The Bhagavad Gita Read Online Free PDF

energy, Krishna. If I were to gain great wealth and power, what would that prove? I’m asking you to help me, not to just tell me to go out and fight. I beg you to tell me what I should do. I am your pupil; be my teacher, my guru. I take refuge in you and surrender to you. Please instruct me, beloved Krishna, show me the way.”
    9    The great warrior-prince, who has never known retreat, slips deeper into his dark dejection. He mumbles, “I shall not fight,” and becomes silent.
    10   Now that Arjuna has submitted himself as a pupil, Krishna transforms into His true role as the Divine Teacher. He tightens the reins in His hand, looks long into the crestfallen warrior’s eyes, and begins to speak.
    11  “You may grieve sincerely, Arjuna, but it is without cause. Your words may seem wise, but the truly wise one grieves neither for the living nor the dead!
    12  “There has never been a time when I, or you, or any of these kings and soldiers here did not exist — and there will never be a time when we cease to exist. Physical bodies appear and disappear, but not the Atma (the soul, the life force) that lives within them.
    13  “This life force comes and dwells in a body for a while. While therein, it experiences infancy, childhood, youth, and old age, and then, upon death, passes eventually to a new body. Changes such as death pertain to the body, not the Atma. The wise person does not get caught up in the delusion that he or she is this body, Arjuna. This delusion is the very definition of ego.
    14  “Arjuna, the contact of bodily senses with objects and attractions in the world creates feelings like sorrow or happiness, and sensations like heat or cold. But these are impermanent, transitory, coming and going like passing clouds. Just endure them patiently and bravely; learn to be unaffected by them.
    15  “The serene person, unaffected by these worldly feelings and sensations, is the same in pain and pleasure,and does not allow him- or herself to get disturbed or sidetracked. This is the person fit for immortality. Realize this and assert your strength, Arjuna. Do not identify your True Self merely with your mortal body.
    16   “Real, as used in spirituality, means that which is eternal, never changing, indestructible. This is the very definition of ‘Reality.’ That which is Real never ceases to be. Anything that is impermanent, even if it lasts a very long time and seems durable, eventually changes and thus does not have true Reality. The wise ones understand the difference between the Real and the not-Real. When you fully understand this profound fact, you will have attained the zenith of all knowledge.
“One’s body, according to this logic, is not Real. And yet, there is something that dwells within the body that is Real: the Atma — which is existence itself; awareness, pure consciousness.
     
    17  “Get to know this Reality. It pervades the entire cosmos and is unchanging and indestructible. No power can affect it. No one can change the changeless.
“This Atma, Arjuna, is like space or sky. Clouds appear in the sky but their presence does not cause the sky to grow apart to make room for them. In the same manner, the Atma (the True Self Within) remains ever itself. Things of the material universe come and go, appear and disappear, but the Atma never changes.
     
    18  “Only the body is mortal. Only the body will come to an end. But the Atma, which is the True Self Within, is immortal, and will never come to an end. So fight, O Warrior!
    19  “You talk about killing or being killed; know that the body may be killed but the indwelling Reality (the Atma) can never be. To say that one person slays and the other is slain may be correct from a physical worldly standpoint, but it is not the Reality of the matter.
    20  “The Atma, this Real us, was never born, nor will it ever die. In fact, this eternal Reality within is never destroyed; it never undergoes any changes. When your ego