The Journey In Library · Sacred Texts · No. 10
The Bhagavad Gita
The original Sanskrit with a plain-English translation
Sanskrit · c. 2nd century BCE · Vedanta and Bhakti
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana |
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi ||
You have a right to your actions, but never to their fruits. Do not let the fruit of action be your motive, and do not cling to inaction.
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From the book
The Bhagavad Gita, the “Song of the Lord,” is a 700-verse dialogue found in the sixth book of the Mahabharata. On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Arjuna sees his own teachers and family arrayed against him, and his bow slips from his hand.
What follows is one of the most influential conversations in world literature. Krishna teaches that the self is never born and never dies, that we have a right to our actions but never to their results, and that work done without attachment becomes a path to freedom.
This edition gives every verse in Devanagari, followed by a new translation into plain, modern English that stays close to what each verse says.
What's inside
- About this edition and key terms
- Chapters 1–6: Arjuna's despair, understanding, action, knowledge and meditation
- Chapters 7–12: knowledge and insight, the imperishable, the royal secret, divine manifestations, the universal form, devotion
- Chapters 13–18: the field and its knower, the three qualities, the supreme person, the divine and the demonic, the three kinds of faith, freedom through renunciation
About this edition
The original Sanskrit in Devanagari script, with a new translation into plain, modern English written for The Journey In, and short notes where a verse needs context.