📖 Bhagavad Gita
All 18 chapters, every verse in Sanskrit, with Roman for those who do not read Devanagari and a plain English meaning. The text was checked against three independent sources.
What this is
Two armies stand facing each other at Kurukshetra and the fighting is about to start. Arjuna asks Krishna to pull the chariot into the space between them, sees his own teachers, cousins and friends across the field, and puts down his bow. The conversation that follows is the Gita.
It is not a separate book. It sits inside the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata: 18 chapters, 700 verses, and four people speaking, Krishna, Arjuna, Sanjaya and Dhritarashtra.
There is no single right place to begin. For the argument, start at chapter 2; if you have twenty minutes, chapter 12; and if you want to sit and practise, chapter 6.
The verses people look up
Chapter 2, verse 47
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि
Your right is to the work alone, never to its fruits. Do not make the fruit your motive, and do not be attached to not working either.
Chapter 2, verse 23
नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः ।
न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः
Weapons do not cut it, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it and wind does not dry it.
Chapter 4, verse 7
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्
Whenever dharma weakens and what is against it rises up, Bharata, then I bring myself forth.
Chapter 6, verse 5
उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः
Lift yourself by yourself; do not let yourself sink. You are your own friend, and you are your own enemy.
Chapter 9, verse 22
अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जनाः पर्युपासते ।
तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम्
For those who think of nothing but me and worship me, always joined to me, I myself carry what they need and keep what they have.
Chapter 18, verse 66
सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।
अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः
Let go of all duties and come to me alone for shelter. I will free you from every wrong; do not grieve.
The eighteen chapters
Chapter 1 · 47 verses
Arjuna's Despair
अर्जुनविषादयोग
Arjuna breaking down is the question; the other seventeen chapters are the answer.
Chapter 2 · 72 verses
The Way of Understanding
सांख्ययोग
The work is yours, the fruit is not. And what you think is dying does not die.
Chapter 3 · 43 verses
The Way of Action
कर्मयोग
Doing nothing is not an option. And the enemy is not out there; it is desire, and anger.
Chapter 4 · 42 verses
Knowledge, Action and Letting Go
ज्ञानकर्मसंन्यासयोग
When dharma weakens, he comes. And knowing burns through what action ties up.
Chapter 5 · 29 verses
Renouncing Action
कर्मसंन्यासयोग
It is not the work you put down that frees you, it is the grip.
Chapter 6 · 47 verses
Sitting with the Mind
आत्मसंयमयोग
The mind is hard to hold, not impossible. There are only two tools: practice, and letting go.
Chapter 7 · 30 verses
Knowing and Seeing
ज्ञानविज्ञानयोग
Everything there is, is strung on him. And all four kinds who come are his own.
Chapter 8 · 28 verses
The Imperishable
अक्षरब्रह्मयोग
At the end you remember what you lived in. Which is why the remembering starts now.
Chapter 9 · 34 verses
The Royal Secret
राजविद्याराजगुह्ययोग
A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water: offered with feeling, it is accepted. The door is shut to no one.
Chapter 10 · 42 verses
Where He Shows
विभूतियोग
Wherever something stands highest in its own kind, that is a glimpse of him.
Chapter 11 · 55 verses
The Form of Everything
विश्वरूपदर्शनयोग
What you ask to see is not always bearable. Having seen it, Arjuna asks for the gentle form back.
Chapter 12 · 20 verses
The Way of Devotion
भक्तियोग
There is a ladder: fix the mind; failing that, practise; failing that, work for him; failing that, let the fruit go.
Chapter 13 · 34 verses
The Field and Who Knows It
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञविभागयोग
The body is a field and you are the one who knows it. Telling the two apart is where this starts.
Chapter 14 · 27 verses
The Three Strands
गुणत्रयविभागयोग
All three strands tie you down, clarity included. First recognise which is running; then get past it.
Chapter 15 · 20 verses
The Highest Person
पुरुषोत्तमयोग
An upside-down tree, to be cut down. And past it, the one who is above even the imperishable.
Chapter 16 · 24 verses
Two Kinds of People
दैवासुरसम्पद्विभागयोग
Desire, anger, greed: three gates to ruin. If only that stays with you, it is enough.
Chapter 17 · 28 verses
Three Kinds of Faith
श्रद्धात्रयविभागयोग
A person is made of what he trusts. And what is done without trust counts nowhere.
Chapter 18 · 78 verses
Letting Go, and Freedom
मोक्षसंन्यासयोग
Let go of everything and come to me. And even so: think it over, and do as you wish.
Common questions
What is the Bhagavad Gita?
A conversation between Krishna and Arjuna that takes place on the battlefield at Kurukshetra, in the minutes before the war in the Mahabharata begins. Arjuna refuses to fight his own family and puts down his bow; everything Krishna says after that is an answer to him. It runs to 700 verses across 18 chapters and sits inside the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata.
Does the Gita have 700 verses or 701?
Both counts are right, and it is the same text. Chapter 13 opens with a question from Arjuna, "prakritim purusham chaiva...". Editions following Shankara do not number it, which gives 34 verses in that chapter and 700 in all; other editions do number it, giving 35 and 701. This site prints the verse and numbers it, so chapter 13 runs to 35 here.
Which chapter should I read first?
Chapter 2 if you want the argument, since almost every idea in the book is introduced there. Chapter 12 if you have twenty minutes, because it is the shortest and the most quoted. Chapter 6 if you actually want to sit and practise. Reading straight through from chapter 1 also works, and the first chapter is short.
Is the Gita only about war?
The setting is a battlefield and the immediate question is whether Arjuna should fight. But the answer Krishna gives is about doing the work in front of you without clinging to what it will yield, and that is why the book has been read for centuries by people who were not soldiers.