The Bhagavad Gita

by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

The self is not readily seen; by sight or mind; it is said to be formless and unchanging; so, when you have known this, you should not mourn.

It is a wonder that anyone sees this, and a wonder that anyone else speaks it, and a wonder that yet another hears it. Yet even when they’ve heard it, no one knows it at all.

Your authority is in action alone, and never in its fruits; motive should never be in the fruits of action, nor should you cling to inaction.

When your insight is in deep focus, and when it stands motionless, ignoring the revelation which had been heard, then you will reach yoga.

Everywhere actions are performed by the gunas of nature. The Self, confused by the idea of an ‘I’, thus thinks, ‘I am the doer.’

Passion and hatred abide in the place between a sense and its object; one should not come under the will of these two – one’s enemies on the path.

Brahman is the highest imperishable; the highest self is said to be one’s own nature, giving rise to all states of being; action is understood as ‘sending forth’.

One who sees all actions done wholly by means of matter, and that one’s own self is not the agent, that one sees clearly.

if you cannot listen, from a sense of ‘mine’, you will die.

you take refuge in the sense of ‘mine’, and think, ‘I will not fight’, your resolve is hopeless, and the force of nature will command you.