13भगवद्गीता · The Bhagavad Gita
Eknath Easwaran, translator, Nilgiri Press, second edition 2007
Linked to 25 chapters: supports 9 · contradicts 5 · mechanism 9 · same claim 12 · pairing 6
The Gita is seven hundred verses of a conversation on a battlefield. Arjuna, the finest archer of his age, has his charioteer drive between the two armies before the battle that will decide his family's claim to a throne, sees his teachers, cousins and friends on the other side, and puts down his bow. The charioteer is Krishna, and the eighteen chapters that follow are Krishna's answer to a man who has decided, on the best of grounds, that he cannot act. Easwaran's translation is the one to read first because it makes a single decision about how to read the whole and holds to it. The battlefield, he says, is a backdrop; the subject of the Gita is the war within. Krishna is not an external god who happens to be driving, but the Self at the core of every person, and the dialogue takes place in the depths of consciousness, between the ordinary self that Arjuna stands for and the deepest Self that Krishna speaks from. He does not offer this as conjecture. Krishna says it in the tenth chapter: I am the Self seated in the heart of every creature. Read that way, the Gita is not a philosophy but a handbook, and, as Easwaran says, a handbook makes most sense when it is practised.
This chapter follows Easwaran's edition as a whole: his long introduction, the short essay that stands before each of the eighteen chapters, signed D.M. in this edition, and the translation itself, read straight through as the reading plan asks. Every chapter of the Gita has its own section below. The verses are given in Sanskrit with a plain rendering, about a hundred of the seven hundred, chosen where the introduction and the essays point and where the argument turns; the renderings are made from the Sanskrit and are meant to be plain rather than elegant, and Easwaran's own translation is the one to read with them.
The setting and the reading
Easwaran places the Gita inside the Mahabharata, the vast epic on which every Hindu child is raised, and dates its war to about 1000 BC. But he argues the Gita is not native to the epic. It is an Upanishad in form and spirit, set down by a seer and inserted into the story, and the evidence is in the text: each chapter ends with the same formula naming it an Upanishad, and its counsel, compassion to friend and enemy alike, is at odds with the slaughter that follows in the epic. That is also his answer to the old question of whether the Gita justifies war. Gandhi's answer, which he adopts, is that anyone who practises the Gita sincerely will find out whether harming others remains compatible with it.
Three obstacles stand between a Western reader and the text, and the introduction clears them in order: Hindu religious ideas, the technical vocabulary of yoga, and the many names of God. The devas of the Vedas are the forces of nature personified; the Rig Veda's line that truth is one and people call it by various names is the licence for reading Krishna as he does. From the Upanishads the Gita takes its foundation. Brahman is the changeless ground beneath the flux of name and form. Atman is the Self, a core of consciousness beyond time and change, found when awareness withdraws to a point where the separate ego disappears, and the Upanishads' claim, "That thou art", is that the two are one. Maya, originally a magician's power to make one thing look like another, is the power by which the one appears as many; the world is not unreal, Easwaran insists, the illusion is the sense of separateness. Dharma, from a root meaning to support, is what holds a thing up, its essential nature and, on the largest scale, the order of the whole. Karma is simply what is done, with the law that every act, mental as well as physical, returns to its doer, which he reads as education rather than punishment. From Sankhya the Gita takes its analytic vocabulary without joining the school: prakriti, the field of everything that can be known, mind included; purusha, the knower, consciousness itself; and the three gunas, tamas, rajas and sattva, inertia, activity and harmony, which he illustrates as ice, a river and harnessed steam, and as the unconscious, the racing ordinary mind and the higher mind. He warns that his English for the twenty-four constituents of Sankhya is approximate and can be skipped.
One more thing about the text's shape is worth having before the chapters. It is a dialogue, and Arjuna does not stop talking after chapter 1. He asks for teaching in chapter 2, objects that the teaching is inconsistent in chapter 3, asks what drives a man to wrong against his will, doubts Krishna's claim to have taught the ancients, asks which of two paths is better, says the mind cannot be held, asks what happens to one who fails, asks for the meaning of six technical words, asks to be shown, asks whether to love the formless or the personal, asks how to recognise one who has gone beyond the strands, asks about faith outside the scriptures, and opens the last chapter with the question he began with. The essays note that he resists throughout and that Krishna adapts rather than abandons him.
Chapter 1: the war within
The first chapter is the bridge from the epic, and the essay calls it a perilous one that need not detain the reader long. It opens on the blind king Dhritarashtra asking his minister what happened, and the whole Gita is the minister's report.
मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत संजय ॥ १ ॥
māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāścaiva kimakurvata saṃjaya
1.1Dhritarashtra said: On the field of dharma, the field of Kuru, gathered and eager to fight, what did my people and the Pandavas do, Sanjaya?
Easwaran's introduction makes a point of the first word. The Gita opens not on Kurukshetra but on dharmakshetra, the field of dharma, and the reader is told before anything else what kind of field this is. The armies are named, the conches sound, and Arjuna asks to be driven between the lines to see whom he must fight. He sees fathers, teachers, uncles, sons and friends, and the essay observes that Duryodhana has already noted the irony that Drona taught both sides.
न च शक्नोम्यवस्थातुं भ्रमतीव च मे मनः ॥ ३० ॥
na ca śaknomyavasthātuṃ bhramatīva ca me manaḥ
1.30The bow Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin burns all over. I cannot stand; my mind seems to reel.
विसृज्य सशरं चापं शोकसंविग्नमानसः ॥ ४७ ॥
visṛjya saśaraṃ cāpaṃ śokasaṃvignamānasaḥ
1.47Sanjaya said: So spoke Arjuna in the midst of the battle, and casting aside his bow and arrows he sank down on the seat of the chariot, his mind overcome with grief.
Arjuna's reasons are good ones: the destruction of families, the loss of tradition, the futility of a kingdom won by killing those it would be enjoyed with. The essay reports the long dispute over whether the Gita condones war and gives Gandhi's position: to read it as a licence for violence is to weigh only its opening verses. Easwaran's own reading is that the war is the one every reader is in.
Chapter 2: the whole in outline
The essay calls the second chapter a kind of overview of the sixteen to come. Krishna's first words are a rebuke; Arjuna's reply is to ask, formally, to be taught, and with that the dialogue becomes instruction.
यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मे शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम् ॥ ७ ॥
yacchreyaḥ syānniścitaṃ brūhi tanme śiṣyaste'haṃ śādhi māṃ tvāṃ prapannam
2.7My nature is overcome by the fault of pity, my mind confused about what is right. I ask you: tell me for certain what is better. I am your disciple; teach me, who have come to you.
Krishna does not begin with a graded path. He begins, the essay says, with the ultimate premise: the Self is never born and never dies.
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥ ११ ॥
gatāsūnagatāsūṃśca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
2.11You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, and yet you speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living.
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ १३ ॥
tathā dehāntaraprāptirdhīrastatra na muhyati
2.13As the embodied one passes in this body through childhood, youth and age, so it passes into another body. The wise are not confused by this.
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥ १४ ॥
āgamāpāyino'nityāstāṃstitikṣasva bhārata
2.14Contacts of the senses with their objects, Arjuna, give cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go; they do not last. Bear them, Arjuna.
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥ २० ॥
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato'yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
2.20It is never born and never dies; having been, it will not cease to be. Unborn, eternal, everlasting, ancient, it is not slain when the body is slain.
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥ २२ ॥
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānyanyāni saṃyāti navāni dehī
2.22As a man casts off worn-out clothes and takes new ones, so the embodied one casts off worn-out bodies and enters others that are new.
Easwaran's introduction reads 2.22 as saying that for the realised person death is no more traumatic than taking off an old coat, and 2.14 and 2.15 as the reason consciousness must be withdrawn from the pull of the senses: what they deliver does not stay. Then Krishna turns from the eternal to the practical, and announces that the reasoning so far has been Sankhya and what follows is yoga.
ततो युद्धाय युज्यस्व नैवं पापमवाप्स्यसि ॥ ३८ ॥
tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṃ pāpamavāpsyasi
2.38Holding pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as the same, then gird yourself for battle. So you will incur no wrong.
स्वल्पमप्यस्य धर्मस्य त्रायते महतो भयात् ॥ ४० ॥
svalpamapyasya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt
2.40Here no effort is lost and no setback is found. Even a little of this practice protects from great fear.
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥ ४७ ॥
mā karmaphalaheturbhūrmā te saṅgo'stvakarmaṇi
2.47Your right is to the action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruit of action be your motive; and do not let your attachment be to inaction.
सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते ॥ ४८ ॥
siddhyasiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṃ yoga ucyate
2.48Established in yoga, do your work, Arjuna, having let go of attachment, the same in success and failure. Evenness is called yoga.
The verse has four clauses and Easwaran, following Gandhi, reads all four: the right is to the work; not to its results; the results must not be the motive; and the conclusion must not be to do nothing. Renunciation, a bleak word in English, is renunciation of selfishness, not of things, and not of action. Kama is not desire, which is the fuel of life, but selfish desire. Work done without it is what Gandhi called nishkama karma, and Easwaran's test for it is not what is done but the state of mind in which it is done; philanthropy can fail it and a kitchen can pass. Two verses later Krishna defines yoga a second time.
तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलम् ॥ ५० ॥
tasmādyogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam
2.50One joined to understanding leaves behind, here and now, both good and ill deeds. So yoke yourself to yoga: yoga is skill in action.
Arjuna then asks the question the second chapter is remembered for: what does such a person look like, how does he speak, sit, walk? Krishna's answer, verses 55 to 72, is the first of three portraits of the realised person that Easwaran finds at the beginning, middle and end of the Gita, and the one Gandhi said held the key to the whole.
आत्मन्येवात्मना तुष्टः स्थितप्रज्ञस्तदोच्यते ॥ ५५ ॥
ātmanyevātmanā tuṣṭaḥ sthitaprajñastadocyate
2.55When a man gives up all the desires that enter the mind, Arjuna, content in the Self by the Self alone, he is called one of steady wisdom.
वीतरागभयक्रोधः स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते ॥ ५६ ॥
vītarāgabhayakrodhaḥ sthitadhīrmunirucyate
2.56One whose mind is untroubled in sorrows and without craving in pleasures, from whom passion, fear and anger have gone, is called a sage of steady wisdom.
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥ ५८ ॥
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyastasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā
2.58When he draws his senses in from their objects on every side, as a tortoise draws in its limbs, his wisdom stands firm.
The answer is not a list of virtues. It is the banishing of selfish desire, and everything else in the portrait follows from that. In the middle of it Krishna gives the mechanism of the opposite case, the sequence by which a mind comes apart, and the essay quotes it in full.
सङ्गात्संजायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ॥ ६२ ॥
saṅgātsaṃjāyate kāmaḥ kāmātkrodho'bhijāyate
2.62When a man dwells on objects, attachment to them is born; from attachment, desire; from desire, anger.
स्मृतिभ्रंशाद्बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति ॥ ६३ ॥
smṛtibhraṃśādbuddhināśo buddhināśātpraṇaśyati
2.63From anger comes delusion; from delusion, confusion of memory; from confusion of memory, the loss of judgment; when judgment is lost, he is lost.
आत्मवश्यैर्विधेयात्मा प्रसादमधिगच्छति ॥ ६४ ॥
ātmavaśyairvidheyātmā prasādamadhigacchati
2.64But one who moves among objects with the senses under his own control, free of attraction and aversion, attains serenity.
तद्वत्कामा यं प्रविशन्ति सर्वे स शान्तिमाप्नोति न कामकामी ॥ ७० ॥
tadvatkāmā yaṃ praviśanti sarve sa śāntimāpnoti na kāmakāmī
2.70As the waters enter the sea, which is being filled and yet stands unmoved, so all desires enter him; he attains peace, not the desirer of desires.
निर्ममो निरहंकारः स शान्तिमधिगच्छति ॥ ७१ ॥
nirmamo nirahaṃkāraḥ sa śāntimadhigacchati
2.71The man who gives up all desires and moves without longing, without "mine", without "I", attains peace.
स्थित्वास्यामन्तकालेऽपि ब्रह्मनिर्वाणमृच्छति ॥ ७२ ॥
sthitvāsyāmantakāle'pi brahmanirvāṇamṛcchati
2.72This is the state of Brahman, Arjuna. Having reached it, one is not deluded. Standing in it even at the last hour, one attains the extinction that is Brahman.
Chapter 3: selfless service
Arjuna's response to the overview is to change the subject. He does not want the nature of the soul; he wants to know what to do next, and complains that Krishna's words are inconsistent: if knowledge is higher, why fight? Easwaran calls him the faithful representative of you and me. Krishna's answer is that there are two paths, the contemplative and the active, and that neither begins with doing nothing.
न च संन्यसनादेव सिद्धिं समधिगच्छति ॥ ४ ॥
na ca saṃnyasanādeva siddhiṃ samadhigacchati
3.4Not by refraining from action does a man reach freedom from action, and not by renunciation alone does he attain perfection.
कार्यते ह्यवशः कर्म सर्वः प्रकृतिजैर्गुणैः ॥ ५ ॥
kāryate hyavaśaḥ karma sarvaḥ prakṛtijairguṇaiḥ
3.5No one ever remains even a moment without acting. Everyone is made to act, helplessly, by the strands born of nature.
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः ॥ ८ ॥
śarīrayātrāpi ca te na prasiddhyedakarmaṇaḥ
3.8Do the action that is your task, for action is better than inaction. Even the upkeep of your body cannot be managed without action.
Since action is unavoidable, the only question is its spirit, and the chapter's word for the right spirit is yajna, offering. Life turns on a cycle of giving, and one who takes from it without giving back is, in Krishna's word, a thief. The wise act for the holding-together of the world, as Janaka the royal sage did, and as Krishna himself does, having nothing to gain.
असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः ॥ १९ ॥
asakto hyācarankarma paramāpnoti pūruṣaḥ
3.19Therefore, unattached, always do the work that must be done; doing work without attachment, a man reaches the highest.
स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते ॥ २१ ॥
sa yatpramāṇaṃ kurute lokastadanuvartate
3.21Whatever the best man does, others do; whatever standard he sets, the world follows.
अहंकारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते ॥ २७ ॥
ahaṃkāravimūḍhātmā kartāhamiti manyate
3.27All actions are performed by the strands of nature. One whose self is deluded by the I-maker thinks, "I am the doer."
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥ ३५ ॥
svadharme nidhanaṃ śreyaḥ paradharmo bhayāvahaḥ
3.35Better one's own duty done imperfectly than another's done well. Better to die in one's own duty; another's duty brings fear.
Arjuna asks what force drives a man to wrong even against his will, as if compelled. The answer is the chapter's other half.
महाशनो महापाप्मा विद्ध्येनमिह वैरिणम् ॥ ३७ ॥
mahāśano mahāpāpmā viddhyenamiha vairiṇam
3.37It is desire, it is anger, born of the strand of passion, all-devouring and greatly harmful. Know this to be the enemy here.
मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः ॥ ४२ ॥
manasastu parā buddhiryo buddheḥ paratastu saḥ
3.42The senses, they say, are high; higher than the senses is the mind; higher than the mind is the intellect; and what is higher than the intellect is he.
Selfish desire, the text says, hides knowledge as smoke hides fire and dust a mirror, and lodges in the senses, the mind and the intellect. The ladder of verse 42 is the strategy: know what is highest, and from there subdue the self by the Self.
Chapter 4: wisdom in action
Krishna says he taught this yoga at the beginning of time, and Arjuna, still stuck on his predicament, objects that Krishna was born long after the sages he claims to have taught. The reply is the doctrine of rebirth and of the avatar: Krishna remembers all his births, and whenever dharma declines he takes a form. The essay makes the move on which Easwaran's edition rests: when Krishna speaks of himself, he is often describing the Self in every person.
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥ ७ ॥
abhyutthānamadharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmyaham
4.7Whenever there is a decline of dharma, Arjuna, and a rise of its opposite, then I send myself forth.
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः ॥ ११ ॥
mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
4.11As they come to me, so I receive them. People follow my path in every way, Arjuna.
Verse 11 is the one the introduction cites for the compassionate view of evolution: every path is a path to the same place. Then the chapter's central riddle.
स बुद्धिमान्मनुष्येषु स युक्तः कृत्स्नकर्मकृत् ॥ १८ ॥
sa buddhimānmanuṣyeṣu sa yuktaḥ kṛtsnakarmakṛt
4.18One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among men; he is in yoga, and has done all that is to be done.
Easwaran reads it with the mystics. It is action of the most tireless kind; the only thing inactive is the ego. The rest of the chapter is a survey of offerings, of wealth, of the senses, of breath, of study, all of them born of work and all leading to the same knowledge, and a statement of how that knowledge is got.
उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिनस्तत्त्वदर्शिनः ॥ ३४ ॥
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṃ jñāninastattvadarśinaḥ
4.34Learn it by prostration, by questioning, by service. The knowers who see the truth will teach you knowledge.
ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा ॥ ३७ ॥
jñānāgniḥ sarvakarmāṇi bhasmasātkurute tathā
4.37As a kindled fire reduces its fuel to ashes, Arjuna, so the fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes.
Wisdom, the essay concludes, is the fruit of action: knowing comes from doing. The chapter closes with Krishna telling Arjuna to cut the doubt in his heart with the sword of knowledge and stand up.
Chapter 5: renounce and rejoice
Arjuna asks the obvious question: Krishna has praised both giving up action and doing it selflessly, so which is better? The essay contrasts leaving the world, with the Buddha as the classic case, and working in it unattached.
तयोस्तु कर्मसंन्यासात्कर्मयोगो विशिष्यते ॥ २ ॥
tayostu karmasaṃnyāsātkarmayogo viśiṣyate
5.2Both renunciation and the yoga of action lead to the highest good. But of the two, the yoga of action is better than the renunciation of action.
पश्यञ्श्रृण्वन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वपञ्श्वसन् ॥ ८ ॥
paśyañśrṛṇvanspṛśañjighrannaśnangacchansvapañśvasan
5.8"I do nothing at all": so thinks the man of yoga who knows the truth, while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing.
लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा ॥ १० ॥
lipyate na sa pāpena padmapatramivāmbhasā
5.10One who acts having placed his actions in Brahman and let go of attachment is not stained by evil, as a lotus leaf is not stained by water.
Only the immature, Krishna says, think knowledge and action are different; the two goals are one. The image for why selfless work cannot stain is the lotus leaf, dry in the water. Then the portrait of equal vision.
शुनि चैव श्वपाके च पण्डिताः समदर्शिनः ॥ १८ ॥
śuni caiva śvapāke ca paṇḍitāḥ samadarśinaḥ
5.18In a brahmin endowed with learning and humility, in a cow, an elephant, a dog and an eater of dogs, the wise see the same.
विगतेच्छाभयक्रोधो यः सदा मुक्त एव सः ॥ २८ ॥
vigatecchābhayakrodho yaḥ sadā mukta eva saḥ
5.28With senses, mind and intellect controlled, intent on release, with desire, fear and anger gone, the sage is freed for ever.
The essay notes the word sada, always, in verse 28: what was a state to be entered has become permanent, which is what the Gita means by freedom.
Chapter 6: the practice of meditation
The essay calls this the most intriguing chapter, because meditation is explained plainly to the layperson, without the technical apparatus of Patanjali. Krishna first disposes of the yogi on his bed of nails: the true renouncer is the one who works without expecting reward. Then the principle Easwaran names as the centre of yoga.
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥ ५ ॥
ātmaiva hyātmano bandhurātmaiva ripurātmanaḥ
6.5Let a man raise himself by himself; let him not lower himself. The self alone is the self's friend; the self alone is the self's enemy.
अनात्मनस्तु शत्रुत्वे वर्तेतात्मैव शत्रुवत् ॥ ६ ॥
anātmanastu śatrutve vartetātmaiva śatruvat
6.6For one who has conquered himself by himself, the self is a friend; for one who has not, the self remains hostile, like an enemy.
The essay points out that the verse plays on the one word atman, self, throughout, and Easwaran renders the first half as reshaping oneself through the will. Then the method: a clean place, a firm seat, the body straight, the gaze steady, and moderation in everything.
युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगो भवति दुःखहा ॥ १७ ॥
yuktasvapnāvabodhasya yogo bhavati duḥkhahā
6.17For one moderate in food and recreation, moderate in effort in his actions, moderate in sleep and waking, yoga becomes the destroyer of sorrow.
योगिनो यतचित्तस्य युञ्जतो योगमात्मनः ॥ १९ ॥
yogino yatacittasya yuñjato yogamātmanaḥ
6.19As a lamp in a windless place does not flicker: that is the likeness given for the yogi whose mind is controlled, practising the yoga of the self.
यत्र चैवात्मनात्मानं पश्यन्नात्मनि तुष्यति ॥ २० ॥
yatra caivātmanātmānaṃ paśyannātmani tuṣyati
6.20Where the mind, restrained by the practice of yoga, comes to rest; where, seeing the Self by the self, one is content in the Self;
ईक्षते योगयुक्तात्मा सर्वत्र समदर्शनः ॥ २९ ॥
īkṣate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḥ
6.29One whose self is joined in yoga, who sees the same everywhere, sees the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self.
सुखं वा यदि वा दुःखं स योगी परमो मतः ॥ ३२ ॥
sukhaṃ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṃ sa yogī paramo mataḥ
6.32One who sees everywhere the same, by likeness to himself, Arjuna, whether in pleasure or in pain, is held the highest yogi.
The lamp of verse 19 is the image that later texts, the Dṛg-Dṛśya-Viveka among them, take from here. Verse 32, responding to another's joy and sorrow as one's own, is for Easwaran the highest state of spiritual union and one of his two answers to the reading of the Gita as a licence for war. Arjuna interrupts twice.
तस्याहं निग्रहं मन्ये वायोरिव सुदुष्करम् ॥ ३४ ॥
tasyāhaṃ nigrahaṃ manye vāyoriva suduṣkaram
6.34For the mind is restless, Krishna, turbulent, strong and obstinate. To hold it, I think, is as hard as holding the wind.
अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते ॥ ३५ ॥
abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyate
6.35Without doubt, Arjuna, the mind is hard to hold and restless. But by practice and by dispassion it is held.
न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद्दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति ॥ ४० ॥
na hi kalyāṇakṛtkaściddurgatiṃ tāta gacchati
6.40Arjuna, neither here nor hereafter is there destruction for him. No one who does good, my friend, comes to a bad end.
The second interruption is the fear of failing halfway and losing both worlds, like a cloud torn apart in the sky. The answer is that no effort is lost: the one who falls short is born again where the practice can resume, and is carried on by the strength of what was done before.
Chapter 7: wisdom from realisation
The middle six chapters turn from the seeker to the sought, and the essays are frank that they are the hardest for a Western reader. The seventh opens with the distinction its title carries: jnana, knowledge, and vijnana, realisation, which the essay illustrates with Ramakrishna's comparison of one who has read about fire and one who has cooked on it.
अहंकार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा ॥ ४ ॥
ahaṃkāra itīyaṃ me bhinnā prakṛtiraṣṭadhā
7.4Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and the sense of "I": this is my nature, divided eightfold.
जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ॥ ५ ॥
jīvabhūtāṃ mahābāho yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat
7.5That is the lower. Know my other, higher nature, Arjuna, the living self by which this world is upheld.
मयि सर्वमिदं प्रोतं सूत्रे मणिगणा इव ॥ ७ ॥
mayi sarvamidaṃ protaṃ sūtre maṇigaṇā iva
7.7There is nothing higher than me, Arjuna. All this is strung on me like pearls on a thread.
Krishna's two natures are Sankhya's two categories in the first person: prakriti, here listed in eight parts, and the knower. What follows is a litany of immanence, the taste in water, the light in sun and moon, the life in all beings, the strength in the strong, and desire itself where it does not conflict with dharma. The gunas come from him and he is not in them; they are his maya, hard to cross, and crossed by those who take refuge in him.
आर्तो जिज्ञासुरर्थार्थी ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ ॥ १६ ॥
ārto jijñāsurarthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha
7.16Four kinds of people who do good worship me, Arjuna: the one in distress, the one who seeks knowledge, the one who seeks some good, and the one who knows.
वासुदेवः सर्वमिति स महात्मा सुदुर्लभः ॥ १९ ॥
vāsudevaḥ sarvamiti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
7.19At the end of many births the man of knowledge comes to me, seeing that all this is Vasudeva. Such a great soul is very hard to find.
सर्वभूतानि संमोहं सर्गे यान्ति परन्तप ॥ २७ ॥
sarvabhūtāni saṃmohaṃ sarge yānti parantapa
7.27By the delusion of the pairs, Arjuna, which arises from desire and aversion, all beings at birth go into confusion.
The essay glosses moha, the confusion of verse 27, as dreaming while awake, and notes that the delusion begins at birth, as a swoon one has to be woken from. The chapter's other verse the introduction singles out is 7.21, that whatever form a person worships with faith, Krishna makes that faith steady, which Easwaran calls the most compassionate insight into human evolution ever expressed.
Chapter 8: the eternal Godhead
Arjuna asks the meaning of six technical words from the end of the last chapter, and the real question underneath, how Krishna is to be known at the hour of death. The essay is the longest of the eighteen and the most technical, and it is candid that the anatomy of dying it contains is for those who can interpret it.
यः प्रयाति स मद्भावं याति नास्त्यत्र संशयः ॥ ५ ॥
yaḥ prayāti sa madbhāvaṃ yāti nāstyatra saṃśayaḥ
8.5And one who at the end of life goes forth leaving the body remembering me alone, comes to my being. Of this there is no doubt.
तं तमेवैति कौन्तेय सदा तद्भावभावितः ॥ ६ ॥
taṃ tamevaiti kaunteya sadā tadbhāvabhāvitaḥ
8.6Whatever state of being a man remembers when at the end he leaves the body, to that very state he goes, Arjuna, always formed by it.
मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्मामेवैष्यस्यसंशयम् ॥ ७ ॥
mayyarpitamanobuddhirmāmevaiṣyasyasaṃśayam
8.7Therefore remember me at all times, and fight. With mind and understanding set on me, you will come to me without doubt.
The teaching is that what fills the mind at death directs where it goes, and the practical conclusion is that one should practise remembering now, since the last thought is the sum of all the others. The introduction cites 8.7 for its combination: remember, and fight. Then the instructions for the yogi at the moment itself.
मूर्ध्न्याधायात्मनः प्राणमास्थितो योगधारणाम् ॥ १२ ॥
mūrdhnyādhāyātmanaḥ prāṇamāsthito yogadhāraṇām
8.12Closing all the gates, confining the mind in the heart, placing his own breath in the head, established in the concentration of yoga,
यः स सर्वेषु भूतेषु नश्यत्सु न विनश्यति ॥ २० ॥
yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati
8.20But beyond that unmanifest there is another, eternal unmanifest being, which does not perish when all beings perish.
The chapter gives the days and nights of Brahma, each a thousand ages long, in which all forms come forth and are withdrawn, and beyond that cycle the unmanifest that does not dissolve, which is Krishna's home. It ends with the two paths after death, of light and of smoke, the northern and the southern course of the sun, one to liberation and one to return.
Chapter 9: the royal path
Krishna announces the most secret knowledge, royal and easy to practise, and the essay's summary is that all worship, even of lesser gods and even for gain, is worship of Krishna unknowing, and that the way back is always open.
मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ॥ ४ ॥
matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṃ teṣvavasthitaḥ
9.4By me, in my unmanifest form, all this world is pervaded. All beings rest in me, and I do not rest in them.
प्रभवः प्रलयः स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम् ॥ १८ ॥
prabhavaḥ pralayaḥ sthānaṃ nidhānaṃ bījamavyayam
9.18I am the goal, the sustainer, the lord, the witness, the abode, the refuge, the friend; the origin, the dissolution, the ground, the resting place, the imperishable seed.
तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् ॥ २२ ॥
teṣāṃ nityābhiyuktānāṃ yogakṣemaṃ vahāmyaham
9.22To those who worship me thinking of nothing else, always joined in yoga, I bring what they lack and preserve what they have.
Those who follow the Vedic rituals for reward, Krishna says, reach heaven and, when their merit is spent, return; those who worship other gods worship him without knowing it and go where their worship takes them. The chapter's practical verses are the ones the introduction calls the refrain of the Gita.
तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः ॥ २६ ॥
tadahaṃ bhaktyupahṛtamaśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ
9.26Whoever offers me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, that offering of devotion from a pure heart I accept.
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ॥ २७ ॥
yattapasyasi kaunteya tatkuruṣva madarpaṇam
9.27Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, whatever you give, whatever austerity you practise, Arjuna, do it as an offering to me.
ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम् ॥ २९ ॥
ye bhajanti tu māṃ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpyaham
9.29I am the same to all beings; none is hateful to me and none dear. But those who worship me with devotion are in me, and I in them.
मामेवैष्यसि युक्त्वैवमात्मानं मत्परायणः ॥ ३४ ॥
māmevaiṣyasi yuktvaivamātmānaṃ matparāyaṇaḥ
9.34Fix your mind on me, be devoted to me, offer to me, bow to me. Having joined yourself to me thus, with me as your goal, you will come to me.
The essay pauses on the word sudurachara in verse 30, the one of very bad conduct who is nevertheless to be counted good if he turns wholly to Krishna, and on the verse after it, that no one devoted to him is lost. Verse 34 is repeated almost word for word at the end of chapter 18, and Easwaran sets it beside the commandments of Moses, Jesus and Mohammed.
Chapter 10: divine splendour
Krishna is the source of gods and sages alike, and the qualities of creatures, understanding, forgiveness, fear, courage, fame, come from him. Arjuna, no longer a warrior but a seeker, asks how to meditate on him and in what things he is to be found.
इति मत्वा भजन्ते मां बुधा भावसमन्विताः ॥ ८ ॥
iti matvā bhajante māṃ budhā bhāvasamanvitāḥ
10.8I am the origin of all; from me everything proceeds. Knowing this, the wise worship me, filled with feeling.
ददामि बुद्धियोगं तं येन मामुपयान्ति ते ॥ १० ॥
dadāmi buddhiyogaṃ taṃ yena māmupayānti te
10.10To those who are always joined to me and worship me with love, I give the yoga of understanding by which they come to me.
अहमादिश्च मध्यं च भूतानामन्त एव च ॥ २० ॥
ahamādiśca madhyaṃ ca bhūtānāmanta eva ca
10.20I am the Self, Arjuna, seated in the heart of every creature; I am the beginning, the middle and the end of beings.
The list of manifestations that follows, Vishnu among gods, the sun among lights, the mind among senses, Om among words, the lion, the Ganges, time among the things that measure, the essay admits is hard going for the names. It notes that the Self is listed first, and that this is fitting, since the Self is the form in which Arjuna is being asked to meditate. It is the verse on which Easwaran's reading of the whole Gita depends. Krishna ends the list by dismissing it.
तत्तदेवावगच्छ त्वं मम तेजोंऽशसंभवम् ॥ ४१ ॥
tattadevāvagaccha tvaṃ mama tejoṃ'śasaṃbhavam
10.41Whatever being is glorious, prosperous or strong, know that it springs from a fragment of my splendour.
विष्टभ्याहमिदं कृत्स्नमेकांशेन स्थितो जगत् ॥ ४२ ॥
viṣṭabhyāhamidaṃ kṛtsnamekāṃśena sthito jagat
10.42But what is the use to you, Arjuna, of knowing all this? I stand supporting this whole world with a single fragment of myself.
Chapter 11: the cosmic vision
Arjuna asks to see, and the essay calls this the most exalted chapter of the Gita. It explains why the vision comes now: Arjuna has been led step by step, and in the last chapter asked for the first time how to contemplate. What he is given he cannot see with his own eyes.
दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षुः पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ॥ ८ ॥
divyaṃ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ paśya me yogamaiśvaram
11.8But you cannot see me with this eye of yours. I give you a divine eye: behold my sovereign yoga.
यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः ॥ १२ ॥
yadi bhāḥ sadṛśī sā syādbhāsastasya mahātmanaḥ
11.12If the light of a thousand suns were to rise at once in the sky, that would be like the light of that great being.
Arjuna sees all beings in one form, without beginning, middle or end, and then sees the form's mouths and the warriors of both armies rushing into them like rivers into the sea and moths into a flame. He asks who this is, and the answer is the verse that came to Oppenheimer at the first nuclear test.
11.32I am time, grown old, the destroyer of worlds, come forth here to consume the worlds. Even without you, none of the warriors drawn up in the opposing ranks will survive.
11.33Therefore stand up and win glory; conquer your enemies and enjoy a prosperous kingdom. They have already been slain by me. Be merely the instrument, Arjuna.
The essay notes that the word Oppenheimer rendered as death, kala, means time, and reads the chapter as Arjuna's samadhi, first with form, in which he sees God personally, and then without, in which forms dissolve into consuming fire. It also notes Arjuna's courage: he does not break down, but asks for the human face again, and is given it. The chapter ends with how such a vision is to be had, and it is not by study.
ज्ञातुं द्रष्टुं च तत्त्वेन प्रवेष्टुं च परंतप ॥ ५४ ॥
jñātuṃ draṣṭuṃ ca tattvena praveṣṭuṃ ca paraṃtapa
11.54But by undivided devotion, Arjuna, I can be known in this way, seen in truth, and entered.
निर्वैरः सर्वभूतेषु यः स मामेति पाण्डव ॥ ५५ ॥
nirvairaḥ sarvabhūteṣu yaḥ sa māmeti pāṇḍava
11.55One who does my work, holds me highest, is devoted to me, free of attachment and without enmity toward any being, comes to me, Arjuna.
Chapter 12: the way of love
Arjuna asks a plain question, whether it is better to worship the formless or the personal God, and the essay treats the answer as the Gita's departure from the Upanishads: the formless is real and reachable, but for beings with bodies the way to it is slow and hard, and love of a personal God is vastly easier.
श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मताः ॥ २ ॥
śraddhayā parayopetāste me yuktatamā matāḥ
12.2Those who fix their mind on me and, always joined in yoga, worship me with supreme faith, I hold to be the most accomplished in yoga.
अव्यक्ता हि गतिर्दुःखं देहवद्भिरवाप्यते ॥ ५ ॥
avyaktā hi gatirduḥkhaṃ dehavadbhiravāpyate
12.5Greater is the toil of those whose minds are set on the unmanifest; for the unmanifest goal is hard for the embodied to reach.
Then a descending ladder of practice for those who cannot manage the first step, which the essay singles out as the chapter's practical core.
निवसिष्यसि मय्येव अत ऊर्ध्वं न संशयः ॥ ८ ॥
nivasiṣyasi mayyeva ata ūrdhvaṃ na saṃśayaḥ
12.8Fix your mind on me alone, let your understanding enter me; you will dwell in me hereafter, there is no doubt.
अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनंजय ॥ ९ ॥
abhyāsayogena tato māmicchāptuṃ dhanaṃjaya
12.9But if you cannot hold your mind steadily on me, then seek to reach me by the practice of yoga, Arjuna.
मदर्थमपि कर्माणि कुर्वन्सिद्धिमवाप्स्यसि ॥ १० ॥
madarthamapi karmāṇi kurvansiddhimavāpsyasi
12.10If you are unable even to practise, be intent on doing work for me; even doing actions for my sake, you will reach perfection.
सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं ततः कुरु यतात्मवान् ॥ ११ ॥
sarvakarmaphalatyāgaṃ tataḥ kuru yatātmavān
12.11If you are unable to do even this, then, resorting to my yoga, give up the fruit of all action, with the self restrained.
ध्यानात्कर्मफलत्यागस्त्यागाच्छान्तिरनन्तरम् ॥ १२ ॥
dhyānātkarmaphalatyāgastyāgācchāntiranantaram
12.12Better than practice is knowledge; better than knowledge is meditation; better than meditation is giving up the fruit of action, for from that comes peace at once.
The essay notes the apparent contradiction between the ladder, which puts surrender of results last, and verse 12, which puts it highest, and resolves it as Easwaran does: the last resort is also the one that works. Then the second of the three portraits, the marks of the one Krishna calls dear.
निर्ममो निरहंकारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी ॥ १३ ॥
nirmamo nirahaṃkāraḥ samaduḥkhasukhaḥ kṣamī
12.13Hating no creature, friendly and compassionate, without "mine", without "I", the same in pain and pleasure, patient,
मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ॥ १४ ॥
mayyarpitamanobuddhiryo madbhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ
12.14content always, a yogi, self-controlled, of firm resolve, with mind and understanding given to me: such a devotee of mine is dear to me.
श्रद्दधाना मत्परमा भक्तास्तेऽतीव मे प्रियाः ॥ २० ॥
śraddadhānā matparamā bhaktāste'tīva me priyāḥ
12.20But those who honour this immortal dharma as I have told it, with faith, holding me highest, those devotees are exceedingly dear to me.
The essay sets verses 13 to 20 beside the Cloud of Unknowing and St John of the Cross, and quotes Dionysius on the God who can be gotten by love and by thought never. Its practical claim is that love of this kind is not a temperament some people are issued with at birth. The scriptures let God be loved as a father, a mother, a friend, a beloved or a child, and where the devotion is not forthcoming, as it is not in Arjuna, it is to be cultivated by the same regular practice that steadies anything else.
Chapter 13: the field and the knower
The chapter gives the Gita's two sweeping categories, and the essay likes the modern ring of the first word: a field of physical and mental forces, matter and mind no more separate than matter and energy.
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ॥ १ ॥
etadyo vetti taṃ prāhuḥ kṣetrajña iti tadvidaḥ
13.1This body, Arjuna, is called the field. One who knows it, those who know call the knower of the field.
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम ॥ २ ॥
kṣetrakṣetrajñayorjñānaṃ yattajjñānaṃ mataṃ mama
13.2Know me as the knower of the field in all fields, Arjuna. Knowledge of the field and of its knower is what I hold to be knowledge.
इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचराः ॥ ५ ॥
indriyāṇi daśaikaṃ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ
13.5The great elements, the sense of "I", the intellect and the unmanifest; the ten senses and the one; and the five pastures of the senses;
The field is everything of prakriti, the elements, the senses and their objects, the mind, the intellect and the ego, and everything that arises in it, desire and aversion, pleasure and pain, the body, consciousness, resolve. The essay is careful that "body" in verse 1 is therefore imprecise: the field includes the mind. Then the list of what knowledge is, verses 7 to 11, which the essay calls an attractive picture of the modest, truly wise person, ending in a definition.
एतज्ज्ञानमिति प्रोक्तमज्ञानं यदतोऽन्यथा ॥ ११ ॥
etajjñānamiti proktamajñānaṃ yadato'nyathā
13.11Constancy in the knowledge of the Self, seeing the goal of knowledge of the truth: this is called knowledge; what is other than this is ignorance.
विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसंभवान् ॥ १९ ॥
vikārāṃśca guṇāṃścaiva viddhi prakṛtisaṃbhavān
13.19Know that nature and the knower are both without beginning; and know that the changes and the strands are born of nature.
परमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेऽस्मिन्पुरुषः परः ॥ २२ ॥
paramātmeti cāpyukto dehe'sminpuruṣaḥ paraḥ
13.22The supreme spirit in this body is called the witness, the approver, the supporter, the experiencer, the great lord, the highest Self.
विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ २७ ॥
vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṃ yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati
13.27One who sees the supreme lord standing the same in all beings, the imperishable among the perishing, sees.
यः पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति ॥ २९ ॥
yaḥ paśyati tathātmānamakartāraṃ sa paśyati
13.29One who sees that all actions are performed by nature alone, and that the Self is not the doer, sees.
सर्वत्रावस्थितो देहे तथात्मा नोपलिप्यते ॥ ३२ ॥
sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate
13.32As the all-pervading ether is not tainted, being subtle, so the Self, though present in every body, is not tainted.
The introduction cites 13.29 as its text for actionless action, and 13.27 and 28 against the war reading: those who see the same lord everywhere do not harm themselves or others. Verse 22 gives the Self its titles, of which the first is witness, and the essay observes that the knower's relation to the field is permanent uninvolvement, watching the strands play.
Chapter 14: the forces of evolution
The fourteenth chapter is the gunas in detail, which Easwaran treats as the Gita's account of evolution. Sattva, rajas and tamas are born of nature and bind the embodied one to the body, each in its own way.
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥ ५ ॥
nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam
14.5Sattva, rajas and tamas, the strands born of nature, bind the imperishable embodied one to the body, Arjuna.
ज्ञानमावृत्य तु तमः प्रमादे संजयत्युत ॥ ९ ॥
jñānamāvṛtya tu tamaḥ pramāde saṃjayatyuta
14.9Sattva binds to happiness, rajas to action; but tamas, veiling knowledge, binds to heedlessness.
जघन्यगुणवृत्तिस्था अधो गच्छन्ति तामसाः ॥ १८ ॥
jaghanyaguṇavṛttisthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ
14.18Those who stand in sattva go upward; the passionate stay in the middle; those in the lowest strand's ways go down.
The essay characterises each in evolutionary terms: tamas the dead stability or the slide backwards, rajas ambiguous but the only force that gets a person out of tamas, sattva highest and still to be transcended. No mix of the three is ever stable, and every personality is a shifting balance of them.
Arjuna asks how to recognise one who has gone beyond them, and how they act.
जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर्विमुक्तोऽमृतमश्नुते ॥ २० ॥
janmamṛtyujarāduḥkhairvimukto'mṛtamaśnute
14.20Having gone beyond these three strands from which the body springs, the embodied one, freed from birth, death, age and sorrow, attains immortality.
गुणा वर्तन्त इत्येव योऽवतिष्ठति नेङ्गते ॥ २३ ॥
guṇā vartanta ityeva yo'vatiṣṭhati neṅgate
14.23One who sits as if indifferent, not moved by the strands, who stands and does not waver, thinking "the strands are at work";
स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान्ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते ॥ २६ ॥
sa guṇānsamatītyaitānbrahmabhūyāya kalpate
14.26And one who serves me with the unswerving yoga of devotion, having gone beyond these strands, is fit to become Brahman.
The answer is the same evenness as before, now explained: the illumined see thoughts and moods as the strands at play, not as themselves, and it is devotion, verse 26, that takes Arjuna past them.
Chapter 15: the supreme Self
The essay calls this a difficult, theological chapter. It opens with an image, the world as a fig tree growing upside down, its roots above and its branches below, on which the hymns are the leaves.
छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित् ॥ १ ॥
chandāṃsi yasya parṇāni yastaṃ veda sa vedavit
15.1They speak of an imperishable fig tree with its roots above and branches below, whose leaves are the hymns. One who knows it knows the Veda.
15.3Its form is not seen here as it is, nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its base. Having cut this firm-rooted fig tree with the strong axe of detachment,
यद्गत्वा न निवर्तन्ते तद्धाम परमं मम ॥ ६ ॥
yadgatvā na nivartante taddhāma paramaṃ mama
15.6Neither the sun nor the moon nor fire illumines it. Having gone there, they do not return; that is my supreme abode.
मनःषष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ॥ ७ ॥
manaḥṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛtisthāni karṣati
15.7A fragment of myself, become a living self in the world of the living, eternal, draws to itself the senses, with the mind as the sixth, which rest in nature.
Verse 7 is the Gita's account of the individual: an eternal part of Krishna, carrying senses and mind from body to body as the wind carries scent. Verse 15 gives Krishna's presence in every heart as memory, knowledge and their loss, and the chapter closes on the doctrine the essay draws its line from.
15.15I am seated in the heart of all; from me come memory, knowledge and their removal. I alone am to be known by all the Vedas; I am the maker of the Vedanta and the knower of the Veda.
यो लोकत्रयमाविश्य बिभर्त्यव्यय ईश्वरः ॥ १७ ॥
yo lokatrayamāviśya bibhartyavyaya īśvaraḥ
15.17But there is another, the highest spirit, called the supreme Self, the imperishable lord who enters the three worlds and sustains them.
There are two orders of being, the perishable creatures and the changeless spirit, and beyond both the supreme Self. The essay draws the line Easwaran holds throughout: the liberated Self unites with Krishna and does not become God.
Chapter 16: two paths
The essay calls this the most unusual chapter, the one place the Gita gives the dark side equal time. It opens with the divine qualities, fearlessness first.
दानं दमश्च यज्ञश्च स्वाध्यायस्तप आर्जवम् ॥ १ ॥
dānaṃ damaśca yajñaśca svādhyāyastapa ārjavam
16.1Fearlessness, purity of being, steadiness in the yoga of knowledge, giving, self-control, sacrifice, study, austerity, uprightness,
अज्ञानं चाभिजातस्य पार्थ संपदमासुरीम् ॥ ४ ॥
ajñānaṃ cābhijātasya pārtha saṃpadamāsurīm
16.4Hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance, Arjuna, belong to one born to the demonic lot.
मा शुचः संपदं दैवीमभिजातोऽसि पाण्डव ॥ ५ ॥
mā śucaḥ saṃpadaṃ daivīmabhijāto'si pāṇḍava
16.5The divine lot is held to lead to release, the demonic to bondage. Do not grieve, Arjuna: you are born to the divine lot.
The demonic personality is described at length and without disguise: it holds that the world has no truth and no order and is born of desire; it is insatiable, anxious, proud of its wealth and its gifts; its hell is of its own making, often in this life. The essay adds that even here no one is damned; the choice is always open and the Self cannot be stained.
अपरस्परसंभूतं किमन्यत्कामहैतुकम् ॥ ८ ॥
aparasparasaṃbhūtaṃ kimanyatkāmahaitukam
16.8They say the world is without truth, without a basis, without a lord, not born of any order, caused by nothing but desire.
कामः क्रोधस्तथा लोभस्तस्मादेतत्त्रयं त्यजेत् ॥ २१ ॥
kāmaḥ krodhastathā lobhastasmādetattrayaṃ tyajet
16.21Threefold is this gate of hell that destroys the self: desire, anger and greed. Therefore one should give up these three.
Chapter 17: the power of faith
Arjuna picks up the last verse of chapter 16, which told him to follow the scriptures, and asks about those who worship with faith but outside the rules. The answer sorts faith itself, and then worship, food, sacrifice, discipline and giving, by the three strands.
सात्त्विकी राजसी चैव तामसी चेति तां शृणु ॥ २ ॥
sāttvikī rājasī caiva tāmasī ceti tāṃ śṛṇu
17.2Threefold is the faith of the embodied, born of their nature: of sattva, of rajas, of tamas. Hear of it.
श्रद्धामयोऽयं पुरुषो यो यच्छ्रद्धः स एव सः ॥ ३ ॥
śraddhāmayo'yaṃ puruṣo yo yacchraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ
17.3Everyone's faith accords with their nature, Arjuna. A person is made of faith: as his faith is, so is he.
Shraddha is a word Easwaran calls untranslatable and glosses as what is held in the heart, the sum of a person's values; the essay says it is the sum of our values and notes the obscure etymology. The chapter's middle is a set of lists, and the one the essay flags is the account of tapas, discipline, in three registers.
ब्रह्मचर्यमहिंसा च शारीरं तप उच्यते ॥ १४ ॥
brahmacaryamahiṃsā ca śārīraṃ tapa ucyate
17.14Honour to the gods, the twice-born, teachers and the wise; purity, uprightness, continence and non-harm: this is called the discipline of the body.
स्वाध्यायाभ्यसनं चैव वाङ्मयं तप उच्यते ॥ १५ ॥
svādhyāyābhyasanaṃ caiva vāṅmayaṃ tapa ucyate
17.15Speech that does not disturb, that is true, pleasant and beneficial, and the practice of recitation: this is called the discipline of speech.
भावसंशुद्धिरित्येतत्तपो मानसमुच्यते ॥ १६ ॥
bhāvasaṃśuddhirityetattapo mānasamucyate
17.16Serenity of mind, gentleness, silence, self-restraint, purity of being: this is called the discipline of the mind.
The chapter sorts six things by the three strands, and the sorting is the argument: faith is not one thing, and neither is any act of faith.
| Sattva | Rajas | Tamas | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worship | the forms of God | power and wealth | spirits and ghosts |
| Food | mild, nourishing, promoting health | salty, bitter, hot, sour; bringing pain and disease | stale, leftover, impure |
| Sacrifice | mind on its purpose, no thought of reward | for show and for gain | without prayer, offering or faith |
| Discipline | without attachment, in faith | to win respect and honour | to gain power over others, or self-torture |
| Giving | because it is right, to the worthy, at the right time | with regret, or expecting return | at the wrong time, to the unworthy, without respect |
ब्राह्मणास्तेन वेदाश्च यज्ञाश्च विहिताः पुरा ॥ २३ ॥
*ॐtatsaditi nirdeśo brahmaṇastrividhaḥ smṛtaḥ · brāhmaṇāstena vedāśca yajñāśca vihitāḥ purā*
17.23Om, tat, sat: this is remembered as the threefold designation of Brahman. By it the brahmins, the Vedas and the sacrifices were ordained of old.
The chapter ends on the formula Om tat sat and on the verdict that an act of sacrifice, discipline or giving done without faith is asat, without being and without worth, here or hereafter.
Chapter 18: freedom and renunciation
The final chapter, the essay says, roams over many subjects, and it opens with the question Arjuna began the dialogue with: what is the difference between giving up action and giving up its fruit?
सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं प्राहुस्त्यागं विचक्षणाः ॥ २ ॥
sarvakarmaphalatyāgaṃ prāhustyāgaṃ vicakṣaṇāḥ
18.2The giving up of actions done from desire the poets know as renunciation; the giving up of the fruit of all actions the wise call relinquishment.
यस्तु कर्मफलत्यागी स त्यागीत्यभिधीयते ॥ ११ ॥
yastu karmaphalatyāgī sa tyāgītyabhidhīyate
18.11One who bears a body cannot give up actions entirely. But one who gives up the fruits of action is called a relinquisher.
भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु संन्यासिनां क्वचित् ॥ १२ ॥
bhavatyatyāgināṃ pretya na tu saṃnyāsināṃ kvacit
18.12Unwanted, wanted and mixed: threefold is the fruit of action after death for those who do not relinquish; for the renouncers, none at all.
Krishna rejects sannyasa as impossible for anyone with a body, and the essay states plainly that the Gita is aimed at people who live in the world. Sacrifice, giving and discipline are to be kept, but without desire for their reward; relinquishment itself comes in three kinds, and only the sattvic kind, doing what is one's to do because it is, wanting nothing, counts. Then an analysis of action into five factors, from Sankhya.
विविधाश्च पृथक्चेष्टा दैवं चैवात्र पञ्चमम् ॥ १४ ॥
vividhāśca pṛthakceṣṭā daivaṃ caivātra pañcamam
18.14The seat, the doer, the various instruments, the many distinct movements, and providence as the fifth:
पश्यत्यकृतबुद्धित्वान्न स पश्यति दुर्मतिः ॥ १६ ॥
paśyatyakṛtabuddhitvānna sa paśyati durmatiḥ
18.16That being so, one who sees himself alone as the doer, through an untrained understanding, does not see, being dull-witted.
Knowledge, action, doer, understanding, resolve and happiness are each sorted by the strands, and the essay calls the three happinesses a practical application of the abstract theory.
| Sattva | Rajas | Tamas | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | sees one being in all beings | sees all as separate | takes one small part for the whole |
| Action | what is one's to do, without attachment | driven by desire, with strain | blind to consequence, waste and harm |
| The doer | free of ego, the same in success and failure | greedy, impure, swept by fortune | undisciplined, deceitful, lazy |
| Understanding | knows when to act and when to refrain, bondage from freedom | confuses right and wrong | reverses right and wrong |
| Resolve | holds breath, mind and senses in harmony | pursues wealth, pleasure and standing | obstinacy, fear, grief, conceit |
| Happiness | poison first, nectar after | nectar first, poison after | delusion at both ends |
तत्सुखं सात्त्विकं प्रोक्तमात्मबुद्धिप्रसादजम् ॥ ३७ ॥
tatsukhaṃ sāttvikaṃ proktamātmabuddhiprasādajam
18.37That which is like poison at first but like nectar at the end, born of the clarity of one's own understanding, is called the happiness of sattva.
परिणामे विषमिव तत्सुखं राजसं स्मृतम् ॥ ३८ ॥
pariṇāme viṣamiva tatsukhaṃ rājasaṃ smṛtam
18.38That which is like nectar at first, from the contact of the senses with their objects, but like poison at the end, is held to be the happiness of rajas.
The chapter then treats the four social orders as functions of nature and the strands, a short and, the essay says, liberal treatment, and returns to the line from chapter 3.
स्वकर्मणा तमभ्यर्च्य सिद्धिं विन्दति मानवः ॥ ४६ ॥
svakarmaṇā tamabhyarcya siddhiṃ vindati mānavaḥ
18.46By worshipping, through his own work, the one from whom beings proceed and by whom all this is pervaded, a man attains perfection.
स्वभावनियतं कर्म कुर्वन्नाप्नोति किल्बिषम् ॥ ४७ ॥
svabhāvaniyataṃ karma kurvannāpnoti kilbiṣam
18.47Better one's own duty done imperfectly than another's done well. Doing the work prescribed by one's own nature, one incurs no fault.
सर्वारम्भा हि दोषेण धूमेनाग्निरिवावृताः ॥ ४८ ॥
sarvārambhā hi doṣeṇa dhūmenāgnirivāvṛtāḥ
18.48One should not give up the work one is born to, Arjuna, though it has faults; for every undertaking is wrapped in faults, as fire in smoke.
Then the third portrait of the realised person, verses 49 to 56, the one who has attained.
नैष्कर्म्यसिद्धिं परमां संन्यासेनाधिगच्छति ॥ ४९ ॥
naiṣkarmyasiddhiṃ paramāṃ saṃnyāsenādhigacchati
18.49With understanding unattached everywhere, self-conquered, with longing gone, one attains by renunciation the highest perfection, freedom from action.
समः सर्वेषु भूतेषु मद्भक्तिं लभते पराम् ॥ ५४ ॥
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu madbhaktiṃ labhate parām
18.54Having become Brahman, serene in the Self, he neither grieves nor desires; the same to all beings, he attains supreme devotion to me.
Krishna then turns to Arjuna directly, and to the question that has been under the whole dialogue: whether Arjuna's refusal is even possible.
अथ चेत्त्वमहंकारान्न श्रोष्यसि विनङ्क्ष्यसि ॥ ५८ ॥
atha cettvamahaṃkārānna śroṣyasi vinaṅkṣyasi
18.58With your mind on me you will cross every difficulty by my grace. But if, from self-will, you will not listen, you will perish.
मिथ्यैष व्यवसायस्ते प्रकृतिस्त्वां नियोक्ष्यति ॥ ५९ ॥
mithyaiṣa vyavasāyaste prakṛtistvāṃ niyokṣyati
18.59If, relying on self-will, you think "I will not fight", your resolve is vain; your own nature will compel you.
भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि यन्त्रारूढानि मायया ॥ ६१ ॥
bhrāmayansarvabhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
18.61The lord dwells in the heart of all beings, Arjuna, and by his power turns all beings as if mounted on a machine.
The essay observes the image in verse 61, creatures whirled around like toys on a machine, and the introduction reads 58 and 59 as saying that self-will is useless: Arjuna's own nature will drive him into the battle whether he chooses or not. Then the two verses on which Easwaran rests his account of what kind of book this is.
विमृश्यैतदशेषेण यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु ॥ ६३ ॥
vimṛśyaitadaśeṣeṇa yathecchasi tathā kuru
18.63Thus I have told you a knowledge more secret than secret. Reflect on it fully, and then do as you choose.
मामेवैष्यसि सत्यं ते प्रतिजाने प्रियोऽसि मे ॥ ६५ ॥
māmevaiṣyasi satyaṃ te pratijāne priyo'si me
18.65Fix your mind on me, be devoted to me, offer to me, bow to me. You will come to me; I promise it to you truly, for you are dear to me.
अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥ ६६ ॥
ahaṃ tvāṃ sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
18.66Abandon all duties and come to me alone for refuge. I will free you from all evils; do not grieve.
Verse 63 makes the Gita a book of choices and not of commandments: after seven hundred verses the teacher says, do as you choose. Verse 66, read through the tenth chapter, is not an instruction to abandon responsibility but to rely on the Self alone, seeking strength nowhere but within. Arjuna's reply is one verse.
स्थितोऽस्मि गतसन्देहः करिष्ये वचनं तव ॥ ७३ ॥
sthito'smi gatasandehaḥ kariṣye vacanaṃ tava
18.73My delusion is destroyed, and by your grace I have regained memory, Krishna. I stand firm, with my doubts gone. I will do as you say.
तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम ॥ ७८ ॥
tatra śrīrvijayo bhūtirdhruvā nītirmatirmama
18.78Where Krishna, the lord of yoga, is, and where Arjuna the archer is, there are fortune, victory, prosperity and firm right conduct. That is my belief.
The last word is the minister's. Sanjaya, who has been reporting the whole conversation to the blind king, says what he believes follows wherever these two are together, and the essay reads the pairing as the point: the Self and the self, the charioteer and the archer, in one chariot.
What this edition chooses
Easwaran is candid about the choices his edition makes, and a reader should hold them as choices.
The first is the reading itself. Taking Krishna as the Self within and the battlefield as the mind is, he says, the only way to grasp the Gita as spiritual instruction, and it is the reading of the mystics and of Gandhi. It is not the only reading the text has had. Traditions that take Krishna as a personal God and the war as a war have read the same verses for as long, and the sixteenth and eighteenth chapters, with their talk of duty, social order and the warrior's nature, resist the allegory more than the second does. Easwaran's honest reply is Gandhi's: practise it and see.
The second is the translation's plainness. He renders the Sanskrit into clean prose, drops most of the technical apparatus, and admits that his English for the Sankhya terms and for the gunas is imprecise, that renunciation and shraddha have no adequate English, and that the conventional division of the eighteen chapters into three sixes is loose and hard to find in the text. The translation is made for reading straight through, and it should be read that way first; the middle chapters, which he expands with the longest essays, are the ones that reward a second pass.
The third is the claim that the three portraits describe one person. The Gita's texture is more varied than that; the second-chapter sage, the twelfth-chapter devotee and the eighteenth-chapter renouncer speak different vocabularies, and the essays themselves note that devotion gains ground chapter by chapter over knowledge and ritual. What Easwaran's reading gains is a single figure, active, compassionate and needing nothing but the chance to give, which he calls original goodness: not acquired, only uncovered. What it costs is the text's own arguments with itself, which Arjuna voices at the start of chapters 3, 5 and 18 and which the essays record with some sympathy.