The Bhagavad Gita by Topic

Verses for Difficult Times

When you feel lost, overwhelmed, grieving, or alone.

Work and Karma

Karma yoga is the Gita's most practical teaching: act with full effort, but release your grip on the outcome. These verses are Krishna's answer to anyone who feels paralyzed by the pressure of results.

Controlling the Mind

Arjuna tells Krishna the mind is restless, turbulent, and as hard to hold as the wind. Krishna agrees — and answers with practice and detachment rather than force.

Fear and Anxiety

Anger

The Gita treats anger as a chain reaction: attachment breeds desire, desire breeds anger, and anger clouds the mind until judgment is lost. These verses show where it starts and how it ends.

Death and the Soul

Krishna's very first teaching addresses death directly. The body ends, he tells Arjuna, but the self that wears it is never born and never dies — it simply changes form, like changing worn clothes.

Peace of Mind

Finding Your Purpose

Devotion and Surrender

Letting Go of Results

The single line everyone remembers from the Gita is about results: you have a right to your work, but never to its fruits. These verses unpack what it means to act without clinging to the outcome.

Self-Discipline

For the disciplined, the Gita says, the mind is the best of friends; for the undisciplined, it is the worst of enemies. These verses describe moderation, steadiness, and the quiet work of self-mastery.

True Happiness

The Gita distinguishes the happiness that fades from the happiness that lasts. Pleasures that come from outside have a beginning and an end; real joy, Krishna says, is found turning inward.

Faith and Doubt

The Gita takes doubt seriously: the doubting mind, Krishna warns, is at peace nowhere. These verses are about how faith and clear understanding together dissolve the doubt that paralyzes us.