Overview of 18 Chapters
The Gita consists of eighteen chapters in total and all spiritual discourses are based on these chapters. A brief summary of all chapters are as follows:
Chapter: The first chapter begins with the scene where Arjuna requests Krishna to move his chariot between the two armies. When Arjuna sees his own relatives on the opposing army side of the Kurus, he loses courage and decides not to fight…..
Chapter: The second chapter begins with the scene where after asking Krishna for help, Arjuna is instructed by Krishna that only the body may be killed, while the eternal self is immortal. Krishna appeals to Arjuna that as a warrior he has a duty to uphold the path of dharma through warfare…..
Chapter: The third chapter begins with the scene where Arjuna asks why he should engage in fighting if knowledge is more important than action. Krishna stresses to Arjuna that performing his duties for the greater good, but without attachment to results is the appropriate course of action…..
Chapter: The fourth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna reveals that He has lived through many births, always teaching Yoga for the protection of the pious and the destruction of the impious and stresses the importance of accepting a guru…..
Chapter: The fifth chapter begins with the scene where Arjuna asks Krishna if it is better to forgo action or to act. Krishna answers that both ways may be beneficial, but that acting in Karma Yoga is superior…..
Chapter: The sixth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna describes the correct posture for meditation and the process of how to achieve samadhi…..
Chapter: The seventh chapter begins with the scene where Krishna teaches the path of knowledge…..
Chapter: The eighth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna defines the terms Brahman, adhyatma, karma, atman, adhibhuta and adhidaiva and explains how one can remember him at the time of death and attain His supreme abode…..
Chapter: Chapter nine begins with the scene where Krishna explains panentheism, all beings are in me as a way of remembering Him in all circumstances…..
Chapter: The tenth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna describes how He is the ultimate source of all material and spiritual worlds. Arjuna accepts Krishna as the Supreme Being, quoting great sages who have also done so…..
Chapter: The eleventh chapter begins with the scene where at Arjuna’s request, Krishna displays His universal form (Visvarupa), a theophany of a being facing every way and emitting the radiance of a thousand suns, containing all other beings and material in existence…..
Chapter: The twelfth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna describes the process of devotional service…..
Chapter: The thirteenth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna describes nature, the enjoyer (purusha) and consciousness…..
Chapter: The fourteenth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna explains the three modes of material nature…..
Chapter: The fifteenth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna describes a symbolic tree (representing material existence), its roots in the heavens and its foliage on earth. Krishna explains that this tree should be felled with the axe of detachment, after which one can go beyond to his supreme abode…..
Chapter: The sixteenth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna tells of the human traits of the divine and the demonic natures. He counsels that to attain the supreme destination one must give up lust, anger, and greed, and be able to discern between right and wrong actions by evidence from scripture and thus act rightly…..
Chapter: The seventeenth chapter begins with the scene where Krishna tells of three divisions of faith and the thoughts, deeds, and even eating habits corresponding to the three gunas…..
Chapter: The eighteenth chapter begins with the scene where in conclusion, Krishna asks Arjuna to abandon all forms of dharma and simply surrender unto Him. He describes this as the ultimate perfection of life.