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the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage if he or she is to emerge from life victorious.
He counsels Arjuna to be compassionate to friend and enemy alike, to see himself in every person, to suffer others’ sorrows as his own.
The very heart of the Gita’s message is to see the Lord in every creature and act accordingly, and the scripture is full of verses to spell out what this means:
we perceive them as separate because of the limitations of our senses. If our eyes were sensitive to a much finer spectrum, we might see the world as a continuous field of matter and energy.
Kindness to others, to take just one example, favors a nervous system that is kind to itself.
Guna means strand, and in the Gita the gunas are described as the very fabric of existence, the veil that hides unity in a covering of diversity.
It teaches that we can become free by giving up not material things, but selfish attachments to material things – and, more important, to people.
Kama is not desire; it is selfish desire. The Buddha calls it tanha,“ thirst”: the fierce, compulsive craving
The same action done with a selfish motive entangles a person further, precisely by strengthening that motive so it is more likely to prompt selfish action again.
“Fill your mind with me, focus every thought on me, think of me always”; then “you will be united with me”
Whoever has God in mind, simply and solely God, in all things, such a man carries God with him into all his works and into all places, and God alone does all his works.
How have you fallen into a state so far from the path to liberation?
3 It does not become you to yield to this weakness.
The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.
There has never been a time when you and I and
the kings gathered here have not existed, nor will there be a time when w...
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The wise are not deluded by these changes.
When the senses contact sense objects, a person experiences cold or heat, pleasure or pain.
Bear them patiently, Arjuna.
Those who are unaffected by these changes, who are the same in pleasure and pain, are truly wise and fit for immortality. Ass...
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The impermanent has no reality; reality lies in the eternal.
Realize that which pervades the universe and is indestructible; no power can affect this unchanging, imperishable reality.
The body is mortal, but that which dwells in the body is immortal and immeasurable.
You
were never born; you will never die. You have never changed; you can never change.
Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial, you do not die w...
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Death is inevitable for the living; birth is inevitable for the dead.
Every creature is unmanifested at first and then attains manifestation. When its end has come, it once again becomes unmanifested. What is there to lament in this?
But if you do not participate in this battle against evil, you will incur sin, violating your dharma and your honor.
Having made yourself alike in pain and pleasure, profit and loss, victory and defeat, engage in this great battle and you will be freed from sin.
Those who follow this path, resolving deep within themselves to seek me alone, attain singleness of purpose.
Their idea of heaven is their own enjoyment, and the aim of all their activities is pleasure and power. The fruit of their actions is continual rebirth.
scriptures are of little use to the illumined man or woman, who sees the Lord everywhere.
Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness.
Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do.
There is no cause for worry, whether things go well or ill.
The wise unify their consciousness and abandon attachment to the fruits of action, which binds a person to continual rebirth.
When your mind has overcome the confusion of duality, you will attain the state of holy indifference to things you hear and things you have heard.
They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.
They live in wisdom who subdue their senses and keep their minds ever absorbed in me.
The disunited mind is far from wise; how can it meditate? How be at peace? When you know no peace, how can you know joy?
They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of “I,” “me,” and “mine” to be united with the Lord. 72 This is the supreme state. Attain to this, and pass from death to immortality.
no one can gain perfection by abstaining from work.
Those who abstain from action while allowing the mind to dwell on sensual pleasure cannot be called sincere spiritual aspirants.
Fulfill all your duties;
Selfish action imprisons the world. Act selflessly, without any thought of personal profit.
“Through selfless service, you will always be fruitful and find the fulfillment of your desires”: this is the promise of the Creator.
rain itself is the water of life, which comes from selfless worship and service.
Having found the source of joy and fulfillment, they no longer seek happiness from the external world.
Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world;
