PATIENT
The Bhagavad Gita
STRUCTURE
18 chapters, one dialogue
SETTING
Kurukshetra, eve of the Mahabharata war
SPEAKERS
Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna
CHIEF COMPLAINT
What do you do when every choice in front of you seems wrong, and you cannot stand still?
HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS
On the eve of the Mahabharata war, the warrior Arjuna looks across the battlefield and sees kinsmen, teachers and family on the other side. He is paralyzed by grief and moral confusion and drops his bow. His charioteer, Krishna, who reveals himself to be the divine, answers him with a complete philosophy of life, duty, love and liberation. The guide treats the battlefield as a metaphor for life's moral conflicts: people seek wisdom when they are truly lost. The Gita is the Upanishads applied to action and devotion.
REVIEW OF SYSTEMS
THE SELF
The soul (Atman) is eternal and cannot be killed, so grief over death is misplaced. This opens Krishna's teaching in Chapter 2.
KARMA YOGA
No one can remain inactive; even breathing is action. The key is to act without selfish desire and to stop identifying as the doer.
MEDITATION
Practical instructions: sit still, eat and sleep moderately, focus the mind on the Self. And reassurance for the one who tries and does not succeed in this life.
DEVOTION
Krishna calls it the royal secret. Even a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water offered with sincere devotion is received.
THE THREE GUNAS
Tamas (inertia, ignorance), rajas (passion, restlessness) and sattva (clarity, peace) make up all of material nature, and shape faith, food, worship and charity.
PHYSICAL EXAM — STYLE & STRUCTURE
- —Chapter 11 is the climax: Arjuna asks to see Krishna's true form and sees the entire cosmos, all creation and destruction. Then he asks a gentle question in Chapter 12.
- —Chapter 16 sets divine qualities (fearlessness, compassion, honesty, contentment) against demonic ones (arrogance, cruelty, greed).
- —Chapter 15 pictures the world as an upside-down tree rooted above in Brahman.
- —The final chapter distinguishes renunciation (giving up action) from relinquishment (giving up attachment to results).
- —Each chapter has a Sanskrit name that ends in 'Yoga'.
ASSESSMENT & PLAN
Read Chapters 1–3 first, then 6, 12 and 18. Read Chapter 11 when you are ready for it. This is a non-denominational reference guide to what the text says. Verse numbers below follow the guide, and the Gita is one of several Indian texts in this library; the Upanishads guide is the source it applies.