Bhagavad Gita Summary | Chapterly

Bhagavad Gita: A Complete Summary "You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions." Overview The Bhagavad Gita ("The Song of God") is the most widely read and revered text in Hindu philosophy, and one of the great spiritual works of world literature. A 700-verse poem embedded within the vast epic the Mahabharata, it takes the form of a dialogue between the warrior prince Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna, who is an incarnation of the supreme god Vishnu. The setting is a battlefield. Two factions of a royal family are about to fight a devastating civil war. Arjuna, the greatest warrior of his side, looks across the field and sees his own relatives, teachers, and friends arrayed against him. Paralyzed by grief and moral doubt, he refuses to fight. Krishna's response — which constitutes the entire Gita — addresses not only Arjuna's immediate crisis but the deepest questions of human existence: What is the right thing to do when every option seems wrong? How should we act in a world of suffering? What is the self? What is God? How do we find liberation? The Gita has been interpreted...