17 situations · answered from the text
The Gita was spoken to someone who could not go on.
Arjuna is not asking an abstract question. He is a man who cannot do what is in front of him. These pages take the situations an ordinary life actually contains and set the text against them, verse by verse.
Work, and the fear of how it will turn out
I do my work properly, but worrying about the result eats me alive. What does the Gita actually say?
2.47 · 2.48 · 2.50 …
A decision where both ways cost something
I have to decide, and whichever way I choose somebody gets hurt. How does the Gita help with that?
2.6 · 2.7 · 3.2 …
What work is actually mine
How do I know which work is really mine to do? Everyone else seems surer about it than I am.
3.35 · 18.45 · 18.46 …
After something you built has come apart
I gave years to something and it has failed. What does the Gita say to a person who has lost what they built?
2.38 · 2.40 · 6.40 …
Includes a note on getting help
When it goes well, and people say so
Things are going well and I am being praised for it. How do I keep my head?
2.38 · 12.18 · 12.19 …
Earning, and how much is enough
How much money is enough? Does the Gita say anything useful about earning and wanting more?
16.12 · 16.13 · 16.16 …
Includes a note on getting help
Responsibility for other people’s work
I am responsible for a team and I am not sure I am doing it well. Does the Gita say anything about leading people?
3.20 · 3.21 · 3.23 …
A mind that will not stay on the page
I sit down to study and my mind goes everywhere. How do I concentrate?
6.34 · 6.35 · 6.26 …
Includes a note on getting help
Knowing what to do and not doing it
I know exactly what I should be doing and I still do not do it. Why does that happen?
3.36 · 3.37 · 3.38 …
Includes a note on getting help
When someone has died
Someone I love has died. What does the Gita have to say to me?
2.11 · 2.13 · 2.14 …
Includes a note on getting help
When the anger will not go down
I am angry all the time and I cannot put it down. What does the Gita say about anger?
2.56 · 2.62–63 · 2.64 …
When you are afraid
I am frightened and I cannot think straight. Does the Gita say anything about fear?
2.40 · 4.10 · 11.45 …
When nothing seems worth doing
I cannot make myself do anything and I do not see the point of it. Is there anything in the Gita for this?
1.29 · 1.30 · 2.1 …
Includes a note on getting help
When you are alone
I feel completely alone. Does the Gita say anything to someone like me?
6.5 · 6.10 · 6.30 …
When someone has wronged you
Someone has wronged me badly. Does the Gita say I have to forgive them?
5.23 · 11.42 · 12.13 …
Includes a note on getting help
When duty sets you against your own people
What do I do when doing the right thing means going against my own family?
1.26–27 · 2.4 · 2.5 …
What the Gita says happens when we die
What happens after death according to the Gita?
2.13 · 2.20 · 2.22 …
How these are written
Tied to a verse, or cut.
The easiest thing to write about the Gita is comfortable and unfalsifiable, and it is worth nothing. So the rule for these pages is simple: if a claim has no verse behind it, the claim comes out. Each page prints the verses it rests on, in Sanskrit and in both translations, and names the misreading the situation most reliably attracts.
Common questions
Does the Bhagavad Gita say anything about ordinary problems?
It begins with one. Arjuna is not a philosopher asking about the nature of reality; he is a man who cannot do what is in front of him and says so. The whole of the Gita is spoken to a person in that state, which is why it has something to say about work, fear, grief and a decision that costs either way.
Are these pages a substitute for help?
No. Where a page touches real distress it says so plainly and says what else a person needs. A verse is not treatment, and the Trust will not pretend otherwise.
Whose interpretation is this?
The Trust’s own, written from the Sanskrit text published elsewhere on this site. No commentator is summarised, and every claim is tied to a verse printed on the same page so a reader can check it.