For the bigger picture, see our main guide to the Bhagavad Gita and its place within the Mahabharata.

• Chapter 1 — Arjuna’s Despair: Seeing his kinsmen arrayed for war, Arjuna is overwhelmed with grief and lays down his bow.
• Chapter 2 — The Yoga of Knowledge: Krishna’s teaching begins: the soul is deathless; do your duty without attachment to results.
• Chapter 3 — Karma Yoga: The path of selfless action — act for the welfare of the world, not for personal reward.
• Chapter 4 — Divine Knowledge: Krishna reveals sacred wisdom and his repeated descents to restore dharma, age after age.
• Chapter 5 — Renunciation of Action: True renunciation and selfless action are one; the wise act while resting in the Self.
• Chapter 6 — The Yoga of Meditation: The science of meditation — the steady mind is “like a lamp in a windless place.”
• Chapter 7 — Knowledge & Realisation: All things are strung upon the Divine like beads upon a single thread.
• Chapter 8 — The Imperishable Absolute: On the eternal Spirit, and the power of remembering the Divine at life’s end.
• Chapter 9 — Royal Knowledge: The “king of sciences” — loving devotion as the most direct path to God.
• Chapter 10 — Divine Glories: Krishna as the essence and splendour within all that is great and beautiful.
• Chapter 11 — The Cosmic Form: Arjuna is granted divine sight and beholds the awesome universal form of the Lord.
• Chapter 12 — The Path of Devotion: The dearest devotee is humble, even-minded and loving toward all beings.
• Chapter 13 — The Field & Its Knower: Distinguishing the body (the field) from the soul that knows it.
• Chapter 14 — The Three Gunas: Sattva, rajas and tamas — the three qualities of nature, and how to rise beyond them.
• Chapter 15 — The Supreme Person: The mystical tree of life and the Supreme Self beyond the perishable and imperishable.
• Chapter 16 — The Divine & the Demonic: The divine and demonic tendencies that struggle within every human heart.
• Chapter 17 — The Threefold Faith: How faith, food, sacrifice and discipline each reflect the three gunas.
• Chapter 18 — Liberation: The crowning teaching: “Abandon all and take refuge in Me alone.”

The Gita teaches that whatever path suits your nature — selfless action, devotion, meditation or knowledge — all lead to the same goal: union with the Divine. To begin living its teaching, explore Kriya Yoga and how to meditate.

Related reading: Karma, Reincarnation and Moksha.