The Gita in fourteen days
Thirteen verses that carry the whole argument, one a day, with the Sanskrit, so that by the end you can hear it.
It does not last
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः ।
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥
āgamāpāyino 'nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
The contacts of the senses, Arjuna, give cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go; they do not last. Bear them.
Not a promise that pain will stop—only that it passes.
Krishna's first practical teaching to a man in despair is not consolation. It is a fact: heat and cold, pleasure and pain come and go. Bear them. Everything that follows assumes you can.
Name one discomfort you are carrying today. Say to it, once: this too comes and goes.
What you are
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः ।
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
It is never born and never dies; having been, it will never cease to be. Unborn, eternal, everlasting, ancient—it is not killed when the body is killed.
The Gita's claim about what you are. The Dhammapada disagrees; see the contrast below.
The Gita's central claim about your nature. You do not have to believe it today. Read it as a hypothesis and notice what changes in the body when you hold it for a minute.
Read the Sanskrit aloud, slowly, even if you cannot pronounce it well.
Worn-out clothes
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा-
न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥
navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny
anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī
As a person puts off worn-out clothes and takes new ones, so the embodied one puts off worn-out bodies and enters new ones.
The image the tradition reaches for at every deathbed.
The image the tradition reaches for at every deathbed. Whether or not you accept rebirth, notice how the verse treats the body: with respect, and without clinging.
Sit for five minutes. At the end, thank the body for the day.
Your right is to the action
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi
Your right is to the action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruit of action be your motive; and do not be attached to inaction either.
The most quoted verse in the text, and the one most people need first.
The most quoted verse in the text, and the one most people need first. You may act. You may not own the result. Read the second half too: do not be attached to inaction either—this is not a licence to withdraw.
Choose one task today. Before it, say: mine is the doing. Afterwards, let the result be what it is.
Evenness
योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय ।
सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते ॥
siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate
Established in yoga, do your work, Arjuna, letting go of attachment, the same in success and failure. That evenness is called yoga.
The Gita's definition of yoga: not a posture, an evenness.
The Gita's own definition of yoga: not a posture, not a trance—evenness in success and failure. Everything the Yoga Sutras and the meditation traditions build is a means to this.
Notice one success and one failure today, however small, and try to meet them with the same face.
The chain
ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते ।
सङ्गात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ॥
क्रोधाद्भवति सम्मोहः सम्मोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रमः ।
स्मृतिभ्रंशाद् बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति ॥
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate
krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati
Dwelling on the objects of the senses, a person grows attached to them. From attachment comes desire; from desire, anger. From anger, confusion; from confusion, loss of memory; from loss of memory, the ruin of discernment; and when discernment is ruined, the person is lost.
The most psychologically exact thing in the text: the chain from a thought to a catastrophe, link by link.
The most psychologically exact thing in the text. Dwelling → attachment → desire → anger → confusion → forgetting → ruin. The chain can be cut at the first link, and only there is it easy.
Catch one thought today that you are dwelling on. Do not fight it. Just stop feeding it.
Your own duty
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् ।
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥
sva-dharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ
Better one's own duty, done imperfectly, than another's duty done well. Better to die in one's own duty; another's is full of fear.
On finding one's work: the Gita's answer is that it is already yours.
On finding one's work, the Gita says: it is already yours. Imperfectly done, it is still better than someone else's done well. This is either a comfort or a challenge, depending on whether you have been avoiding yours.
Write down, in one line, what your duty actually is this week. Not your ambition—your duty.
Raise yourself
उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥
ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ
Let a person lift themselves by themselves; let them not lower themselves. For the self alone is the friend of the self, and the self alone is its enemy.
Vivekananda's whole gospel of strength is in this verse.
Vivekananda's gospel of strength is in this verse. You are your own friend and your own enemy, and nobody is coming to do this for you. (The Dhammapada agrees; 18.66 will complicate it.)
Do one thing today you have been putting off because it is hard.
A lamp in a windless place
यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता ।
योगिनो यतचित्तस्य युञ्जतो योगमात्मनः ॥
yogino yata-cittasya yuñjato yogam ātmanaḥ
As a lamp in a windless place does not flicker—that is the image given for the yogi whose mind is controlled, absorbed in the yoga of the self.
The image of a still mind that every later tradition borrowed.
The image of a still mind that every later tradition borrowed. Notice that the lamp is not extinguished. Stillness is not blankness.
Light a lamp or candle. Watch the flame for two minutes. That is the whole meditation.
Practice and non-attachment
चञ्चलं हि मनः कृष्ण प्रमाथि बलवद्दृढम् ।
तस्याहं निग्रहं मन्ये वायोरिव सुदुष्करम् ॥
असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलम् ।
अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते ॥
tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye vāyor iva su-duṣkaram
asaṁśayaṁ mahā-bāho mano durnigrahaṁ calam
abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyate
Arjuna: The mind is restless, Krishna—turbulent, strong, obstinate. To restrain it seems to me as hard as restraining the wind. Krishna: Without doubt, the mind is hard to restrain and restless. But by practice, Arjuna, and by non-attachment, it is held.
Arjuna's complaint is everyone's; Krishna's reply is two words, and they are the whole method.
Arjuna's complaint is everyone's: the mind is like the wind. Krishna's answer is two words, and the entire technology of meditation is a footnote to them.
Sit for ten minutes. Each time the mind runs, bring it back without irritation. Count the returns. The returns are the practice.
I carry what they need
अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जनाः पर्युपासते ।
तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् ॥
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham
Those who think of me and no other, who worship me always joined to me—I carry what they need, and I keep what they have.
The verse of trust. Shirdi Sai Baba's whole teaching is a commentary on it.
The verse of trust. Shirdi Sai Baba's whole teaching—faith and patience—is a commentary on it. It is the Gita's answer to anxiety: not that things will go well, but that you are held.
Name one thing you are anxious about. Say the verse over it, once.
The one who is dear
अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च ।
निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी ॥
सन्तुष्टः सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चयः ।
मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ॥
nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣamī
santuṣṭaḥ satataṁ yogī yatātmā dṛḍha-niścayaḥ
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ
One who hates no being, who is friendly and compassionate, free of “mine” and free of “I”, the same in pain and pleasure, forgiving; always content, self-controlled, firm in resolve, with mind and understanding given to me—that devotee is dear to me.
A portrait of the person the text is trying to make. Read it as a checklist, slowly.
A portrait of the person the text is trying to make. Read it as a checklist and be honest about which items you fail. Then notice that the first item is not a practice but an absence: one who hates no being.
Pick one line of the portrait. Live it for a day.
Do not grieve
सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।
अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥
ahaṁ tvā sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
Abandon all duties and come to me alone for refuge. I will free you from all wrong. Do not grieve.
The last instruction. The whole path of devotion turns on it, and it ends with two words: do not grieve.
The last instruction, and the verse the whole path of devotion turns on. After seventeen chapters of method, Krishna says: let it all go and come to me. It ends with two words. The Dhammapada says no one can purify another; the Gita says I will. Both are on this site. Choose, or hold both.
Sit quietly and, without deciding whether you believe it, let yourself be carried for five minutes.
Hearing it
It is the spirit and the consciousness in which it is done that makes an action Yogic—it is not the action itself.
Sri Aurobindo wrote a whole book on the Gita and summarised its ethic in one letter: it is the spirit in which an action is done that makes it yogic, not the action. Go back through the fourteen days and read only the Sanskrit. You will find you can hear it now.
Read all thirteen verses aloud in one sitting. Then decide which one you will keep.