The Bhagavad Gita is the highest expression of philosophical Hinduism. It is a chapter of the immense Indian epic, the Mahabharata, the saga of the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Spoken by Lord Krishna,the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His intimate disciple Arjuna,the Gita's seven hundred concise verses provide a definitive guide to the science of self realization. No other philosophical or religious work reveals, in such a lucid and profound way, the nature of consciousness, the self, the universe and the Supreme.
The Bhagavad-Gita is the concise summary of India's spiritual teachings. It is the main sourcebook for information on karma, reincarnation, the soul, yoga, devotion, Lord Krishna and spiritual enlightenment. Remarkably, the setting for this classic is a battlefield. Just before the battle, the great warrior Arjuna begins to inquire from Lord Krishna about the meaning of life. The Gita systematically guides one along the path of self-realization.
Shrimad literally means 'beautiful, glorious'. Bhagavad means 'divine one' and Gita is 'song'. Shrimad Bhagavad Gita therefore means 'beautiful song of the divine one'.
The poem is in the form of a dialogue between two major characters in the Mahabharata: Arjuna and Krishna. Just before the epic battle at Kurukshetra, Arjuna asks Krishna, his charioteer, to take his chariot forward to enable him to size up the opposition. When he looks at them, he sees that their army consists of his cousins, uncles, gurus, and others whom he reveres. Arjuna is suddenly struck with remorse at the thought of attempting to gain the kingdom by killing his kinsmen. He tells Krishna that he cannot fight them.
Krishna's advice and guidance to Arjuna constitute the text of the Gita.
Krishna tells him that a warrior's duty is to fight and not question the wisdom of war. Everyone born is destined to die, but it is god or destiny that destroys. The slayer is only an instrument in the hands of god or destiny. The human soul, which is part of the universal soul, is immortal - therefore no-one is actually slain. If people perform the duties appropriate to their station, without attachment to success or failure, then they cannot be stained by action. The rest of the poem provides the full philosophy underlying this insight.
Krishna persuades him to fight by instructing him in spiritual wisdom and the means of attaining union with God . The main doctrines of the Gita are karma-yoga, the yoga of selfless action performed with inner detachment from its results; jnana-yoga, the yoga of knowledge and discrimination between the lower nature of man and his soul, which is identical with the supreme self; and bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion to a particular god-in this case, Krishna, who reveals himself to Arjuna as the avatara (incarnation) of Vishnu, Lord of the Universe. The Bhagavad-Gita is essentially Upanishadic in content, but it differs significantly from the brahman-atman doctrine of the Upanishads in teaching that the highest God is personal and that love and surrender to God's grace is a better and easier spiritual path than that of pure knowledge.
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