Reading the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita places a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna within the Mahabharata. Arjuna faces a battle against people he knows. Read his hesitation before turning to the answers: the setting gives the dialogue its urgency.
How to begin
Begin with the opening chapter and write down the question you think Arjuna is asking. After each later chapter, return to that question. Keep a separate note for unfamiliar words, and compare a second translation when an English phrase seems difficult. A translation's wording is one way of approaching the text, not the last word on its meaning.
A question to carry into your reading
How does your understanding of responsibility change as you follow the dialogue? Choose a passage and explain your reading using the surrounding verses.
About this edition
This guide links to Edwin Arnold's English verse translation. Other Gita editions in the library use different wording; keep the translator with any quotation.
Edition sourceThis guide is in English. The linked archive edition is in English; reader translation is available separately.
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