The Self

Ātman — who you are beneath the roles — 179 verses, starred ones first.

1. 1.1 ★ A blind king asks what happened on the battlefield — and the Gita begins.
2. 2.11 ★ You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and call it wisdom.
3. 2.19 ★ The soul does not slay, and cannot be slain — both the slayer and the slain have mistaken the soul for the body.
4. 2.20 ★ Unborn. Undying. Ancient. Eternal. Not slain when the body is slain — this is what you are.
5. 2.54 ★ Arjuna asks: what does the truly wise person look like? How do they speak, sit, and move?
6. 4.7 ★ Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises — I project Myself forth. The divine responds to every crisis.
7. 5.18 ★ The paṇḍita sees equally in a learned Brahmin, cow, elephant, dog, and outcaste — sama-darśana.
8. 6.5 ★ Lift the self by the Self; let not the self drown itself — you alone are your own friend and your own foe.
9. 6.6 ★ Your own mind is your best friend when mastered; your worst enemy when not.
10. 6.19 ★ As a lamp in a windless place does not flicker — so is the mind of the yogi who practises the yoga of the Self.
11. 6.47 ★ Of all yogis, the one whose inner self is merged in Me, worshipping with śraddhā — that one I hold to be most united.
12. 7.19 ★ At the end of many births, the wise takes refuge in Me — 'Vāsudeva is all.' That great soul is exceedingly rare.
13. 10.20 ★ I am the ātman, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the heart of all beings — their beginning, middle, and end.
14. 10.42 ★ But why such detail, O Arjuna? With a single fragment of Myself I establish and uphold this entire universe.
15. 13.2 ★ This body is called kṣetra (the field); the one who knows it is called kṣetrajña — the field-knower!
16. 15.6 ★ No sun, moon, or fire illumines My supreme abode — going there, none returns. This is the Self-luminous Para-Brahman.
17. 15.15 ★ I am in every heart — source of memory, knowledge, and forgetting; all Vedas point to Me, their author and knower.
18. 16.21 ★ Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
19. 18.78 ★ Where yogeśvara Kṛṣṇa is, where archer Pārtha stands — there abide fortune, victory, flourishing, and steadfast dharma.
20. 2.17 ☆ That which pervades everything cannot be destroyed — nothing and no one has the power to end it.
21. 2.22 ☆ You've changed your clothes a thousand times — this is all that death is.
22. 2.23 ☆ Every physical force is named and negated — none of them can reach what you truly are.
23. 2.55 ☆ Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.
24. 6.7 ☆ The self-conquered yogi finds the Supreme Self equally present through cold, heat, joy, pain, honour and dishonour.
25. 6.8 ☆ Satisfied by knowledge and realisation, senses mastered, gold and mud equally seen — this is the true steadfast yogi.
26. 6.18 ☆ When the completely controlled mind rests serenely in the Self alone, free from all desire-pull — that is called yoga.
27. 6.20 ☆ Where the mind ceases, stilled by yoga — where the Self sees itself and rests content in itself: this is samādhi.
28. 6.22 ☆ Once that joy is found, no other gain seems greater — established in it, even the heaviest sorrow cannot shake you.
29. 6.26 ☆ Wherever the restless, unsteady mind wanders — from there and there, bring it back under the Self's control. Every time.
30. 6.29 ☆ Equal vision everywhere: the yogi sees the Self in all beings, and all beings within the Self — the same, everywhere.
31. 6.32 ☆ Who measures others' joy and pain by the standard of their own — seeing the same everywhere — is the supreme yogi.
32. 6.44 ☆ Past practice carries the yogi forward involuntarily — even the yoga-inquirer surpasses the Vedic ritualist.
33. 7.18 ☆ Noble are all — but the jñānī I regard as My very Self; with united mind, resting in Me alone as the supreme goal.
34. 13.3 ☆ Know Me as the kṣetrajña in ALL fields — and the knowledge of field + knower is true knowledge!
35. 13.23 ☆ Witness, permitter, supporter, experiencer, Great Lord, Highest Self — the supreme Puruṣa in this body!
36. 13.34 ☆ As the ONE sun illumines all this world, so the kṣetrajña-Light illumines the entire kṣetra — iti!
37. 14.5 ☆ Sattva, rajas, tamas — three guṇas born of Prakṛti — bind the indestructible ātman in every body.
38. 15.17 ☆ Beyond both stands the uttama Puruṣa — Paramātmā, the inexhaustible Lord pervading and sustaining all three worlds.
39. 18.17 ☆ One with no ego-doer-sense, whose buddhi is untainted — even while killing all these beings, kills not, is not bound.
40. 18.55 ☆ By bhakti one truly knows what and who I am; then knowing Me truly, one enters into Me immediately.
41. 1.7 Having surveyed the enemy, Duryodhana now needs to reassure himself by listing his own assets.
42. 1.8 Duryodhana lists his greatest champions — and every name carries its own tragic irony.
43. 1.10 A famously ambiguous verse: Duryodhana either boasts of limitless strength or admits hidden doubt.
44. 1.15 Each warrior has a named conch — a unique voice announcing their presence to the world.
45. 1.16 Yudhishthira, Nakula, Sahadeva — each sounding his own note in the symphony of dharma.
46. 1.17 More allied voices join — the sound of dharma's coalition builds.
47. 1.21 Before fighting, Arjuna wants to see — a warrior who must look before he acts.
48. 1.34 I would rather be killed than kill them — a statement of love that goes beyond self-preservation.
49. 1.44 'Alas' — the word before the argument ends and the grief takes over completely.
50. 1.45 Better to die with clean hands than to win with blood on them.
51. 2.1 Sanjaya describes what the blind king cannot see: Arjuna weeping, overwhelmed with compassion.
52. 2.2 Krishna's first words to Arjuna are a challenge: 'From where has this come over you?'
53. 2.3 Cast off this petty weakness of heart — rise. This is not who you are.
54. 2.12 You have always existed. You will always exist. There was no time before you, and there will be no time without you.
55. 2.18 Bodies end — the soul does not. Therefore: fight.
56. 2.21 If you know the soul is indestructible — who kills whom?
57. 2.24 The soul: uncut, unburned, unwet, undried — eternal, all-pervading, immovable, ancient.
58. 2.25 Unmanifest, inconceivable, unchangeable — knowing this, you should not grieve.
59. 2.26 Even if the soul were not eternal — even then, grief is not the answer.
60. 2.29 The self is spoken of, heard of, seen as a wonder — and yet, even hearing, no one truly knows it.
61. 2.30 In every body, the soul is indestructible — so for no being should you grieve.
62. 2.45 The Vedas deal in the three qualities of nature — go beyond them: free from opposites, self-possessed.
63. 2.46 When you have the ocean, what need is there for a well? When you have Self-knowledge, the Vedas serve a smaller purpose.
64. 2.59 Discipline removes the object but longing persists. Only direct experience of the Supreme removes the longing itself.
65. 2.69 The sage is awake to what all others cannot see. What the world calls 'real' is darkness to the sage.
66. 3.6 Sitting still while the mind craves sense-objects is not discipline — the Gita calls it hypocrisy.
67. 3.10 At creation, the Creator embedded yajna into existence itself — give and the cosmos gives back.
68. 3.13 Give first, then receive — freed from all impurity. Cook only for yourself — you eat your own sin.
69. 3.17 The fully self-realized person has no binding duty — their joy, satisfaction, and fullness come entirely from within.
70. 3.18 For the fully realized: neither action nor inaction gains or loses anything. They depend on no being for any purpose.
71. 3.28 The tattva-vit sees gunas moving among gunas and does not become attached. Knowledge itself produces liberation.
72. 3.30 Surrender all action to Me, mind on the Self, free from hope and possessiveness — then fight, free from fever.
73. 3.33 Even the wise act by their nature. All beings follow nature. Forced repression accomplishes nothing.
74. 3.42 Senses < mind < intellect < Self. Know the hierarchy — the Self is highest, and from there desire can be defeated.
75. 3.43 Know the Self as higher than the intellect. Steady the self by the Self. Then slay the formidable enemy — desire.
76. 4.25 Some offer to the gods as yajna. Others offer yajna itself into the fire of Brahman — the practice becomes the offering.
77. 4.27 All sense-actions, all vital-breath actions — offered into the fire of self-mastery yoga, kindled by knowledge.
78. 4.28 Wealth, austerity, yoga, self-study, knowledge — all valid yajna for ascetics with sharpened vows.
79. 4.29 Offering prāṇa into apāna, apāna into prāṇa — the breath itself becomes yajna for those devoted to prāṇāyāma.
80. 4.35 Knowing this you will not fall into delusion again — you will see all beings in the Self, and thus in Me.
81. 4.40 The ignorant, faithless, doubting self is destroyed — no happiness in this world, the next, or anywhere.
82. 4.41 Action renounced through yoga, doubt cut by knowledge, self-possessed — actions cannot bind that person.
83. 5.7 Yoga-joined, purified, self-controlled, seeing one's Self as the Self of all beings — even while acting, untainted.
84. 5.8 The truth-knower thinks 'I do nothing' while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing.
85. 5.9 'I do nothing' — continued: speaking, releasing, grasping, blinking: senses move among sense-objects, not I.
86. 5.11 Yogis act with body, mind, intellect, and bare senses — abandoning attachment — solely for self-purification.
87. 5.13 The self-controlled one mentally renounces all actions, rests happily in the nine-gated city — not acting, not causing.
88. 5.14 The Lord creates neither doership, actions, nor fruit-unions for the world — svabhāva alone operates.
89. 5.16 When knowledge destroys ignorance of the Self, it illumines the Supreme — like the sun dispelling darkness.
90. 5.17 Absorbed in That, self rooted in That, devoted to That — knowledge-purified, they reach non-return.
91. 5.19 Equanimous minds conquer birth here itself — Brahman is flawless and equal, thus they rest in Brahman.
92. 5.21 Unattached to outer touches, finding joy within — joined to Brahman-yoga, the soul enjoys inexhaustible bliss.
93. 5.25 Seers with sins destroyed, doubts cut, self-controlled, devoted to all beings' welfare — they attain brahma-nirvāṇa.
94. 5.26 For those freed from desire and anger, with controlled minds, knowing the Self — brahma-nirvāṇa exists on all sides.
95. 6.12 There on the seat — mind made one-pointed, senses restrained — practise yoga for the purification of the self.
96. 6.25 Gradually, gradually — with patience gripping the intellect — settle the mind into the Self and think of nothing at all.
97. 6.36 Yoga is hard for the uncontrolled self — but for the self-controlled one striving by right means, it is attainable.
98. 7.25 Veiled by yoga-māyā, I am not manifest to all — this deluded world does not recognize Me, the Unborn, the Imperishable.
99. 8.4 Adhibhūta is perishable nature; Adhidaiva is the Puruṣa; Adhiyajña — I Myself — am the sacrifice in this body.
100. 8.15 The great-souled who reach the highest perfection and come to Me are not reborn in this home of pain and impermanence.
101. 9.5 Nor do beings truly dwell in Me — see My divine yoga! I sustain all beings yet My Self does not dwell in them.
102. 9.9 These acts do not bind Me — I sit as one uninvolved, unattached to them, O Dhananjaya.
103. 9.16 I am the Vedic ritual, sacrifice, ancestral offering, herb, mantra, oblation, fire, and the offering made.
104. 9.17 I am the Father, Mother, Sustainer, Grandfather, Purifier, the knowable, OM — and the three Vedas.
105. 9.18 I am the Goal, Lord, Witness, Abode, Refuge, Friend — and the Origin, Dissolution, Seed imperishable.
106. 9.19 I give heat, withhold and release rain — I am immortality and death, being and non-being, O Arjuna.
107. 10.13 All the sages declare it — Nārada, Asita, Devala, Vyāsa — and You Yourself say it to me now.
108. 10.15 You alone know Yourself by Yourself, O Puruṣottama, Maker of beings, God of Gods — tell me Your vibhūtis.
109. 10.32 Of manifestations, the beginning, middle, and end; of knowledge, Self-knowledge; of disputants, Vāda.
110. 10.37 Among the Vṛṣṇis I am Vāsudeva; among the Pāṇḍavas, Dhanañjaya; among munis, Vyāsa; among seer-poets, Uśanas.
111. 11.1 My delusion is gone — dispersed by Your compassionate words on the Self and its deep mysteries.
112. 11.4 If You think me capable of seeing it, O Lord of Yogins — show me Your imperishable, all-pervading Self.
113. 11.12 If a thousand suns blazed simultaneously — that splendor might resemble the glory of that Great Being!
114. 11.50 Having said thus, Vāsudeva showed his own gentle form again — the Great Soul comforted the terrified Arjuna.
115. 12.5 The trouble of those whose minds cling to the Unmanifest is GREATER — that viewless path is very hard for the embodied!
116. 12.11 Unable even to act for My sake? Then take refuge in Me, abandon all fruits of action — with self-restraint.
117. 12.14 Ever-content, ever-yoked, self-controlled, firm in resolve, mind-intellect offered to Me — he is My dear devotee!
118. 12.16 Unconcerned, pure, capable, uninvolved, without distress, renouncing all self-initiated undertakings — My dear devotee!
119. 13.1 I wish to know prakṛti and puruṣa, the field and its knower, knowledge and the Knowable — O Keśava!
120. 13.4 Hear briefly from Me: what kṣetra is, its properties, its modifications, from what, and who the kṣetrajña is!
121. 13.5 This has been sung by the rishis in many hymns, distinctly — and in brahma-sūtra passages, with clear reasoning!
122. 13.8 Humility, non-pretension, non-injury, patience, uprightness, purity, steadiness, self-control — this is jñāna!
123. 13.10 Non-attachment + no identity-fusion with son/wife/home — and constant equanimity in good fortune and bad: this is jñāna.
124. 13.12 Constant Self-enquiry + seeing the goal of true knowledge = THIS IS JÑĀNA; all else is ignorance.
125. 13.16 Brahman: outside and inside all beings; unmoving yet moving; subtle beyond perception; far yet absolutely near.
126. 13.17 One yet appearing divided in all; sustaining yet devouring; creating yet consuming — this is the Knowable.
127. 13.25 Four paths to see the Self: meditation / Sāṃkhya yoga / karma yoga / following tradition — all valid.
128. 13.27 Every being born — moving or unmoving — arises from the union of kṣetra and kṣetrajña alone.
129. 13.28 Who sees the Supreme Lord equally in all beings — the undying in the dying — TRULY sees.
130. 13.29 Seeing the Lord equally everywhere, one does not harm the Self through the self — and reaches the highest.
131. 13.30 Seeing all actions done by prakṛti alone and the Self as non-doer — that is true seeing.
132. 13.31 When the yogi sees all diversity resting in the One and spreading from that One alone — he becomes Brahman.
133. 13.32 Paramātmā: beginningless, nirguṇa, imperishable — dwelling in the body, yet neither acts nor is tainted.
134. 13.33 As space pervades all yet is never tainted, so the ātman dwells in every body without being stained.
135. 14.1 Krishna reopens with the supreme jñāna above all knowledge — knowing which every muni has reached parāṃ siddhim.
136. 14.3 Mahat-brahma is the universal womb; Krishna plants the seed — from that union, all beings are born.
137. 14.4 From all wombs all bodies arise — but the great Brahman is the womb and Krishna the seed-giving Father.
138. 14.7 Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.
139. 14.10 Sattva, rajas, or tamas — each can become dominant over the others, alternating in every mind.
140. 14.11 When intelligence-light shines through every sense-gate in this body — know that sattva is predominant.
141. 14.12 Greed, restless activity, and longing surge — know that rajas is predominant and karma-saṅga is binding.
142. 14.15 Dying in rajas, one is born among the action-attached; dying in tamas, one is born in irrational wombs.
143. 14.19 When the seer sees only guṇas as agents and knows what is beyond them — he attains My being.
144. 14.20 Transcending the three guṇas, the embodied one is freed from birth-death-age-pain and attains immortality.
145. 14.23 Sitting as a neutral — unmoved by guṇas, knowing 'guṇas act' — firm, unshaken, the pure witness.
146. 14.24 Equal in pleasure-pain, clod-stone-gold, agreeable-disagreeable, censure-praise — the guṇātīta abides in self.
147. 15.7 The jīva is an eternal fragment of Me — drawing the 6-sense apparatus (5 senses + mind) toward itself in Prakṛti.
148. 15.11 Striving yogins with refined selves see the jīva within; those unrefined, even striving, do not see it.
149. 15.14 I am Vaiśvānara — the digestive fire in every living body — digesting all four kinds of food with prāṇa and apāna.
150. 16.9 Holding that nihilistic view, ruined selves of limited mind and fierce action, they rise as enemies of the world.
151. 16.14 'I slew that enemy; I'll slay others. I am Lord, Enjoyer, Perfect, Powerful, Happy' — the ego-apotheosis of the āsurī.
152. 16.15 The ego-apex: 'I am rich, well-born — who equals me? I'll sacrifice, give, rejoice.' — all deluded by ajñāna.
153. 16.17 Self-complacent, stubborn, wealth-proud — they perform name-only sacrifices, ostentatiously ignoring śāstric ordinance.
154. 16.18 Taking refuge in ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha — they hate Me in their own bodies and in others.
155. 17.2 Śraddhā of the embodied is threefold — born of svabhāva (one's own nature): sāttvikī, rājasī, tāmasī. Hear this.
156. 17.10 Tāmasic food: stale, flavorless, putrid, overnight-old, others' remnants, impure — dear to those immersed in tamas.
157. 17.15 Speech tapas: non-disturbing, true, agreeable, beneficial words — plus daily svādhyāya (sacred study).
158. 17.16 Mental tapas: serenity of mind, kindliness, silence, self-restraint, and purity of motive/bhāva.
159. 17.19 Tāmasic tapas: done with foolish delusion, self-torture, or to destroy another — declared tāmasic.
160. 18.4 Hear My definitive word on tyāga, O best of Bharatas — tyāga has been declared three-fold, O tiger among men.
161. 18.8 Rājasic tyāga: abandoning action as painful/from fear of body-trouble — obtains no fruit of tyāga.
162. 18.11 No embodied being can abandon ALL action; the true tyāgī is the karma-phala-tyāgī — the fruit-abandoner.
163. 18.16 One who — given the five causes — sees the self alone as doer due to unrefined intellect sees not; that is durmati.
164. 18.25 Tāmasic karma: begun from delusion, ignoring consequences, waste, injury to beings, and one's own capacity.
165. 18.28 Tāmasic kartā: undisciplined, vulgar, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, desponding, procrastinating.
166. 18.31 Rājasic buddhi: imperfectly/wrongly discerns dharma-adharma and kārya-akārya — not as they really are.
167. 18.32 Tāmasic buddhi: enveloped in darkness, sees adharma as dharma, all things inverted and perverted.
168. 18.33 Sāttvic dhṛti: unswerving through yoga, holds fast the activities of mind, prāṇa, and senses.
169. 18.37 Sāttvic sukha: poison-like at first, nectar-like at the end — born of the clarity of Self-knowing intellect.
170. 18.39 Tāmasic sukha: deluding of the self both at start and in consequence — arises from sleep, laziness, and carelessness.
171. 18.40 No being — neither on earth nor among the devas in heaven — is free from these three guṇas born of Prakṛti.
172. 18.41 The duties of Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras are distributed by the guṇas born of their own nature.
173. 18.51 Endued with pure buddhi, regulating self with dhṛti, renouncing sense-objects, setting aside rāga-dveṣa —
174. 18.53 Releasing ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha, possessions — free from mine-ness, tranquil — fit for becoming Brahman.
175. 18.64 Hear again My supreme word, most secret of all — because you are deeply beloved to Me, I will speak your benefit.
176. 18.68 Whoever teaches this supreme secret among My devotees, with supreme bhakti — comes to Me without doubt.
177. 18.74 Thus have I heard this wondrous hair-raising dialogue between Vāsudeva and the great-souled Pārtha — Sañjaya's witness.
178. 18.75 Through Vyāsa's grace, I heard this supreme secret Yoga directly from Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, speaking Himself.
179. 18.76 O King, as I recall this wondrous holy dialogue between Keśava and Arjuna again and again, I rejoice again and again.