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Bhagavad Gita Quotes

This Bhagavad Gita Quotes is a collection from various commentaries of the Bhagavad Gita. The quotes have been collected from various sources. Each of the Bhagavad Gita Quote is dedicated to the brilliant minds starting from the sages of Upanishads to the modern saints. 

Bhagavad Gita Quotes on Intellect

When your intellect goes beyond the mire of delusion, you will become indifferent to what has been heard and what is yet to be heard.

When your intellect, which has been confused by listening to conflicting statements, becomes fixed in equanimity, then you will be in a state of Yoga (unity).

They attain the state of no return, whose impurities have been cleansed by knowledge, whose intellect and mind are ever absorbed in That (The Supreme), who remain steadfast in That, and whose sole objective is That.

Spiritual Practices Advised by Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita

Fixing the mind and intellect on me (Sri Krishna) alone.

If one is unable to accomplish that, by Abhyasa Yoga – one should train the mind to focus on me.

If one is unable to do that, such a person should be intent on performing actions for My (Sri Krishna) sake.

If it is not possible to do even that, then one should renounce the fruits of all actions and live full in the present.

Bhagavad Gita (12.8 to 12.11)
Source: Holy Gita – Ready reference – Published by Chinmaya International Foundation

Bhagavad Gita on how to attain highest perfection

By following one’s duty, human being can attain highest perfection. 

How does man acquire this perfection by following one’s duty, listen from me (says Lord Krishna)! The divine power from which this entire universe has originated and of which the whole universe is pervaded, by worshipping that God through performance of one’s duty, man can attain perfection.

Bhagavad Gita
(Source: Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 18, Verse 45-46)

Bhagavad Gita Quotes

See the flower, how generously it offers beauty, fragrance and honey. It gives to all, gives freely its essence. When its work is done, it falls away quietly. Try to be like the flower, unassuming despite all its qualities.

It is impossible for man who has a body to abstain absolutely from all action, but whoever renounces its fruits, is the man of true renunciation.

What you depend on, you get angry at. Thinking about sense objects will attach you to sense objects. Grow attached, and you become addicted; Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger. Be angry, and you confuse your mind; confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience; forget experience, you lose discrimination; lose discrimination, and you miss life’s only purpose – Bliss.




The abstinent run away from what they desire but they carry their desires with them.

Those men who practice severe austerities not enjoined by the Shastras, given to ostentation and egoism, possessed with the power of lust and attachment, torture, senseless as they are, all the organs in the body, and Me dwelling in the body within; know them to be of Asurika resolve.

Freedom is union with the deathless; the Self is the essence of all things; its creative power, called action causes the whole world to be.

You are only to perform your duty without an eye on their fruits.

A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The mind is friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

When a man finds delight within himself and feels inner joy and contentment in himself, there is nothing more to be done.

Mind is unsteady and difficult to curb but it can be controlled through practice and dispassion.

Pitiful are those who are attached to their action’s fruits. The wise man lets go of all results, whether good or bad, and is focused on the action alone.

When his mind has become serene by the practice of meditation, he sees the Self through the self and rests in the Self, rejoicing.

You are only to perform your duty without an eye on their fruits.

When a man finds delight within himself and feels inner joy and contentment in himself, there is nothing more to be done.

The mind is, without a doubt, unsteady and difficult to curb, but it can be controlled through practice and dispassion.

Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita

Arjuna asks:
What is it that impels man to commit a sin,
Even against his own wishes,
As though under the influence of some powerful force?

Krishna:
It is desire and anger, the ravenous and the deadly,
Which are born out of Rajas Guna.
Recognize these for they are your foe in this world.
Just as smoke envelopes the fire,
Just as dust hides the mirror,
And the embryo is hidden in the womb,
Similarly knowledge or Atman is covered by desire and lust.
The insatiable fire of desire covers true knowledge or the Atman,
Therefore, it is the constant enemy of the wise man.
It abides in the mind, intellect and the senses.
Through them it deludes the embodied and bewilders its judgement.
Therefore Arjuna control your senses,
And kill this evil, which obstructs your discriminative knowledge,
And hinders the realization of Atman.
Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 3, Verses 36 to 42)
(Source: Bhagavad Gita – A New Perspective by Ila Ahuja and M.Raj Ahuja)

Quotes from Bhagavad Gita Sankhya Yoga with Swami Sivananda Commentary

Krishna to Arjuna: This (Self) is said to be unmanifested, unthinkable and unchangeable. Therefore, knowing This to be such, thou shouldst not grieve. (II.25.)
Commentary

The Self is not an object of perception. It can hardly be seen by the physical eyes. Therefore, the Self is unmanifested. That which is seen by the eyes becomes an object of thought. As the Self cannot be perceived by the eyes, It is unthinkable. Milk when mixed with buttermilk changes its form. The Self cannot change Its form like milk. Hence, It is changeless and immutable. Therefore, thus understanding the Self, thou shouldst not mourn. Thou shouldst not think also that thou art their slayer and that they are killed by thee. (Swami Sivananda)

Quotes from Bhagavad Gita on Action

Man attains the highest perfection when he is devoted in his duty. (Gita XVIII, 45)

By merely giving up action, no one attains perfection…
No one can ever rest, not even for a moment,
Without doing some action,
There is no freedom from action,
And all human beings are helpless,
Being bound by the Gunas born of Prakriti (Gita III, 4-5)

Action is superior to inaction.

Bhagavad Gita on Scriptures

The man who rejects the words of the scriptures,
and follows the impulse of desire
attains neither his perfection, nor joy,
nor the Path Supreme.
Let the scriptures be, therefore, thy authority
as to what is right and what is not right.

Quotes from Bhagavad Gita Chapter Five

Krishna says:
Enlightened beings see all things as equal.

For them there is absolutely no difference, between a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog or a pariah. Being absorbed in Brahman they see nothing but the Self. And having overcome all bondages, although living in this world they are one with Brahman.

Their mind rests in Brahman who is Changeless and Perfect. Can there be a better dwelling place than in Brahman?

The enlightened person who abides in Brahman is at peace, and without any delusions. He/She is neither elated at receiving the pleasant things, nor is he/she saddened by the unpleasant.
Bhagavad Gita V, 18-20

Without desire for fruits of actions, will one be motivated to act?

Intellectuals raise the question: If one does not desire the fruits of action, will he be motivated to act?
In response to this question, the sages who have trodden the path and graciously left their
footprints for us to follow have said: Have a desire so that you perform the action, but do not have a selfish desire, for selfish desire is the very source of misery, but selfless desire
brings joy and makes you free.

When surrendering the fruits of actions becomes the basis of one's life, he knows nothing but giving. And at that stage further knowledge is not needed, for one has already attained the goal of life. He realizes his oneness and lives in that realization. Therefore, give up all the fruits of your actions to others and live in perennial happiness.
Swami Rama
(Source: Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Rama)