The Bhagavad Gita

Abstract

The chapter defends an interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita as a self-cultivation philosophy. First, it depicts our existential starting point as a state of anxiety, fear, confusion, and worry. Second, it describes the ideal state of being as a life of wisdom, union with the divine, self-control, peace, renunciation of desire, freedom from attachments and disruptive emotions, and performance of our duties—and ultimately liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Third, its transformation program includes spiritual exercises that emphasize philosophical reflection, meditative understanding, the purification of our affective states, and the reformation of our habits, all under the guidance of Krishna (namely, action, knowledge, and devotion yoga). Finally, this analysis is based on a complex conception of human nature according to which, though our true self appears to be prakṛti (matter), it is in fact puruṣa (spirit), and it is connected to other persons and the divine, especially Krishna.