The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita (“Song of the Lord”) is a 700-verse Hindu scripture set within the sixth book of the epic Mahabharata, traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa and most often dated by scholars to the second or first century BCE. It takes the form of a dialogue on a battlefield: the warrior Arjuna, unwilling to fight a war against his own kinsmen, turns to his charioteer Krishna, who is revealed as an incarnation of the divine. Krishna's reply moves through several paths to liberation — selfless action (karma yoga), knowledge (jnana yoga), devotion (bhakti yoga), and meditation (dhyana yoga) — and frames each as a way of acting without attachment to results. The central instruction is to do one's duty (dharma) wholeheartedly while giving up any claim to its fruits.

This page describes Eknath Easwaran's translation (Nilgiri Press), the best-selling English edition in the United States. Easwaran, who grew up in the Hindu tradition in India and later taught English literature in California, opens the volume with a long introduction setting the Gita in its historical context and adds a short introduction to each of the eighteen chapters, along with notes and a Sanskrit glossary. His version is written for general readers rather than scholars; readers who want closeness to the Sanskrit more often cite the translations of Franklin Edgerton, R. C. Zaehner, or Winthrop Sargeant. The Gita has been read across Hindu schools that otherwise disagree, and was central to the thought of figures as different as Gandhi, who called it his “spiritual dictionary,” and the long line of commentators from Shankara onward who have read it in support of their own systems.

Contents

Reception

The Bhagavad Gita is the most widely read and translated of the Hindu scriptures, with hundreds of English versions in print. Within Hindu tradition it is treated as one of the three foundational texts (the prasthanatrayi) and has been the subject of commentaries by Shankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva, and in the modern period by Gandhi, Aurobindo, and Vivekananda, each reading it through a different philosophical lens. Easwaran's translation is the best-selling English edition in the United States and is valued for readability; reviewers note that its accessibility comes at the cost of the line-by-line precision found in more scholarly versions. The text has also drawn long debate over its battlefield setting — whether Krishna's counsel to fight should be read literally or as an allegory for inner conflict — a question commentators have answered in opposing ways for centuries.

Frequently asked

What is the Bhagavad Gita about?

It is a 700-verse dialogue set on a battlefield within the epic Mahabharata. The warrior Arjuna, unwilling to fight his own kin, asks his charioteer Krishna for guidance, and Krishna answers with teaching on duty, detachment, and several paths to liberation — selfless action, knowledge, devotion, and meditation. Its central instruction is to act according to one's dharma without attachment to the results.

Which translation is this, and how does it compare?

This edition is Eknath Easwaran's translation for Nilgiri Press, the best-selling English version in the United States. It is written for general readers, with a long introduction and an introduction to each chapter. Readers who want closeness to the Sanskrit often prefer the more scholarly translations of Franklin Edgerton, R. C. Zaehner, or Winthrop Sargeant.

Who wrote the Bhagavad Gita?

It is traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa, who is also regarded as the compiler of the Mahabharata, the epic in which the Gita appears. Most scholars date the text to roughly the second or first century BCE and treat its authorship as traditional rather than established, since it took shape within a long oral and textual tradition.