From the teachings of

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Bhagavad Gita Sara

The Essence of the Gita
Commentary by
Swami Shantananda Puri
Compiled and edited by
Swami Sadasivananda Giri
 Swami Shantananda Puri

OM
SAMARPAN
May all of the effort and any merit that may
accrue from this work be dedicated to those who

seek to find and love the Lord Who dwells within

the Heart – that very Bhagavan Ramana whose

compassion for all is the embodiment of

Pure Unselfish Love

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 “Of all yogins, only he who rests his
unwavering mind and melts with love in Me is
dear to Me.” Bhagavad Gita

“In the recesses of the lotus-shaped heart of all, from

Vishnu downwards, there shines as Absolute
Consciousness, the Paramatman (Supreme Spirit) who is
the same as Arunachala or Ramana. When the mind melts
with love of him and reaches the inmost recess of the heart
wherein he abides as the Beloved, the subtle eye of
Absolute Consciousness opens, and He reveals Himself as
pure Knowledge.” Sri Ramana Maharshi

3
 Sri Maharshi Gita
1)
Sanjaya said:
To him who was thus overcome
By pity, and whose eyes were filled
With tears, downcast and despairing,
Madhusudana spoke these words: 2:1

2)
The Holy Lord said:
This body is known as the Field,
And he who knows it thus is called
The Knower of the Field by those
Who know of both Field and Knower. 13:1

3)
Know Me also, O Bharata,
To be the Knower in all Fields.
The knowledge of Field and Knower
I consider as the knowledge. 13:2

4
4)
I am the Self abiding in
The heart of all beings; I am
The beginning, the middle, and
Also the end of all beings. 10:20

5)
Of that which is born, death is sure,
Of that which is dead, birth is sure.
Over the unavoidable,
Therefore you never should lament. 2:27

6)
Neither is the Self slain, nor yet does it die,
Nor having been will it e’er come not to be,
Birthless, eternal, perpetu’l, primeval,
It is not slain whene’er the body is slain. 2:20

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7)
This self cannot be cut, nor burnt,
Nor wetted, nor dried: ’tis changeless,
All-pervading and unmoving,
Immovable, eternal self. 2:24

8)
That by Which all is pervaded–
Know That is indestructible.
There is none with the power to
Destroy the Imperishable. 2:17

9)
The unreal never comes to be,
The real does never cease to be.
The certainty of both of these
Is known to those who see the truth. 2:16

10)
As the all-pervading ether,
Through subtlety is not tainted,
The Self seated in the body
Is not tainted in any case. 13:32

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11)
That the sun illuminates not,
There shines neither the moon nor fire;
For that is My Supreme Abode,
Going whither they return not. 15:6

12)
The unmanifest, eternal,
Is declared as the Supreme Goal,
Attaining Which they return not.
This is My supreme dwelling place. 8:21

13)
Without pride, delusion–attachment conquered–
Dwelling in the Supreme Self, without desires,
Freed from the dualities–pleasure and pain–
The undeluded reach that eternal Goal. 15:5

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14)
He who sets aside the counsels
Of scriptures from desire’s impulse,
Attains not unto perfection,
Nor happiness, nor Goal Supreme. 16:23

15)
The one who truly sees is he
Whoever sees the Supreme Lord
Existing equally in all
Beings, deathless in the dying. 13:27

16)
By single-minded devotion
I may be known in this true form,
Seen in reality, also
Entered into, Scorcher of Foes. 11:54

17)
Each one’s faith is according to
His natural disposition.
Yea, the man consists of his faith;
In truth, he is what his faith is. 17:3

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18)
The man of faith, and devoted,
And the master of his senses,
Attains this knowledge, and having
Attained quickly finds Supreme Peace. 4:39

19)
To them, the constantly steadfast,
Worshipping Me with affection,
I bestow the buddhi-yoga
By which they shall come unto Me. 10:10

20)
Out of compassion for them, I,
Abiding in their hearts, destroy
The darkness born of ignorance
By the shining lamp of knowledge. 10:11

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21)
But those whose ignorance has been
Destroyed by knowledge of the self–
That knowledge of theirs, like the sun,
Reveals then the Supreme Brahman. 5:16

22)
Above the body are senses;
Above the senses is the mind;
Above the mind is intellect;
Above the intellect: the self. 3:42

23)
Thus, knowing Him Who is above
The intellect, and restraining
The self by the Self, then destroy
That enemy, that foe: desire. 3:43

24)
As fire reduces wood to ash,
In the same way, O Arjuna,
The fire of knowledge does reduce
To ashes all karma–know this. 4:37

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25)
Whose undertakings are devoid
Of plan and desire for results,
Whose actions are burnt in the fire
Of knowledge–him the wise call wise. 4:19

26)
Released from desire and anger,
With thoughts restrained, those ascetics
Who know the Self, find very near
The bliss of Brahma-nirvana. 5:26

27)
With intellect set in patience,
With the mind fastened on the self,
He gains quietude by degrees:
Let him not think of anything. 6:25

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28)
Whenever the unsteady mind,
Moving here and there, wanders off,
He should subdue and hold it back–
Direct it to the Self’s control. 6:26

29)
Controlling sense, mind, intellect;
With moksha as the supreme goal;
Freed from desire, fear, and anger:
Such a sage is forever free. 5:28

30)
He, disciplined by yoga, sees
The Self present in all beings,
And all beings within the Self.
He sees the same Self at all times. 6:29

31)
Those who direct their thoughts to Me,
Worshipping Me with steadfast mind,
For them I secure what they lack
And preserve that which they possess. 9:22

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32)
Of them, the wise man, e’er steadfast,
Devoted to the One, excels;
Supremely dear am I to him,
And he is dear to Me, as well. 7:17

33)
At the end of his many births
The wise man takes refuge in Me.
He knows: “All is Vasudeva.”
How very rare is that great soul! 7:19

34)
When he completely casts away
All the desires of the mind,
His self, satisfied by the self,
He is called “of steady wisdom.” 2:55

35)
He who abandons all desires
Attains peace, acts free from longing,
Indifferent to possessions
And free from all egotism. 2:71

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36)
He who agitates not the world,
And whom the world agitates not,
Who is freed from joy, envy, fear,
And worry–he is dear to Me. 12:15

37)
The same in honor and disgrace,
The same to friend and enemy,
Renouncing all undertakings–
He has gone beyond the Gunas. 14:25

38)
He who is content in the Self,
Who is satisfied in the Self,
Who is pleased only in the self:
For him there is no need to act. 3:17

39)
He has nothing to gain by acts;
Nothing to gain by inaction;
And no need of any being
For any purpose soever. 3:18

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40)
Content with what comes unbidden,
Beyond duality, envy,
The same in success or failure,
E’en though acting, he is not bound. 4:22

41)
O Arjuna, the Lord dwells in
The hearts of all beings, causing
Them by His Maya to revolve
As if mounted on a machine. 18:61

42)
O Bharata, with all your heart
Take refuge in Him; and you shall
Surely attain unto supreme
Peace and the eternal abode. 18:62
Om Tat Sat

He, Who seated in Arjun’s car,

Spoke the Gospel to Arjuna
And removed his distress, may that
Embodiment of Grace save us!

15
16
 PREFACE

Early in the year of 2006, during the weeks that lead up

to Maha Sivaratri, Swami Shantananda Puri of Vashishtha
Guha gave a long series of lectures on the 42 verses from the
Bhagavad Gita that Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi selected
to portray the ‘essence or Sara’ of the entire 700 verses spoken
to Arjuna by Lord Krishna. These lectures were recorded and
transcribed, then edited to render the sentence structure more
cohesive.

Contained in this work are many of the most remarkable

aspects of spiritual instruction ever shown in the vast
collection of commentaries on the Gita. Bhagavan Sri
Ramana Maharshi has beautifully selected and arranged these
slokas that point the reader to the very essence of what has
come to be known as the cream of the Upanishads- the Srimad
Bhagavad Gita. He has done so in a way that approaches each
major teaching of the Lord systemically from all three margas
or ways. Bhagavan Ramana has shone that in essence the Lord
has instructed Arjuna in the Way of Liberation according to
all three of the Karma, Bhakti and Jnana margas. Thus with
perfect clarity Sri Ramana has shed abundant light on the

17
darkness of philosophical squabbling which argues that the
Gita is a work of ‘this or that’ marga alone. Now in truth, this
Bible of Sanatana Dharma can be seen as a synthesis of all
margas, into essentially what should be called the ‘Lord’s
Marga’.

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“In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that it is the nature of the
mind to wander. One must bring one’s thoughts to bear on
God. By long practice the mind is controlled and made
steady.” 1
1
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, recorded by Sri Munagala Venkataramiah,
Sri Ramanashramam 2006, Talk 91, p. 89.

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 Introduction

The Bhagavad Gita Sara is Sri Ramana Maharshi's

selection of 42 slokas out of the entire 700 slokas of the
Bhagavad-Gita. The first point is, "What do you mean by the
Bhagavad Gita?” The term tells you what is going to be told in
this book and who is the author. The samasaya of the word
Bhagavad Gita can be two-fold. The first is the common
rendering, Bhagavad Gita. The second is Bhagavathaha Gita
Bhagavatam Gitam. Gitam means a song, a melodious song.
Why?

When a subject is very difficult to grasp, or when the

subject is very complex, the style of presentation used should
be appealing to the mind. Otherwise, the mind of the listener
tends to become distracted and drowsy. If someone sings, it is
naturally very appealing to the heart. Therefore, even if the
mind finds it dry, the heart will appreciate it. And that is why
the Gita is in poetry. And a second reason is that the vast
majority of these slokas are in Arasthu Chanda or metered
verse. Chanda is the limiting of the number of syllables in each
line.

20
 In prose, one can express a single idea in an enormous
number of pages. There is virtually no limit to the length of
that style of writing. But in poetry, the number of words and
sentences are strictly limited. The Chandas are of various
styles, and in the Bhagavad Gita the type of Chanda used is the
Arashtu Chanda. In this style of Chanda eight syllables are
used for each of the four lines encompassing every verse. Thus,
there are 32 syllables assigned to over 90% of all the verses
found in the Bhagavad Gita. These syllables are further
characterized by their restricted length of intonation. For
instance, in this Chanda the fifth, seventh and ninth syllables
are designated to be pronounced in a short form. These rules
of length and pronunciation of individual syllables not only
enables the verse to be song melodiously, but also serves as a
strict limitation on the meter and melody.

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 The idea is this; if you want to catch something that is vast
and infinite, you should take a finite vessel, a limited vessel. If
you take an unlimited thing, you simply will not catch it. So,
when you are trying to grasp the Lord who is vast and infinite,
you require a vessel that is limited by the number of words and
style of its pronunciation. It is for this reason that poetry is
used. And not only poetry, the meter must be sung, for it is a
'Gita'.

At first glance, a contrast is noted, the battlefield, a place

of violence, is described in short meter poetry. What is
described is a violent place, a place where the very violence is
in the blood of the Warriors. When violence is in the blood,
you cannot think of what is right and what is wrong. So for that
purpose, the description has to be cooled down. Poetry and
music are the best means to cool your senses. The Lord knows
that if a description of the “battlefield of the mind” is set in
prose, Arjuna (or us, the listeners) will not understand. But the
moment the Lord begins to sing, his mind will become calm,
the tension will go. This is the means the Lord employs to
divert the listener from his tension, and therefore to acquire his
attention, that he may attend to Bhagavan's words. It is for this
reason that the Bhagavad Gita is sung. So, ‘Bhagavataha

22
Gitam’ means firstly, that the Lord himself is the author.
Secondly, the Lord is singing of his own Divine consciousness,
and showing the way to approach and find It. Therefore, the
contents are Bhagavan and the author is Bhagavan. Who can
better be able to tell of Bhagavan, then Bhagavan himself? He
is so infinite, no finite person, however great a Sage he may be,
will be able to understand Him in full. When the Lord tells,
"This is what I am, and this is a method to approach Me", it will
be the most objective description, and it will be complete in
full. There will not be any ground for doubt or objection.

And finally, one will be told what they will get out of it.
One will become Srimaan; you will become full of Lakshmi.
You will possess all eight qualities of Astha Lakshmi.
Therefore, the Lord is saying that if one comprehends in full,
and takes the directions into practice, finally Moksha Lakshmi
will be theirs. You will be bestowed with that Grace and
become Srimad.

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 One
The Wise Grieve Not

From Shankara’s most highly acclaimed commentary on

the Gita up to the present day, most of the great Mahatmas have
begun their commentaries with the 11th verse of the second
chapter, when the Lord first spoke to Arjuna:

Asocyan anvasocas tvam prajnavadams ca

bhasase gatasun agatasums ca nanusocanti
panditah

You are grieving over those who are not fit to

be grieved for, though you speak words like a
man of great wisdom. For the wise grieve
neither over the living nor over the dead.

The Lord was declaring the basic foolish error in Arjuna’s

reasoning by making him understand that he was talking all
high philosophy without knowing what was what. The Lord
declared the truth that Arjuna was not having pity for those who
were arrayed in battle against him, but rather it was self-pity.

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 A man of philosophy does not bother if a man is dead or
alive, for both are useless. It is with this teaching that the Lord
Sri Krishna is going to start. But Bhagavan Sri Ramana is
dutifully going to start with the very first verse of the second
chapter because he wanted to show the purpose of the entire
Gita.

Qualified to Hear God Sing

In any text on Vedanta, the first verse should be able to

say four important things about the text. The four are; first, who
is fit to read this book? For instance, children without the
developed ability to properly understand should not read this
book. They are not Adhikari. Adhikari is a very important term
in Vedanta; it means ‘the qualified one, the one who is fit for
this particular purpose’. So, the first thing is; who is the one
who is fit to hear the narration concerning Bhagavan?

Therefore, the first thing told, the first verse chosen by Sri
Ramana, declares who is the Adhikari. The Adhikari is literally
described in the first verse of Chapter two:

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Sanjaya uvaacha:

Tam tathaa kripayaavishtam

ashrupoornaakulekshanam;
Visheedantam-idam vaakyam-uvaacha
madhusoodanah.

Sanjaya said:
To him thus overcome with pity, despairing,
Whose eyes were filled with tears, and downcast,
Madhusudana (Lord Krishna) spoke these words.

26
 First before we begin, there is a beautiful thing that should
be explained. The Bhagavad Gita forms part of the Bhisma
Parva of the entire Maha Bharata, which consists of one lakh
slokas. Nowadays, when we count it comes to only 97,000
slokas. The full one lakh does not come, but still, we call it
Ekalakshatma Kamyatma.

The Light and the Truth of God

The term Maha Bharata itself denotes a spiritual meaning.

What is the spiritual meaning of Bharata? Bharata is the name

27
of that Purana, and also the name of India. People have said
that the name is derived from the name of the King ruling
ancient India. But then we ask what was the name of the land
before that king’s incarnation? There would have been
thousands of kings, why should the name of that one be taken
for the name of the entire country?

Maha Bharata means that which contains the entire

wisdom. The wisdom means the jnana, not only of the Lord,
but the jnana of this world also. Bharata is derived from the
root “Bha” meaning light; and light means knowledge.

Whenever you do not understand a passage of scripture,

you ask: “Can you throw some light on this, I do not understand
it?” So light means knowledge only. It is only metaphorically
referred to as light. ‘Bha’ is the root, bhati means ‘it shines’,
bhami means ‘I shine’, bhasi means ‘you shine’. So, bhasa is
the light that comes out. Therefore, ‘bharata’ is the one who is
fully engaged in that knowledge, solely wanting the knowledge
of the Lord.

The Upanishads were being taught perhaps 5,000 to 6,000

years back in India. It is believed that at that time there was no

28
other place in the world that equaled that semblance of
civilization. While the world outside India was mainly
inhabited by non-evolved “cave dwelling” civilizations,
concerned mainly with the external effort of preservation of the
body, India’s inhabitants were striving to enter the “cave of the
heart” realize the internal Divinity of their True Nature. And
so the term ‘Bharata’ came to India itself because:

Bhayam ritaha bharataha bhayam ritam bharatam

You see because ritam means napamsam linga, we are

talking of a book, and rita means we are talking of the people.
So as far as the book is concerned- ‘bhayam ritam’, it is steeped
in the supreme knowledge and thus it is called ‘Bharatam’. The
entire book is supposed to be knowledge, and that knowledge
has been brought to the mind of the people of India in this
portion called the Bhagavad Gita.

Dhritarashtra went before Vyasa, who said: “Here is my

disciple who will relay all of the events of the battle though you
yourself have no eyes to watch.” Thus Sanjaya was brought
before Dhritarashtra. What is ‘Sanjaya’?

29
 Sanyuktijanaha sanjayaha

It means the ‘one who knows how to succeed’. Later we

are going to see that the entire Bhagavad Gita is about how to
be successful in battle. True success is not necessarily wining
in the battle and subjugating the other party, not at all. You may
lose the battle, and you may still succeed. Success means
expertise, the kushalata, fighting the battle without anger,
without any recrimination, without revenge and fighting by
surrendering oneself and the work of fighting and the final
result to the Lord. And this is: Yogakarma sukamsha…

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Skillful Karma

What is the best way of doing any Karma? Whatever

karma you do is going to involve you in birth and death again.
You do good things, you give to Swamijis, you give to
orphanages, you may build a hundred hospitals and you must
get the result out of it. So therefore, you must take another birth.
So you may be born as a rich man’s son, but then you do what
you like and thus accumulate papas and then you take another
birth of ill fortune.

Then you do more good things and you are again born into
fortune. Thus, you will go on from birth to death to birth to
death, on and on. You are not going to stop; you are not going
to get moksha out of it. You will be tempted to do work because
you have Vasanas within. Thus, you will not be able to remain
without work.

The right way to work must be known. Whatever you do,

you must say to the Lord: “You are doing it, I am doing
nothing!” All is being dedicated to the Lord. “O Lord, because
You are making me do it, thus I am doing it, I do not want the

31
result of it”. I am preparing for the examination because my
father wants it, I do not care if I pass or fail. So when you
disclaim the doership saying: “I am not doing this work, it is all
being done by God”, the result will go to somebody else, the
result will not come to you. Otherwise, the papas and punyas
come to you.

So the best way of doing a work is to do it without taking

the credit for it. You may build a school and receive a letter of
praise from the President for the work, which you frame and
place at home for all to see. But if the President writes and
reprimands you for terrifically shabby work, you don’t frame
that at all. You are careful that the praise comes to you, but the
blame is avoided like the plague. You will give a thousand
excuses that you were unable to get the proper cement and there
was no water for curing it. The blame you will spread as thin
as ice, the credit to will hoard like the most precious jewels.
This is what happens. When we completely surrender all of the
work to God, all of the results are His as well. That is the best
and most expert way of doing any karma. Any other way you
are going to get entangled either in the punya or the papa,
resulting in other births.

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Befriending Dharma, the Eternal Rhythm

So, in this entire Mahabharata, this is mainly the wisdom

which is going to be expounded. To accomplish this, Sanjaya
was given the power to see the entire war, with the ability to
relate the events that were happening in any order, whether in
the past or into the future. Sanjaya was also given the power to
know the thoughts of those involved, as well as the outcome of
every battle. But poor fellow Dhritarashtra did not avail himself
to these God given powers. Not only that, the blind king
Dhritarashtra was very confident at the outset of the war. He
had double the number of warriors than the Pandavas. And his
General Bhisma had never been conquered in battle. Bhisma
even overcame his own Guru, Parusharama, who himself was
up to then invincible. The blind King Dhritarashtra symbolized
the ego blinded by ignorance and thus gave no concern to the
consequences of actions. He simply told his army to go into
battle and at the time of their victory to return and inform him.
His blindness was deadly, because he did not understand that
though you seem to have everything on your side, you may
loose if you do not have Dharma on your side. He failed to

33
comprehend that what really protects you is love towards God,
and that which springs forth from God.

God’s only begotten child is Dharma itself. God has

caused His child to manifest in Vedanta. Unless we follow the
Dharma, we can never win.

Yeto dharma tatosjaya

The code of Dharma is the rule of law, the Dharma yudha,

even for this greatest of battles. In the morning a signal was
sounded and the fighting would begin. At sundown the signal
would again sound and the fighting would cease. So early in
the morning Yudhistara, the chief of the Pandavas (the
Dharmaputra) would go after his bath to Gangaji, his cousin,
and do namasakar to her. And she would reply: “Yeto Dharma
tato jayaha”, meaning: “Wherever there is dharma, justice and
righteousness, there is victory. Wherever there is adharma,
there will be no success.” This was of major importance, for it
is by this understanding that spiritual success is attained.

34
Hari Om

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