Bhagavad Gita - The Lord's Song

Bhagavad Gita
Home Study Course

The Gita has to be studied well. If it is understood well, everything is well understood.

Pujya Swamiji with the Bhagavad Gita Bhagavad Gita Home Study — 9 Volumes
The Scripture

Why Study the Gita?

Gita-sugita kartavya
kim anyaih sastra-vistaraih The Gita has to be studied well — what will you gain by studying other books in detail?

This verse presents the Gita as a book to be studied, a book containing everything that one has to know through the scriptures. It doesn't belittle the efficacy or the necessity of studying other scriptural books; it only points out that the study of the Gita amounts to the study of other scriptures.

The source books of the spiritual wisdom of India are the four Vedas, fulfilled in the last portion called Vedanta, or the Upanishads. A famous Sanskrit verse likens these Upanishads to a cow and the Gita becomes the cow's milk — milked by Lord Krishna himself, who teaches the Gita to Arjuna. Arjuna serves as the calf to whom the milk, the message of the Gita, is given.

A scripture is something that has a message with a lasting, universal value. A scripture's message should be relevant to me as an individual and to you; it should be relevant to anyone at any time and place. Only when a message addresses certain problems that are always there for a human being does it have lasting relevance. Because the Vedas and the Gita have that kind of a message, they are scriptures.

The Gita is recognized and highly respected because of its two main topics — yoga-sastra and brahma-vidya — which together form the body of knowledge that is very important for every individual:

Yoga-Sastra

The knowledge meant to make a person mature as an individual — free from conflicts, fear, agitation, guilt, and hurt. It helps one to become relatively composed, tranquil, alert and free — in short, a cheerful person and qualified to study Brahmavidya.

Brahma-Vidya

The knowledge of the whole, the knowledge that liberates. A person who has become mature by yoga has something more to accomplish — total freedom, generally called moksha. To know Brahman is to know the truth of oneself as the whole, as complete. The discovery of this fact frees you from all sense of limitation and isolation.

These two topics of the Gita, which form the very essence of all four Vedas, make the Gita a scripture with a message that is relevant for everyone.

The Context

The Setting of the Gita

The Gita itself is set in a battlefield, not in the Himalayas, or in a forest. Arjuna is face-to-face with a problem born of conflict between his familial affections and the call of duty. On one side, it seems necessary for him to perform his duty, which is to fight the war. Then, there is another equally powerful pull — his affection for his family and teachers, which conflicts with the concept of duty. Caught between the horns of duty and affection, Arjuna is confused as he stands between the two forces on the battlefield.

The battle has been declared because Duryodhana has usurped the kingdom. The Pandavas had tried to avoid war by asking Krishna to act as a mediator. Duryodhana wouldn't give the kingdom back nor share it with the Pandavas. He would not give a district, a county, a village with five houses, nor a house with five rooms; not even a square inch of land would he give. He said, "Let them either go back into the forest or meet me in the battlefield." There was no way of avoiding war.

When Arjuna looked across the battlefield, he found highly respected people — Drona, his own teacher, Bhishma, his grandfather, and many relatives — with whom he had to fight. He said, "What is the use of fighting all these people? Without killing them, I'm not going to get the kingdom back. And what is the use of getting the kingdom back by destroying the people in whose company I would be happy?" Arjuna saw that in war nobody is a winner. "I see a black, dark future; therefore, I'm not interested in this fight." Arjuna gave up his bow and arrows.

While caught between the call of duty and his emotions, Arjuna begins to appreciate a fundamental problem — the problem of a human being. That problem takes possession of his mind and he wants to find a solution. Finding a teacher in Lord Krishna, he presents himself to Krishna as a shishya, a disciple. Arjuna was always a devotee, but not a shishya; he finds himself a shishya on the battlefield. Lord Krishna accepts Arjuna as a disciple and teaches him in the succeeding chapters of the Gita.

Krishna and Arjuna
Pujya Swamiji teaching

Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati teaching a Vedanta class

The Programme

How the Home Study Course Works

This programme brings the traditional method of Vedanta teaching into the comfort of your home. As Swamiji himself put it, the goal is not merely to read the text — it is to allow the vision to settle, to take root, and gradually to transform the way you see yourself and the world.

To get the most from your study, Swamiji shared four simple principles to keep close:

Cultivate an open mind. Approach the text and the commentary with a willingness to listen. An open mind is the primary requirement for understanding.
Develop Shraddha. This is a trust in the teaching. If a passage seems vague or contradictory, look at your own understanding rather than questioning the source — allow the meaning to unfold over time.
The power of repetition. In the tradition of Vedanta, topics are repeated. This is not for lack of new material, but to de-condition old ways of thinking and make the vision of the Gita a lived reality.
Daily discipline. Listen to or read the discourses daily — ideally in the morning — so the topics stay with you throughout the day.
Create a Study Group

You Do Not Have to Study Alone

We encourage students to form study groups — meeting with family or friends every week or every two weeks to listen to discourses or read together. Studying with others keeps the inquiry alive between sessions.

This programme also provides a channel to write to us with any questions that arise during your study. Swamiji took his students seriously — and so do we.

"I take you seriously as a student…
I am with you in this journey."
— Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Everything that is here is Iśvara.
It means, every law is a manifestation of Isvara.
Every form is the lord's form.
Dharma is not different;

it is the very manifestation of Iśvara.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati