Sacred Texts
Hinduism
Gita Society Translation
SBE vol. 8 Translation
Sanskrit
|
The Bhagavad Gita
Translated by Edwin Arnold
[1885]
|
The Bhagavad Gita is technically part of
Book 6 of the Mahabharata, although it is
known to be a later accretion to the saga, which stands on its own merits.
It is a dialog between the God Krishna and the hero Arjuna,
taking place in a timeless moment on the battlefield
before the climactic struggle between good and evil.
The Gita (which can be found in hotel bedstands throughout India)
is a classic summary of the core beliefs of Hinduism.
It has had a significant influence far beyond Hinduism.
Robert Oppenheimer apocryphically recited
the verse (from Chapter 11)
'I [have become] Death, Destroyer of Worlds",
just before the first test of the atom bomb,
which ironically has a much different meaning in context.
This has now been cross-referenced with the
Sanskrit text.
Chapter 1: Of the Distress of Arjuna
Chapter 2: Of Doctrines
Chapter 3: Virtue in Work.
Chapter 4: Of the Religion of Knowledge
Chapter 5: Of Religion by Renouncing Fruit of Works
Chapter 6: Of Religion of Self-Restraint
Chapter 7: Of Religion by Discernment
Chapter 8: Of Religion by Devotion to the One Supreme God
Chapter 9: Of Religion by the Kingly Knowledge and the Kingly Mystery
Chapter 10: Of Religion by the Heavenly Perfections
Chapter 11: Of the Manifesting of the One and Manifold
Chapter 12: Of the Religion of Faith
Chapter 13: Of Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit
Chapter 14: Of Religion by Separation from the Qualities
Chapter 15: Of Religion by Attaining the Supreme
Chapter 16: Of the Separateness of the Divine and the Undivine
Chapter 17: Of Religion by the Threefold Kinds of Faith
Chapter 18: Of Religion by Deliverance and Renunciation