Sacred texts · Hinduism
60 Bhagavad Gita quotes, with chapter and verse
The Bhagavad Gita, the “Song of the Lord,” is a Sanskrit poem of 700 verses in 18 chapters, set within the Mahabharata. On the eve of a battle, the warrior Arjuna refuses to fight his own kin; his charioteer, Krishna, answers with a teaching on action, the self, meditation and devotion. It is one of the most widely read texts of Hinduism.
This page gathers about fifty of its verses, each with its chapter and number, followed by a few lines from elsewhere in the Mahabharata. The English quotes Annie Besant’s translation (4th edition, 1922) and Kisari Mohan Ganguli’s Mahabharata; the French page quotes Émile Senart (1922). These translations are in the public domain, and every verse was checked word for word against them. For more texts from India, see the Upanishad quotes and the poems of Kabir.
Bhagavad Gita quotes on action without attachment
This is the Gita’s best-known teaching, the yoga of action: doing what has to be done without clinging to the result. Verse 2:47 puts it this way in Annie Besant’s translation: “Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached.”
Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached.
Perform action, O Dhananjaya, dwelling in union with the divine, renouncing attachments and balanced evenly in success and failure: equilibrium is called yoga.
United to the Pure Reason one abandoneth here both good and evil deeds; therefore cleave thou to yoga; yoga is skill in action.
Therefore, without attachment, constantly perform action which is duty, for, by performing action without attachment, man verily reacheth the Supreme.
As the ignorant act from attachment to action, O Bhârata, so should the wise act without attachment, desiring the welfare of the world.
He who seeth inaction in action, and action in inaction, he is wise among men, he is harmonious, even while performing all action.
Whose works are all free from the moulding of desire, whose actions are burned up by the fire of wisdom, him the wise have called a Sage.
Having abandoned attachment to the fruit of action, always content, nowhere seeking refuge, he is not doing anything, although doing actions.
Content with whatsoever he obtaineth without effort, free from the pairs of opposites, without envy, balanced in success and failure, though acting he is not bound.
He who acteth, placing all actions in the Eternal, abandoning attachment, is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters.
The harmonised man, having abandoned the fruit of action, attaineth to the eternal Peace; the non-harmonised, impelled by desire, attached to fruit, are bound.
The self that does not die
At the start of chapter 2, Arjuna refuses to fight; Krishna first answers him about death. The dweller in the body, he says, is neither born nor dies, and changes bodies as a man casts off worn-out garments (2:22). The body passes; what dwells in it remains.
As the dweller in the body experienceth in the body childhood, youth, old age, so passeth he on to another body; the steadfast one grieveth not thereat.
The contacts of matter, O son of Kuntî, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, they come and go, impermanent; endure them bravely, O Bhârata.
The man whom these torment not, O chief of men, balanced in pain and pleasure, steadfast, he is fitted for immortality.
He is not born, nor doth he die; nor having been, ceaseth he any more to be; unborn, perpetual, eternal and ancient.
As a man, casting off worn-out garments, taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others that are new.
Weapons cleave him not, nor fire burneth him, nor waters wet him, nor wind drieth him away.
This is the Eternal state, O son of Prithâ. Having attained thereto, none is bewildered. Who, even at the death-hour, is established therein, he goeth to the Nirvâna of the Eternal.
A steady mind and peace
The end of chapter 2 describes the sage of stable mind: even in pain and pleasure, drawing in the senses as a tortoise draws in its limbs, receiving desires as the ocean receives rivers and remaining unmoved (2:70). Chapter 5 speaks of the peace of the one who is happy within.
When a man abandoneth, O Pârtha, all the desires of the heart, and is satisfied in the Self by the Self, then is he called stable in mind.
He whose mind is free from anxiety amid pains, indifferent amid pleasures, loosed from passion, fear and anger, is called a sage of stable mind.
He who on every side is without attachments, whatever hap of fair and foul, who neither likes nor dislikes, of such a one the understanding is well poised.
When, again, as a tortoise draws in on all sides its limbs, he withdraws his senses from the objects of sense, then is his understanding well poised.
But the disciplined self, moving among sense-objects with senses free from attraction and repulsion, mastered by the Self, goeth to peace.
In that Peace the extinction of all pains ariseth for him, for of him whose heart is peaceful the Reason soon attaineth equilibrium.
Such of the roving senses as the mind yieldeth to, that hurries away the understanding, just as the gale hurries away a ship upon the waters.
He attaineth Peace, into whom all desires flow as rivers flow into the ocean, which is filled with water, but remaineth unmoved—not he who desireth desires.
Whoso forsaketh all desires and goeth onwards free from yearnings, selfless and without egoism—he goeth to Peace.
He, whose self is unattached to external contacts and findeth joy in the Self, having the self harmonised with the Eternal by yoga, enjoys imperishable bliss.
He who is happy within, who rejoiceth within, who is illuminated within, that Yogî, becoming the Eternal, goeth to the Peace of the Eternal.
The Peace of the Eternal lies near to those who know themselves, who are disjoined from desire and passion, subdued in nature, of subdued thoughts.
Yoga and self-mastery
Chapter 6 is the chapter of meditation. It opens with a line that makes the Self the friend or the enemy of the self (6:5), advises moderation in eating and sleep, and gives the image of a lamp in a windless place. Arjuna objects that the mind is hard to curb; Krishna agrees.
Let him raise the self by the Self and not let the self become depressed; for verily is the Self the friend of the self, and also the Self the self’s enemy.
The Self is the friend of the self of him in whom the self by the Self is vanquished; but to the unsubdued self the Self verily becometh hostile as an enemy.
The higher Self of him who is Self-controlled and peaceful is uniform in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as well as in honour and dishonour.
Verily yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess, nor who is too much addicted to sleep, nor even to wakefulness, O Arjuna.
Yoga killeth out all pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement, regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and waking.
As a lamp in a windless place flickereth not, to such is likened the Yogî of subdued thought, absorbed in the yoga of the Self.
As often as the wavering and unsteady mind goeth forth, so often reining it in, let him bring it under the control of the Self.
The self, harmonised by yoga, seeth the Self abiding in all beings, all beings in the Self; everywhere he seeth the same.
He who, through the likeness of the Self, O Arjuna, seeth equality in everything, whether pleasant or painful, he is considered a perfect Yogî.
Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to curb and restless; but it may be curbed by constant practice and by dispassion.
Yoga is hard to attain, methinks, by a self that is uncontrolled; but by the Self-controlled it is attainable by properly directed energy.
Speech causing no annoyance, truthful, pleasant and beneficial, the practice of the study of the Scriptures, are called the austerity of speech.
Mental happiness, equilibrium, silence, self-control, purity of nature—these are called the austerity of the mind.
Devotion (bhakti)
From chapter 7 on, the Gita turns toward devotion: Krishna describes himself as the thread on which everything is strung, like rows of pearls (7:7), and accepts the simplest offering, a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water, if it is made with devotion (9:26).
However men approach Me, even so do I welcome them, for the path men take from every side is Mine, O Pârtha.
There is naught whatsoever higher than I, O Dhananjaya. All this is threaded on Me, as rows of pearls on a string.
He who offereth to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water, that I accept from the striving self, offered as it is with devotion.
Whatsoever thou doest, whatsoever thou eatest, whatsoever thou offerest, whatsoever thou givest, whatsoever thou doest of austerity, O Kaunteya, do thou that as an offering unto Me.
The same am I to all beings; there is none hateful to Me nor dear. They verily who worship Me with devotion, they are in Me, and I also in them.
Mindful of Me, their life hidden in Me, illumining each other, ever conversing about Me, they are content and joyful.
Out of pure compassion for them, dwelling within their Self, I destroy the ignorance-born darkness by the shining lamp of wisdom.
I, O Gudakesha, am the Self, seated in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings.
He from whom the world doth not shrink away, who doth not shrink away from the world, freed from the anxieties of joy, anger, and fear, he is dear to me.
He who wants nothing, is pure, expert, passionless, untroubled, renouncing every undertaking, he, My devotee, is dear to Me.
He who neither loveth nor hateth, nor grieveth, nor desireth, renouncing good and evil, full of devotion, he is dear to Me.
Abandoning all duties come unto Me alone for shelter.
Elsewhere in the Mahabharata
The Gita is one episode of the Mahabharata, the great Sanskrit epic. A few lines from other books of the epic, in Kisari Mohan Ganguli’s complete English translation (1883–1896), close this page: on the golden rule, on forgiveness, and on words that wound.
One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of Righteousness.
Forgiveness is a virtue of the weak, and an ornament of the strong.
Righteousness is the one highest good; and forgiveness is the one supreme peace; knowledge is one supreme contentment; and benevolence, one sole happiness.
A forest pierced by arrows, or cut down by hatchets may again grow, but one’s heart wounded and censured by ill-spoken words never recovereth.
Forgiveness is the might of the mighty; forgiveness is sacrifice; forgiveness is quiet of mind.
How to read these Gita verses
The Gita is a dialogue: each verse answers a question or a doubt from Arjuna. Before you keep a line, read the verses around it in its chapter to see what it is answering. Chapters 2 and 6 are good places to start.
Verse 2:47 can go with you into work or an exam: do your best, then let go of the outcome. The yoga group suits a moment of meditation, the steady-mind group a hectic day. The names that keep coming up, son of Kuntî, Pârtha, mighty-armed, are ways of addressing Arjuna.
In the Selfia app, the Hinduism path (Settings › Spirituality) adds passages from Hindu texts in a separate section, with the Sanskrit when a verse is given in full.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Bhagavad Gita about?
On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, the warrior Arjuna sees his cousins, teachers and friends in the opposing army and refuses to fight. Krishna, who drives his chariot, answers him over eighteen chapters: on duty, detached action, the immortal self, meditation and devotion. The story is told to the blind king Dhritarashtra by his charioteer Sanjaya.
What does the Gita say about karma and action?
It does not ask you to stop acting, but to give up attachment to the fruits of action: do your duty, and meet success and failure with the same evenness of mind (2:48). This is karma yoga, the yoga of action. Verse 2:47, the most quoted, sums it up: your business is with the action, never with its fruits.
Who was Annie Besant?
Annie Besant (1847–1933) was a British writer, social reformer and Theosophist who lived for decades in India and took part in its independence movement. Her English translation of the Gita, published with the Sanskrit text, went through several editions; this page quotes the fourth, printed in Madras in 1922, now in the public domain.