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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

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Devotion in Practice: Quick Summary

Daily devotion runs in four small moments: a morning offering, one task for the Lord, a pause in a hard meeting, and an evening review.

English 6 min Devotion in Practice

Article

Devotion in Your Day: Four Moments From Morning to Night

Daily devotion has four small moments: a small offering in the morning, one act done for the Lord, a pause in a hard meeting, and a review at night.

In Depth English 5 min Devotion in Practice

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

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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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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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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

Article

No Time for Devotion? Three Short Lines for the Whole Day

Three small moments are enough: a morning offering, one act for the Lord, and a breath with a friendly line in a hard moment.

Simple English 3 min Devotion 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

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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

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Must You Quit Your Work to Find Peace? What the Gita Says

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?

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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

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Praise Lifts You, a Sharp Word Drops You: Keeping the Mind Level, as the Gita Teaches

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

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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

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Action, Knowledge, Meditation or Devotion: Where Should I Begin? The Gita's Own Answer

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

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Busy All Day, Yet Free Inside: What the Gita Means by Doing Nothing in Action

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

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Does the Gita Contradict Itself by Praising Several Paths?

The Gita does not rank the paths against each other, since each praise names who is compared and by what measure (5.2, 6.46, 12.2).

Simple English 2 min The Paths: Action, Knowledge, Devotion

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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?

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Who Is 'Best' in the Gita? Reading the Basis of Each Comparison

Each comparison in the Gita names who is compared and by what measure, and the answers differ from verse to verse.

In Depth English 4 min The Paths: Action, Knowledge, Devotion

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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How to Begin Karma Yoga at Work: One Task, Three Lines

Begin with just one task today. It has three moments: before, during and after.

Simple English 3 min Karma Yoga in Practice

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I Pray Every Day, Yet I Still Get Angry: What the Lord Looks for in a Devotee

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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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Do I Have to Carry Everything Alone? What the Gita Says

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

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God With a Form or Without: Which Way Should I Take?

The Lord says the most united is the one who fixes the mind on Him, stays steady and has supreme faith (12.2).

Simple English 4 min Devotion or the Unmanifest

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

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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

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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?