Bhagavad Gita

49 quotes

Era: Classical Sanskrit / PD English (Arnold)
Place: Ancient India (Kurukshetra tradition)

Hindu scripture of duty, devotion, and the steady soul; English here follows Sir Edwin Arnold’s public-domain Song Celestial (1885).

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Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them.
— Bhagavad GitaSpiritual
Work is more excellent than idleness; the body’s life proceeds not, lacking work.
— Bhagavad GitaSpiritual
Measured in wish and act; sleeping betimes, waking betimes for duty.
— Bhagavad GitaSpiritual
The soul which is not moved, that with a strong and constant calm takes sorrow and takes joy indifferently, lives in the life undying.
— Bhagavad GitaSpiritual
Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never. Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems.
— Bhagavad GitaSpiritual
Seek refuge in thy soul; have there thy heaven!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Have Me, then, in thy heart always! and fight! Thou too, when heart and mind are fixed on Me, Shalt surely come to Me!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Who hateth nought Of all which lives, living himself benign, Compassionate, from arrogance exempt.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Make Me thy single refuge! I will free Thy soul from all its sins! Be of good cheer!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Still making Me thy Refuge—thou shalt come Most surely unto perfect hold of Me.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Who cleave, who seek in Me Refuge from birth and death, those have the Truth!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Comes to the peace beyond,—My peace, the peace Of high Nirvana!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
What is there sorrowful herein, dear Prince?
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Which the wise know, and fear not. This that irks— Thy sense-life, thrilling to the elements— Bringing thee heat and cold, sorrows and joys, ’Tis brief and mutable! Bear with it, Prince!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
In sorrows not dejected, and in joys Not overjoyed; dwelling outside the stress Of passion, fear, and anger; fixed in calms Of lofty contemplation.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Keeping an equal heart, with equal mind Bears shame and glory; with an equal peace Takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Many there be who come! from fear set free, From anger, from desire; keeping their hearts Fixed upon me—my Faithful—purified By sacred flame of Knowledge.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
When Self contemplates self, and in itself Hath comfort; when it knows the nameless joy Beyond all scope of sense, revealed to soul— Only to soul! and, knowing, wavers not… But, harboured there, cannot be stirred or shook By any gravest grief, call that state “peace.”
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
When one, O Pritha’s Son! Abandoning desires which shake the mind— Finds in his soul full comfort for his soul, He hath attained the Yog—that man is such!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will Always to strive for wisdom; opened hand And governed appetites; and piety.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
These blessed souls come unto Me.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Cling thou to Me! Clasp Me with heart and mind! so shalt thou dwell surely with Me on high.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Despair not! give Me lower service! seek to reach Me, worshipping with steadfast will.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
But, if in this thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure! find refuge in Me!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
For he that laboureth right for love of Me shall finally attain.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Near to renunciation—very near—dwelleth Eternal Peace!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Him will I swiftly lift forth from life’s ocean of distress and death, whose soul clings fast to Me.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Good Pleasure is the pleasure that endures, banishing pain for aye.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
To see one changeless Life in all the Lives, and in the Separate, One Inseparable.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Whoso performeth—diligent, content—the work allotted him, whate’er it be, lays hold of perfectness.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Worship, penance, alms, not to be stayed; nay, to be gladly done; for all those three are purifying waters for true souls.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Better thine own work is, though done with fault, than doing others’ work, even excellently.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
The wise in heart mourn not for those that live, nor those that die.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
But most of all I love those happy ones to whom ’tis life to live in single fervid faith and love unseeing, drinking the blessed Amrit of my Being.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Make thine acts thy piety, casting all self aside, contemning gain and merit; equable in good or evil: equability is Yog, is piety!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Such a man comes to tranquillity; and out of that tranquillity shall rise the end and healing of his earthly pains, since the will governed sets the soul at peace.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
There is a task of holiness to do, unlike world-binding toil, which bindeth not the faithful soul; such earthly duty do free from desire, and thou shalt well perform thy heavenly purpose.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
He who to none and nowhere overbound by ties of flesh, takes evil things and good neither desponding nor exulting, such bears wisdom's plainest mark!
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
To his soul's ocean the world of sense pours streams of witchery; they leave him as they find, without commotion, taking their tribute, but remaining sea.
— Bhagavad Gita (Arnold)Hindu
Weapons reach not the Life; Flame burns it not, waters cannot o’erwhelm, Nor dry winds wither it.
— Bhagavad Gita 2.23 (Arnold)Hindu
Let each man raise The Self by Soul, not trample down his Self, Since Soul that is Self’s friend may grow Self’s foe.
— Bhagavad Gita 6.5 (Arnold)Hindu
Beyond denial, hard Man’s heart is to restrain, and wavering; Yet may it grow restrained by habit, Prince! By wont of self-command.
— Bhagavad Gita 6.35 (Arnold)Hindu
Steadfast a lamp burns sheltered from the wind; Such is the likeness of the Yogi’s mind.
— Bhagavad Gita 6.19 (Arnold)Hindu
Whoso shall offer Me in faith and love A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water poured forth, That offering I accept, lovingly made With pious will.
— Bhagavad Gita 9.26 (Arnold)Hindu
I am alike for all! I know not hate, I know not favour! What is made is Mine! But them that worship Me with love, I love; They are in Me, and I in them!
— Bhagavad Gita 9.29 (Arnold)Hindu
If one of evil life turn in his thought Straightly to Me, count him amidst the good; He hath the high way chosen; he shall grow Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace Which changes not.
— Bhagavad Gita 9.30 (Arnold)Hindu
Be certain none can perish, trusting Me!
— Bhagavad Gita 9.31 (Arnold)Hindu
When Righteousness Declines, O Bharata! when Wickedness Is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take Visible shape, and move a man with men, Succouring the good, thrusting the evil back, And setting Virtue on her seat again.
— Bhagavad Gita 4.7–8 (Arnold)Hindu
And, all for love of them, within their darkened souls I dwell, And, with bright rays of wisdom’s lamp, their ignorance dispel.
— Bhagavad Gita 10.11 (Arnold)Hindu