The Teaching of the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Dayananda

For centuries the Bhagavad Gita has remained the single most influential philosophical text shaping Indian thought and life. It addresses itself foursquare to the universal limitations each human being is confronted with: ignorance, sorrow and death.

The teaching of the Bhagavad Gita opens with the audacious statement that all these are illegitimate problems caused by ignorance about the real nature of the self. Drawing upon the essence of all Upanishads, Gita explains how the self, the atman, is limitless, indestructible, unborn. This knowledge, Brahmavidya, frees one from all sense of limitation. This is the principal teaching of the Bhagavad Gita.

Swami Dayananda's is a classical Vedantic interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita. Without getting lost in a rigid verse-by-verse translation, he plunges with great verve and energy into the central theme of the Gita, unerringly picking and choosing key verses to highlight its message. A highly respected and very popular teacher of Vedanta, Swami Dayananda succeeds marvelously in conveying the profundity of the Bhagavad Gita, unfolding its teaching with a style and clarity which will appeal to every modern mind.

Table of Contents:

1. The Human Problem
2. The Sorrow of Arjuna
3. The Search for Solution
4. The Three Limitations
5. Who am I?
6. You are Happiness
7. Karma Yoga
8. Knowledge and Actionlessness
9. Renunciation
10. Meditation
11. Who is God?
12. The Self is Brahman
13. King among Secrets
14. The Glories of the Lord
15. Devotion
16. The Field and the Knower of the Field
17. The Three Qualities
18. The Tree of Samsara
19. The Divine and the Demoniac Nature
20. The Three Fold Sraddha
21. The Result of the Teaching.

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