What is the Bhagavad Gita?
The Song of God
Rooten within Book 6 of the Mahabharata (the Bhishma Parva) is the Bhagavad Gita, meaning the Song of God, is composed as a direct, spoken set of dialogue between two key voices of the great war. Positioned between two armies on the battlefield, the conversation begins with the great warrior, Arjuna’s voice of moral agony. Drowned by the burden and horror of fighting his own blood, Arjun withdraws his bow and collapses in misery. Thus in response, Krishna does not issue military commands or tell him to ignore it, but rather he becomes the voice of philosophical clarity, aiding Arjuna as a guide through his existential crisis and reframing the field of war as an allegory for moral righteousness and duty.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stvakarmaṇi
"You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to inaction."
Word Meanings
- karmaṇi —
- in prescribed duties
- eva —
- only
- adhikāraḥ —
- right
- te —
- your
- mā —
- never
- phaleṣhu —
- in the fruits
- kadāchana —
- at any time
- mā —
- never
- karma-phala —
- in the result of the work
- hetuḥ —
- cause
- bhūḥ —
- become
- mā —
- never
- te —
- your
- saṅgaḥ —
- attachment
- astu —
- let there be
- akarmaṇi —
- in inaction
In ancient India, the message of Krishna’s voice has been a major philosophical shift. At the heart of his teaching is Karma Yoga, the philosophy of selfless action . Infamously, Chapter 2 Verse 47 states how "You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions." Krishna argued that the highest path was to fulfill one's moral duty ( Dharma ) without selfish attachment to the outcome. Thus his voice changed ancient ethics by shifting the emphasis from outward success to inward motive, and taught that a man’s character is determined by his inner attitude of duty regardless of outcome or external pressure.
From Spoken Word to Written History
Gita’s survival is, in itself, an account of the human voice. The 700 verses, which were written between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE, survived for centuries purely as an oral tradition. Before being inscribed in Sanskrit texts, it survived in the form of generations of scholars reciting, chanting and memorizing them orally. The very fact of their recital orally made it possible for the philosophical voice of Krishna to survive the political changes and transformations that occurred in society, preserving it until it was systemized into written history as a modern book.