Bhagavad Gita in Hindi and English: all 18 chapters with meaning

What the Bhagavad Gita is

The Bhagavad Gita, “the song of the Lord”, is a conversation of 700 Sanskrit verses inside the Mahabharata, in its Bhishma Parva. The Pandava and Kaurava armies stand ready at Kurukshetra. Arjuna, the greatest archer on the Pandava side, sees his grandfather, his teacher and his cousins in the opposite ranks and refuses to fight. Krishna, who is driving his chariot, answers him.

The whole conversation is reported to the blind king Dhritarashtra by Sanjaya, who has been given the power to see the battlefield from afar. That is why the Gita begins with the king's question and ends with Sanjaya's words.

Its questions are everyday ones: what to do when duty and feeling pull in different directions, how to work without being crushed by worry about results, how to keep the mind steady in success and failure, and how to love God. Each chapter is called a “yoga”, a way of joining the mind to what is lasting.

How to start if you are new

There is no single rule. Families and teachers suggest different ways; these are simple and common.

1. Read chapter 2 first if you want the heart of the teaching quickly, then chapter 12 (devotion, only 20 verses) and chapter 15 (20 verses, often recited before meals).
2. Or read straight through, one chapter a day: the whole Gita takes 18 days. A chapter takes 10 to 40 minutes with the meanings.
3. Read the Sanskrit line, then the meaning, then the Sanskrit again. Understanding matters more than speed.
4. Many people read on Ekadashi, on Thursdays and on Gita Jayanti (Mokshada Ekadashi, in the month of Margashirsha, around December), but any day and any time is right.

On each chapter page you can switch off the English letters or a meaning once you no longer need them.

The 18 chapters

Each chapter page has every verse in Sanskrit, in English letters, and with a simple Hindi and English meaning written by us.

1. Chapter 1: Arjuna's despair (Arjuna Vishada Yoga) (47 verses)
   The two armies face each other at Kurukshetra; Arjuna sees his teachers and cousins and puts down his bow.
2. Chapter 2: Knowledge and the steady mind (Sankhya Yoga) (72 verses)
   Krishna begins: the self is not born and does not die; act without clinging to results; the person of steady wisdom.
3. Chapter 3: The path of action (Karma Yoga) (43 verses)
   Why no one can stay without acting, work as an offering, and how desire clouds the mind.
4. Chapter 4: Knowledge, action and letting go (Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga) (42 verses)
   Krishna speaks of coming age after age to restore dharma, and of action done in knowledge.
5. Chapter 5: Renouncing and acting (Karma Sannyasa Yoga) (29 verses)
   Is it better to give up action or to act without attachment? Krishna answers, and describes inner peace.
6. Chapter 6: Meditation (Dhyana Yoga) (47 verses)
   How to sit and meditate, a balanced life, and what happens to one who tries and falls short.
7. Chapter 7: Knowledge and its realisation (Jnana Vijnana Yoga) (30 verses)
   Krishna's higher and lower nature, and the four kinds of people who turn to God.
8. Chapter 8: The imperishable (Akshara Brahma Yoga) (28 verses)
   What one remembers at the end of life, and the cycles of creation.
9. Chapter 9: The royal secret (Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga) (34 verses)
   Devotion as the simplest path: a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with love.
10. Chapter 10: Divine glories (Vibhuti Yoga) (42 verses)
    Krishna names the best of every kind as his own glory.
11. Chapter 11: The universal form (Vishvarupa Darshana Yoga) (55 verses)
    Arjuna is given divine sight and sees the cosmic form.
12. Chapter 12: Devotion (Bhakti Yoga) (20 verses)
    One of the two shortest chapters (20 verses): the qualities of the devotee who is dear to Krishna.
13. Chapter 13: The field and its knower (Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga) (34 verses)
    The body as the field, the self as its knower, and what true knowledge is.
14. Chapter 14: The three gunas (Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga) (27 verses)
    Sattva, rajas and tamas: how the three qualities bind, and how one rises above them.
15. Chapter 15: The supreme person (Purushottama Yoga) (20 verses)
    The upside-down ashvattha tree, and the Lord beyond the perishable and the imperishable.
16. Chapter 16: Divine and demonic traits (Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga) (24 verses)
    Fearlessness, kindness and truth set against pride, anger and greed.
17. Chapter 17: Three kinds of faith (Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga) (28 verses)
    Faith, food, worship, discipline and giving, each in three kinds; the meaning of Om tat sat.
18. Chapter 18: Freedom through letting go (Moksha Sannyasa Yoga) (78 verses)
    The longest chapter sums up the Gita and ends with Arjuna's doubts gone: “I will do as you say.”

Questions

Who wrote the Bhagavad Gita?

Tradition credits the sage Vyasa, who also composed the Mahabharata; the words are Krishna's, reported by Sanjaya. Scholars usually place the text in the last centuries BCE. It is an ancient, public-domain scripture.

How many chapters and verses does the Gita have?

18 chapters and 700 verses in the standard text. Some editions add one verse at the start of chapter 13, making 701; we follow the common 700-verse count and mention the extra verse on that chapter's page.

Do I need to know Sanskrit to read it?

No. Every verse is given in English letters and with a plain meaning. Reading the meanings alone is a good way to start; many people learn the Sanskrit slowly over time.

Are these meanings taken from a particular commentary?

No. The meanings on these pages are written by us in simple words, staying close to the Sanskrit. The great commentators (Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva and many later teachers) explain some verses differently; where a verse is commonly read in more than one way, we say so briefly.