Family & Relationships

Kinship, friendship, and their claims — 30 verses, starred ones first.

1. 5.29 ★ Knowing Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifice and austerity, Great Lord of all worlds, Friend of all beings — peace comes.
2. 6.5 ★ Lift the self by the Self; let not the self drown itself — you alone are your own friend and your own foe.
3. 6.6 ★ Your own mind is your best friend when mastered; your worst enemy when not.
4. 12.13 ★ Not hating, friendly, compassionate, without 'mine' or 'I', equal in pain and joy, forgiving — the dear devotee!
5. 6.41 ☆ After worlds of merit, the fallen yogi is reborn in a pure and prosperous family — conditions for resuming practice.
6. 1.2 Seeing the opposing army, a worried prince rushes to his teacher for reassurance.
7. 1.3 Duryodhana points to the enemy army and subtly reminds his teacher of a painful irony.
8. 1.6 Even Arjuna's own sons are in this army — the personal stakes deepen.
9. 1.24 Krishna does as Arjuna asks — immediately, without question or hesitation.
10. 1.25 Krishna says: 'Look.' Two words that will change everything.
11. 1.26 He looked — and saw everyone he has ever loved, lined up to kill or be killed.
12. 1.27 Even the fathers-in-law and dearest friends — on both sides. No one is safely 'other.'
13. 1.32 What is a kingdom for, if all those you wanted to share it with are dead?
14. 1.33 The people who shaped him — teachers, father-figures, sons — are on the field, ready to die.
15. 1.34 I would rather be killed than kill them — a statement of love that goes beyond self-preservation.
16. 1.39 When families collapse, the traditions that hold communities together collapse with them.
17. 2.4 How do you raise a weapon against the teacher who made you?
18. 2.5 Better a beggar's life than pleasures paid for with my teachers' blood.
19. 4.3 I give you this ancient yoga today because you are My devotee and friend — this is the supreme secret.
20. 6.9 Who sees friend, foe, stranger, kin, the righteous and the sinner with truly equal eyes — that one excels.
21. 6.42 Or: born into a family of wise yogis — rarer still, the most auspicious birth this world can offer.
22. 9.18 I am the Goal, Lord, Witness, Abode, Refuge, Friend — and the Origin, Dissolution, Seed imperishable.
23. 11.41 I called You 'Hey Kṛṣṇa! Hey Friend!' not knowing Your greatness — from carelessness or love — please forgive!
24. 11.44 Prostrating my body, I seek Your grace — as father forgives son, friend friend, beloved beloved — O Lord, forgive!
25. 12.18 Equal to enemy and friend, honor and dishonor, cold and heat, pleasure and pain — free from all attachment!
26. 14.25 Equal in honor and disgrace, equal to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings — he has gone beyond guṇas.
27. 18.37 Sāttvic sukha: poison-like at first, nectar-like at the end — born of the clarity of Self-knowing intellect.
28. 18.47 One's own dharma even imperfectly done is better than another's well done; svabhāva-ordained karma incurs no sin.
29. 18.48 Do not abandon one's innate duty even if imperfect — all undertakings are enveloped by fault as fire by smoke.
30. 18.64 Hear again My supreme word, most secret of all — because you are deeply beloved to Me, I will speak your benefit.