Bhagavad-gita: 10 Life-Changing Lessons

The Bhagavad-gita is a very wise book. If you don’t yet have time to read the whole of it but would like to hear its content briefly and to the point, or if you have read the Bhagavad-gita and feel the need to understand it more deeply, then you will find it worthwhile to read this article to the end.

There exist the most ancient of scriptures, called the Vedas. They were composed in the most ancient of languages—Sanskrit. If you took a large hangar and tried to fill it with books, you would hardly fit all the Vedas inside. It is an incredibly vast body of knowledge.

How can you study the Vedas without reading them?

If you put the Vedas on one pan of a scale and the Mahabharata alone on the other, the Mahabharata will outweigh them. This is what Jiva Gosvami, the greatest authority on the Vedas, says. By studying the Mahabharata, you can understand all the Vedas and thus make your life prosperous.

But the Mahabharata is no small amount of information either: a hundred thousand verses in Sanskrit! It tells of events that took place five thousand years ago. It describes how a conflict arose between cousins. They could not agree on who should become emperor of the Earth.

Some of the brothers were pious, others wicked. Among the pious we will single out Arjuna, and among the wicked, Duryodhana. You can watch the details of the story in the TV series Mahabharata.

For now, the main thing to grasp is that on one side of the conflict stood the noble Arjuna, and on the other the wicked Duryodhana. Behind each of them stands a huge army.

And so they stand on the battlefield, ready to join battle. Nerves are strained to the limit. Emotions are off the charts. The situation is made even harder by the fact that, by the will of fate, Duryodhana’s army includes people who are very dear to Arjuna and are great authorities for him: his own grandfather Bhishma and his teacher Drona. And so Arjuna falls into despair: “How can I shoot arrows at those whom I ought to worship?” It is precisely at this moment that the Bhagavad-gita begins.

So the first thing you should grasp is this: the Bhagavad-gita is part of the Mahabharata. In other words, it is 700 verses taken from the Mahabharata. And it begins at the moment when Arjuna is in a state of shock. Incidentally, Sanskrit has the word shoka, which translates as “suffering.”

What should you do in a hopeless situation?

If you have read the Bhagavad-gita, you have probably struggled with the sheer number of names in the first chapter. Don’t worry. Feel free to go straight on to the second chapter. The main thing is to understand that Arjuna has found himself in a hopeless position, in shock. That is why his legs give way, his throat goes dry, his hands drop, and tears stream from his eyes.

The chariot of the despairing Arjuna is driven by his friend, Krishna. Arjuna understood that Krishna was no ordinary person. He was incredibly wise and had already helped Arjuna more than once in very difficult situations in life. But now Arjuna was facing the most difficult situation of his life. He realized that his last hope was Krishna’s wisdom.

That is why, in the second chapter, Arjuna turns to Krishna. But now not as to a friend—as to a guru: “I am completely bewildered. So explain to me: how should I act?”

This is perhaps the most important lesson of the Bhagavad-gita. Each of us needs a wise person in life who will help with good advice in the most difficult situations. Do you have such people in your life? If so, you are fortunate beyond words.

We must fight to the end

So the Bhagavad-gita is a dialogue between the despairing Arjuna and his teacher, Krishna. Arjuna asks his teacher questions, and Krishna answers. Throughout the entire Gita, Krishna inspires Arjuna to fight. “Arjuna, you are a warrior. This war is your sacred duty. So stand up and fight! Stand up and fight!”

And here—pay attention!—Krishna builds a chain of arguments for why Arjuna must enter the battle. The arguments with which Krishna urges Arjuna to fight—that is what the Bhagavad-gita is. I will now list them briefly. If you listen carefully to these arguments of Krishna’s, you will overcome every difficult situation in your life with ease. Even stars like Will Smith find tremendous support in the words of the Bhagavad-gita.

Now listen carefully to Krishna’s arguments. They will help change your life for the better. We have condensed the whole Bhagavad-gita into 10 points that gather the essential knowledge of the book.

10 lessons of the Bhagavad-gita

1) The Bhagavad-gita frees you from the fear of death

There is a difference between the soul and the body. Sooner or later the body will die. But the soul living in the body is eternal. Therefore there is no need to fear death. At the root of our identification with the body lie bodily pleasures. That is why, first of all, one must practice self-discipline, limiting one’s pleasures (though without giving them up completely). Only in this way can one feel one’s difference from the body and stop fearing death.

2) The Bhagavad-gita teaches patience

One must learn to patiently endure good and bad circumstances: winter, summer, happiness, distress. In any weather one should patiently carry out one’s sacred duty. Sacred duty is called dharma. Why is it sacred? Because it can be learned from the sacred scriptures.

3) The Bhagavad-gita teaches yoga—the art of self-mastery

While doing our duty, we should not think about profit. The sense of profit is the greatest evil—the chief enemy that lives within each of us. We must rise above the sense of profit and learn to regard loss and gain, happiness and sorrow, friends and enemies, honor and dishonor with an equal eye. Such mastery of oneself is called yoga. I hope you have guessed that the physical exercises people call “yoga” are not actually yoga.

4) The Bhagavad-gita teaches how to find your calling

Arjuna has doubts and cannot understand: “If I want to enter this balanced state, why do I have to fight for it?” Krishna answers this question with the following argument: in this world, every person is endowed with an individual nature. That is why everyone has their own calling. If you are a warrior by nature, you will not be able to live any other way. Your nature will compel you to act in a particular way. One born to crawl cannot fly.

5) The Bhagavad-gita brings different religions into harmony

Krishna then says that there is God, who regularly appears among people in different forms. Although God is one, He can assume different forms. When God appears among people in one of these forms, this is called an avatara. Krishna says that He too is an avatara of God. In this way the Bhagavad-gita brings the existence of different religions into harmony, answering the question: “Why do some people worship Allah, some Jesus Christ, some the Buddha, and some Krishna?” Simply because there are many avataras of God. Where else will you find such a simple explanation of why different religions exist? That is why a follower of any faith can study the Bhagavad-gita.

6) The Bhagavad-gita answers the question: “If there is a God, why is there so much evil in this world?”

Krishna also explains the law of karma: as you sow, so shall you reap. He makes an important point: God does not interfere in the karma of living beings. In this ingeniously simple way the Bhagavad-gita answers the question: “If there is a God, why is there so much evil in this world?” Simply because we ourselves create this evil. God does not interfere with our freedom of choice.

7) Another lesson of the Bhagavad-gita—sincerity

Next, Krishna gives an amazing explanation of why different people worship God in different ways. Some renounce the world, living in a monastery or in Himalayan caves. Others live with their families yet regularly worship God, performing various rituals and visiting the temple on Sundays. One cannot say that a hermit is better than a sincere housewife who honestly does her duty. What matters is sincerity. This is another lesson of the Bhagavad-gita.

8) The Bhagavad-gita teaches us to see God’s manifestations always and everywhere

In the seventh chapter Krishna moves on to a detailed description of God. He says that the whole universe is the energy of God. The source of every atom and of everything we see around us is God, or, more precisely, His energy. God is also the source of each of us. Thus the Bhagavad-gita teaches how to learn to see God’s manifestations always and everywhere (in fire, in the sun and the moon, even in the taste of water).

9) The Bhagavad-gita explains how this world works

One may ask: “Everything beautiful is God. But what about the bad things?” In answer to this question, Krishna gives a truly stunning explanation of the phenomenon of good and evil. In reality, He says, there is no good and evil in nature. We have already said that nature is His energy. But this energy has three functions, which are called the three modes (gunas): goodness, passion and ignorance. Depending on the way of life a person chooses, he will live under the influence of goodness, passion or ignorance. Goodness bestows knowledge, peace and happiness. Passion brings endless desires and greed, which make a person toil day after day. And ignorance turns a person into a two-legged animal, covered by laziness and excessive sleep. Through the existence of the three modes, the Bhagavad-gita wonderfully explains how this world works.

10) The Bhagavad-gita teaches how to remember God constantly and never forget Him

The question arises: “What is all this for? What is the meaning?” Krishna explains that beyond this universe, which is covered by darkness, there is a spiritual world, the kingdom of God, where there is no suffering, only very intense happiness. In Sanskrit Krishna names it with these words: brahma-nirvana param-gati. Krishna says: “The spiritual world is My abode. A place where there is no passion or ignorance, only goodness and happiness.” One who constantly remembers God with love goes there. Therefore love of God is the highest meaning of the Bhagavad-gita and its final lesson. Love comes through remembrance. That is why the Bhagavad-gita teaches how to remember God constantly and never forget Him.