Timeless verses from the Gīta — organized by theme so you can find Krishna's guidance on karma, love, peace, courage, and more. 48 selections in eight themes; some verses appear more than once. Read the English excerpts and paraphrases with their original context.
Two verses to put into practice
BG 2.47 — effort and results
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
English paraphrase: Attend to your responsibility without treating its result as something you own. Do not become attached to avoiding the work.
Meaning: Krishna addresses Arjuna’s responsibility to act. Detachment concerns the fruits of action; it is not an instruction to stop caring or preparing.
Try today: Before an exam or interview, choose one preparation task you can complete. Evaluate that effort separately from the final result.
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for by working without attachment one attains the Supreme.
It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.
Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy — fight.
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.
One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor, who is free from false ego and equal both in happiness and distress — such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.
I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.
A devotee dear to Krishna does not distress others or let others disturb their balance, remaining steady through joy, distress, fear and anxiety. (Paraphrase of BG 12.15.)
One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.
As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent Self.
For the mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Kṛṣṇa, and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind. But the mind can be controlled by practice and detachment, through suitable means.
A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego — he alone can attain real peace.
From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the self.
For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion — at that time I descend Myself.
Therefore get up. Prepare to fight and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a flourishing kingdom. By My grace they are already put to death; you are but an instrument, O Savyasācī.
O son of Pṛthā, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy.
Krishna reassures Arjuna that sincere spiritual effort is not lost, here or hereafter; one who works toward the good does not fall into ruin. (Paraphrase of BG 6.40.)
One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities.
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones that are useless, similarly the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.
For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people. With the exception of you, all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain.
The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.
One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.
Before giving up the present body, if one is able to tolerate the urges of the material senses and check the force of desire and anger, he is well situated and is happy in this world.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.
For those who meditate on Krishna with undivided devotion, he undertakes the care of what they need and the preservation of what they have. (Paraphrase of BG 9.22.)
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect.