He Bhagavad Gita It is the most beloved religious and philosophical text in India, a land abundant in spiritual knowledge. It is a memorable passage included in one of the books of the vast epic of mahabharataa book that is a mix between The Odyssey, The iliad and the Bible, an inexhaustible text written by visionary poets under the code name of Vyasa. It has been said that the Bhagavad Gita («the song of God») is a creative synthesis of the various religious currents in India, and that is why it is so loved and appreciated by various religious factions, although it is more identified with Vaisnavism or Vishnuism (the cult of Vishnu, of whom Krishna is an avatar).
As a sample of the immortal knowledge of this work, we include here 10 representative phrases or sentences. These are phrases with which Krishna, taking the role of adviser and charioteer, instructs Arjuna, the prince of the Pandavas, just before facing an epic battle.
2.11 You grieve for those who do not deserve it, and your words are not words of wisdom. A wise man does not feel sorry for those who live, nor for those who die. Life and death are not different. 2.12 We have always existed: both me, like you, like those kings. And we will exist forever and ever.
3.25 Just as the ignorant perform their tasks with attachment to their action, O descendant of Bharata, so the wise act without attachment, wishing only for the welfare of the world.
3.35 It is better to follow one’s own law imperfectly than another’s law correctly. It is better to find death in the fulfillment of one’s own law, since the law of another produces fear.
6.44 He who really wants to know yoga goes beyond the words of the books.
5.22 Since the pleasures born of objects are wombs of suffering, having a beginning and an end. In these, O Arjuna, the sage does not delight. 5.23 He, verily, who is able to endure here on earth, before he finds liberation from the body, the impact of desire and anger –he who unites with the divine, is a happy man. 5.24 He who has internal bliss, internal joy, and therefore internal light, is truly a yogi. Having become the basis of all existence, he approaches liberation in the basis (brahma).
8.18 From the unmanifest all manifest things arise in the beginning of a Cosmic Day; with the arrival of a Cosmic Night, they dissolve back into the state of the unmanifest… 8.20 And beyond this, there is a state of being; beyond the unmanifest lies the Eternal Unmanifest, He who in the destruction of all beings is not destroyed.
13.27 When he perceives the various states of existence of all beings as residing in the One or when he understands their arising from that –then he attains the ground of all existence (brahma). Since this supreme Self is that which has no beginning or end and which is beyond the primary qualities although it resides in the body, it is neither changed nor affected.
15.5 Those who without pride or delusion have eradicated all stains of attachment, who always reside in the ground of being, who have stilled all desire, and who are free from the pairs of opposites known as pain and pleasure, they proceed without error to the state immutable.
16.47 Focus your mind on your work, but never let your heart become attached to the results. Never work for the love of reward, and do your work consistently and regularly. 16.48 Do your work in the peace of yoga, far from all selfish desire; detached from success as well as from failure. The peace of yoga is stable and permanent, as it brings balance to your mind 18.47 [..] Performing the necessary action for one’s own being, the yogi does not accumulate guilt.
These are the virtues and behaviors that constitute «true wisdom» according to Krishna:
Modesty; patience; sincerity; nonviolence; rectitude; purity; devotion to your spiritual master; constancy; self control; contemplating the objects of the senses without passion; freedom from the sense of self; introspection about the defects (or evils) of birth, illness, aging and old age; detachment; not clinging to children, wife, family or home; firm equanimity in good and bad; an unwavering devotion to me above all things; an intense love of solitude; disgust of worldly things; persistence in knowing the Self and awareness of the objective of knowledge.