work in Your Own Way

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

Does Surrender Mean I Stop Trying and Thinking? What the Gita Says

Surrender in the Gita hands over the worry and the claim over the result, and the work and the thinking stay (18.57).

Simple English 2 min The Final Counsel: Surrender, Think, Choose

Article

How Do I Stop Worrying About the Result Without Giving Up on It?

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

I Asked Everyone What to Do and Now I Am More Confused: What the Gita Says

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

I Want to Stop Doing Everything: What the Gita Says About Quitting

No one can do nothing, even for a moment. Breathing, sleeping and thinking are all action (3.5, 3.8).

Simple English 6 min Can We Simply Stop Acting?

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

Surrender and Effort: Testing the Claim That Surrender Means Doing Nothing

The text fails the claim at three points, because it asks for thought, a steady intellect and rising (18.63, 18.57, 2.3).

In Depth English 3 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

Where Should You Start Reading the Gita? A Simple Way to Begin on Day One

You do not need to start at page one; chapter 1 is the scene, and the teaching begins in chapter 2.

Simple English 5 min How to Read the Gita

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

Can Saying "I Am Not the Doer" Excuse My Mistake? What the Gita Says

'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

Do Not Carry Every Outcome Alone: 'Merely an Instrument' in Plain Words

'Merely an instrument' means doing your own work with your whole mind without carrying the burden of being the only cause of the outcome (11.33).

Simple English 6 min Merely an Instrument

Article

Have I Done Too Much Wrong for God to Accept Me? What the Gita Says

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

If Destiny Decides Everything, Why Make an Effort? Gita 18.14, 2.47, 2.40 and 6.40 Answer

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

If Everything Is Fate, Is Hard Work Useless? What the Gita Says

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

Is It All Right to Ask a Question? What Arjuna Teaches Us

The Gita runs on Arjuna's questions, and Lord Krishna turns none of them away (3.2, 3.3).

Simple English 5 min Arjuna's Questions

Article

Karma Yoga in Your Working Day: Four Moments for Every Task

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

My Mind Will Not Stay on God: Where Do I Start? Gita 12.8-11

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

Why 'I Am Not the Doer' Does Not Excuse Us from Responsibility: Gita 3.27, 5.8-9 and 18.14-16

'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

Can You Stay Free While Working? What the Gita Says

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

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

Proud When It Works, Crushed When It Fails: Am I the Only One Behind It?

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?