Series
Bhagavad Gita
Study notes on the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna.
1Gita, lesson 1: the text that wants to clarify, not just informFirst chapter in the series: the Gita as a means of knowledge within Vedānta, and suffering as a problem of self-image.2Gita, lesson 2: what the name Bhagavad Gita already saysThe name Bhagavad Gita, "song of the Lord," already points to the teaching's style: knowledge offered with gentleness, never imposed.3Gita, lesson 3: the Mahābhārata as the setting for the teachingThe third lesson places the Gita within the Mahābhārata and distinguishes poetic text, which moves, from revealed text, which teaches.4Gita, lesson 4: the inevitable war and the master in the chariotThe fourth lesson shows how the royal family's quarrels lead to war, and how Krishna, without fighting, takes Arjuna's place as charioteer.5Gita, lesson 5: a blind king's question and the field of dharmaThe fifth lesson reads the Gita's opening question as a portrait of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's attachment, and links human birth to karma and the chance of liberation.6Gita, lesson 6: the hero who collapses and Krishna's responseThe sixth lesson follows Arjuna's collapse before his relatives and Krishna's first words, which break the silence with harsh language.7Gita, lesson 7: when renunciation is just a way to runThe seventh lesson follows Arjuna's wish to walk away from it all, and shows why, for Dayananda, the way out lies not outside but in self-knowledge.8Gita, lesson 8: self-awareness, intelligence and a disciple's requestThe eighth lesson starts from what sets humans apart from animals to show how Arjuna arrives at asking Krishna to teach him.9Gita, lesson 9: the disciple, death and the Self that never changesThe ninth lesson marks the start of Krishna's teaching: Arjuna declares himself a disciple, and his sorrow is traced to confusion about death and who we are.10Gita, lesson 10: hurt and guilt, and the idea that the Self does not actTenth chapter in the series: hurt and guilt as the roots of suffering, and the Vedantic thesis that the Self is not the agent of any action.11Gita, lesson 11: moha, the confusion that overvalues what lies outsideEleventh chapter in the series: moha, the error of giving things a worth they do not have, and the roots of that error in not knowing oneself.12Gita, lesson 12: heaven as a promise, and the search to feel at ease with oneselfTwelfth chapter in the series: why heavens and pleasures never resolve the feeling of being insufficient, and what Vedānta proposes instead.13Gita, lesson 13: the four aims of life and what each one can giveThirteenth chapter in the series: artha, kāma, dharma, and mokṣa, the four aims of life in the Vedic tradition, and their limits.14Gita, lesson 14: from wanting freedom to committing to self-knowledgeLesson 14 distinguishes the vague wish for freedom from the firm commitment to seek self-knowledge, and explains why that step organizes a seeker's life.15Gita, lesson 15: knowing isn't doing, and the knower is the Self itselfKnowing isn't doing: it happens when the right means are present, and the Self is said to be the inner witness that knows every thought.16Gita, lesson 16: belief isn't knowledge, and the Veda as a mirror of the SelfFor Dayananda, believing isn't knowing: Vedānta presents itself as a means of knowledge, and the teaching is said to work as a mirror of the Self.17Gita, lesson 17: why Vedānta calls for a teacher and a traditionVedānta offers itself as a means of knowing the Self and, for that reason, is said to require a teacher, a lineage, and a prepared mind.18Gita, lesson 18: what I can call "I" and what is merely an objectEverything perceived, from body to mind, is an object, not the self; only the perceiving subject is self-evident, in Dayananda's reading.19Gita, lesson 19: the Self as the only evidence that needs no proofLesson 19 argues, in Dayananda's reading, that everything we know is revealed by consciousness, the Self, which needs no proof of its own.20Gita, lesson 20: consciousness isn't in the world, the world is in itIn the Vedāntic reading, space, time, and objects appear within consciousness, not the other way around; nothing could contain it.21Gita, lesson 21: what is nonexistent, what is false, what is realLesson 21 uses an analysis of language to separate three Vedānta categories: asat, the nonexistent; mithyā, the apparent; and satyam, the real.