Bhagavad Gita In English

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18

Arjuna. Fain would I better know, Thou Glorious One! The very truth--Heart's Lord!--of Sannyas, Abstention; and enunciation, Lord! Tyaga; and what separates these twain! Krishna. The poets rightly teach that Sannyas Is the foregoing of all acts which spring Out of desire; and their wisest say Tyaga is renouncing fruit of acts. There be among the saints some who have held All action sinful, and to be renounced; And some who answer, "Nay! the goodly acts-- As worship, penance, alms--must be performed!" Hear now My sentence, Best of Bharatas! 'Tis well set forth, O Chaser of thy Foes! Renunciation is of threefold form, And Worship, Penance, Alms, not to be stayed; Nay, to be gladly done; for all those three Are purifying waters for true souls! Yet must be practised even those high works In yielding up attachment, and all fruit Produced by works. This is My judgment, Prince! This My insuperable and fixed decree! Abstaining from a work by right prescribed Never is meet! So...

Arjuna. If men forsake the holy ordinance, Heedless of Shastras, yet keep faith at heart And worship, what shall be the state of those, Great Krishna! Sattwan, Rajas, Tamas? Say! Krishna. Threefold the faith is of mankind and springs From those three qualities,--becoming "true," Or "passion-stained," or "dark," as thou shalt hear! The faith of each believer, Indian Prince! Conforms itself to what he truly is. Where thou shalt see a worshipper, that one To what he worships lives assimilate, [Such as the shrine, so is the votary,] The "soothfast" souls adore true gods; the souls Obeying Rajas worship Rakshasas Or Yakshas; and the men of Darkness pray To Pretas and to Bhutas. Yea, and those Who practise bitter penance, not enjoined By rightful rule--penance which hath its root In self-sufficient, proud hypocrisies-- Those men, passion-beset, violent, wild, Torturing--the witless ones--My elements Shut in fair company within their flesh, (Nay, Me mys...

Krishna. Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will Always to strive for wisdom; opened hand And governed appetites; and piety, And love of lonely study; humbleness, Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives, Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mind That lightly letteth go what others prize; And equanimity, and charity Which spieth no man's faults; and tenderness Towards all that suffer; a contented heart, Fluttered by no desires; a bearing mild, Modest, and grave, with manhood nobly mixed, With patience, fortitude, and purity; An unrevengeful spirit, never given To rate itself too high;--such be the signs, O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are set On that fair path which leads to heavenly birth! Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride, Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech, And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,-- These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birth Is fated for the regions of the vile. The Heavenly Birth brings to deliverance, So should'st thou kno...

Krishna. Men call the Aswattha,--the Banyan-tree,-- Which hath its boughs beneath, its roots above,-- The ever-holy tree. Yea! for its leaves Are green and waving hymns which whisper Truth! Who knows the Aswattha, knows Veds, and all. Its branches shoot to heaven and sink to earth, Even as the deeds of men, which take their birth From qualities: its silver sprays and blooms, And all the eager verdure of its girth, Leap to quick life at kiss of sun and air, As men's lives quicken to the temptings fair Of wooing sense: its hanging rootlets seek The soil beneath, helping to hold it there, As actions wrought amid this world of men Bind them by ever-tightening bonds again. If ye knew well the teaching of the Tree, What its shape saith; and whence it springs; and, then How it must end, and all the ills of it, The axe of sharp Detachment ye would whet, And cleave the clinging snaky roots, and lay This Aswattha of sense-life low,--to set New growths upspringing to that happier sky,-- Which...

Krishna. Yet farther will I open unto thee This wisdom of all wisdoms, uttermost, The which possessing, all My saints have passed To perfectness. On such high verities Reliant, rising into fellowship With Me, they are not born again at birth Of Kalpas, nor at Pralyas suffer change! This Universe the womb is where I plant Seed of all lives! Thence, Prince of India, comes Birth to all beings! Whoso, Kunti's Son! Mothers each mortal form, Brahma conceives, And I am He that fathers, sending seed! Sattwan, Rajas, and Tamas, so are named The qualities of Nature, "Soothfastness," "Passion," and "Ignorance." These three bind down The changeless Spirit in the changeful flesh. Whereof sweet "Soothfastness," by purity Living unsullied and enlightened, binds The sinless Soul to happiness and truth; And Passion, being kin to appetite, And breeding impulse and propensity, Binds the embodied Soul, O Kunti's Son! By tie of works. But Ignorance, begot Of ...