Book Notes/The Bhagavad Gita
Cover of The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita

by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

In "The Bhagavad Gita," Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa conveys profound philosophical and spiritual teachings through a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna, who serves as his charioteer and divine guide. The text emphasizes the importance of self-realization, duty (dharma), and the pursuit of spiritual wisdom. Central themes include the necessity of maintaining equanimity amidst life's dualities,success and failure, pain and pleasure. Krishna advises Arjuna to act selflessly, focusing on his responsibilities without attachment to the outcomes, encapsulated in the idea that one has the right to work but not to the fruits of their labor. The Gita also explores the nature of the self, positing that the eternal soul transcends the physical form, suggesting that true understanding arises from recognizing this unity of existence. The text warns against the distractions of desire, anger, and greed, which bind individuals to suffering. Instead, it advocates for a life of compassion, self-control, and the realization of the divine presence in all beings. Ultimately, "The Bhagavad Gita" serves as a guide for living a righteous life, encouraging individuals to seek inner peace and harmony with the universe while fulfilling their unique destinies. It presents a path to liberation through devotion, right action, and the cultivation of a balanced mind.

30 popular highlights from this book

Key Insights & Memorable Quotes

Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from The Bhagavad Gita:

For the senses wander, and when one lets the mind follow them, it carries wisdom away like a windblown ship on the waters.
It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.
A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return
No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come
The happiness which comes from long practice, which leads to the end of suffering, which at first is like poison, but at last like nectar - this kind of happiness arises from the serenity of one's own mind.
Curving back within myself I create again and again.
Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation.
The peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul.
He who has let go of hatredwho treats all beings with kindnessand compassion, who is always serene,unmoved by pain or pleasure,free of the "I" and "mine,"self-controlled, firm and patient,his whole mind focused on me ---that is the man I love best.
Hell has three hates: lust, anger and greed.
Perform all thy actions with mind concentrated on the Divine, renouncing attachment and looking upon success and failure with an equal eye. Spirituality implies equanimity.[Trans. Purohit Swami]
You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself - without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat.
The man who sees me in everythingand everything within mewill not be lost to me, norwill I ever be lost to him.He who is rooted in onenessrealizes that I amin every being; whereverhe goes, he remains in me.When he sees all being as equalin suffering or in joybecause they are like himself,that man has grown perfect in yoga.
कालो ऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो..... ( I am Time, the great destroyer of the world ~Bhagavad Gita 11.32)
He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.
Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.
I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
The nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.They arise from sense perception,and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.
The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. There was never a time when you and I and all the kings gathered here have not existed and nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist.
They say that life is an accident, driven by sexual desire, that the universe has no moral order, no truth, no God.Driven by insatiable lusts, drunk on the arrogance of power, hypocritical, deluded, their actions foul with self-seeking, tormented by a vast anxiety that continues until their death, convinced that the gratification of desire is life's sole aim, bound by a hundred shackles of hope, enslaved by their greed, they squander their time dishonestly piling up mountains of wealth."Today I got this desire, and tomorrow I will get that one; all these riches are mine, and soon I will have even more. Already I have killed these enemies, and soon I will kill the rest. I am the lord, the enjoyer, successful, happy, and strong, noble, and rich, and famous. Who on earth is my equal?
We behold what we are, and we are what we behold.
He is the source of light in all luminous objects. He is beyond the darkness of matter and is unmanifested. He is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone's heart.
Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion.
The embodied soul is eternal in existence, indestructible, and infinite, only the material body is factually perishable, therefore fight O Arjuna.
we never really encounter the world; all we experience is our own nervous system.
It is Nature that causes all movement. Deluded by the ego, the fool harbors the perception that says "I did it".
We are not cabin-dwellers, born to a life cramped and confined; we are meant to explore, to seek, to push the limits of our potential as human beings. The world of the senses is just a base camp: we are meant to be as much at home in consciousness as in the world of physical reality.
O Krishna, the mind is restless
I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables.
Feelings of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are caused by the contact of the senses with their objects. They come and they go, never lasting long. You must accept them.

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