Editorial method
Four voices, never confused.
A trustworthy guide has to make its own boundaries visible. These are ours, published so that these pages can be held to them.
Whose interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita is this?
The Trust’s own, and this page says exactly what that means. Four voices are kept apart wherever the Gita is discussed on this site, and each is labelled where it appears: the Sanskrit text and who speaks it, taken from the text’s own उवाच line; the Trust’s translation, in both languages, with no third-party translation anywhere on the site; the Trust’s reading of why a verse stands where it does; and a question for present life, which is never presented as scripture. What Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva make of a verse is deliberately not here, and this page says why.
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · The Gita for Life
A guide worth trusting has to make its own boundaries visible. Four voices are kept apart everywhere the Gita is discussed on this site, and each is labelled where it appears. A SIMPLE TEST If the example from work or family or modern life were taken away, would the reader still understand the verse? If not, the page has stopped explaining the Gita and started explaining the analogy.
- 01
The Sanskrit text
The shloka itself, its speaker taken from the text’s own उवाच line, and its place in the dialogue. Public domain, transcribed from published editions and cross-checked verse by verse.
- 02
The Trust’s translation
Every English and Hindi rendering on this site is the Trust’s own work, made for this site. No third-party translation appears anywhere, in any language, on any page.
- 03
The Trust’s reading
Why a verse stands where it does, which movement it belongs to, and what the Trust takes it to turn on. Editorial throughout, and labelled as the Trust’s reading wherever it is printed. A reader may disagree with all of it and still trust the two voices above.
- 04
A question for present life
It may open the verse. It is not the verse’s meaning, and it is never presented as scripture or as bhashya.
Reading across the text
A verse rarely stands alone.
A cross-reference is not a decorative list of related verses. It is part of the reading. A verse on action may need Chapter 3 to say what disciplined action means, Chapter 5 for non-doership, Chapter 9 for offering, and Chapter 18 to show where action and surrender finally meet. A verse on the Self in Chapter 2 may need Chapter 13 to sharpen the distinction between field and knower, and Chapter 15 to reconnect the individual self to the Supreme. So every chain printed on this site is there for a reason: an earlier verse that made this one necessary, a later one that deepens it, a parallel in another vocabulary, or — most often the useful one — the verse that stops the teaching being turned into a slogan. The chains appear under each theme on the reading paths page, and beside each verse the Trust has written about.
Where each statement comes from
Labelled at source.
- THE SANSKRIT
- Public domain. Every verse transcribed from at least two published editions and cross-checked character by character; where they disagreed a third decided it. Downloadable in full as JSON and CSV from the research page.
- THE SPEAKER
- Read from the text’s own उवाच line as transcribed, never inferred from the verse number. That is why the counts on this site differ from some published ones.
- THE TRANSLATIONS
- The Trust’s own, in both languages, and the Trust holds the copyright in them. Quote them with attribution to Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust.
- THE LEXICAL INDEX
- Mechanical. A verse is listed under a word when its Devanagari contains that word — open the verse and it is there. Words of the same idea that are different words are counted apart and named. Nothing here is a judgement.
- THE TRUST’S READING
- From the Trust’s book, *The Gita for Life* — the movements, the themes, the notes on the anchor verses, and the nine threads. Editorial, and labelled as such wherever it appears.
- EPIC BACKGROUND
- Anything from the wider Mahabharata rather than the 700 verses is labelled as epic background, on the page where it appears.
- WHAT IS NOT HERE YET
- The commentarial layer. What Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva make of a verse — and where they differ — is not on this site, and no page summarises a commentator. That layer waits for a Sanskrit reader willing to put their name to it. A misattribution to an acharya on a trust’s website is not a small error, and an absent layer is better than an unsafe one.
700 or 701
Which count this site publishes.
The count used throughout this site is 700 verses. Some digital and received editions count an additional opening verse in Chapter 13, producing 701. This site takes the 700-verse recension as its base, and where a reference from another edition falls one verse out in Chapter 13, the mapping is noted on the chapter itself so a citation made elsewhere still finds its verse here.
What these pages will not do
The rules, in the Trust’s own words.
- Do not reduce Dhritarashtra to “blindness = ignorance.” Begin with the king, father and political situation; only then discuss symbolic readings.
- Do not reduce Duryodhana to a leadership case study or a personality type. His strategic competence and moral choices must both remain visible.
- Do not make Bhishma’s vow a simple lesson in sacrifice. The epic also shows the enormous consequences of vows, loyalty and institutional duty.
- Do not treat Arjuna as cowardly. His crisis follows recognition of relationship, consequence and conflicting dharma.
- Do not treat Krishna merely as therapist, coach or management teacher. The Gita progressively discloses his divine identity.
- Do not use characters to label living people (“my colleague is Duryodhana”). Use them to sharpen self-examination and textual understanding.
- When a biographical detail comes from the wider Mahabharata rather than the 700 verses of the Gita, label it as epic background rather than implying that the Gita itself narrates it.
Common questions
Does this site follow one sampradaya?
No. Where the major traditions read a verse differently, the difference is stated rather than blended into a false consensus, and the Trust’s own synthesis is labelled as its own rather than presented as a new school.
Whose translations are these?
The Trust’s own, written for this website, in both English and Hindi, and the Trust holds the copyright in them. The Sanskrit is public domain, transcribed from published editions and cross-checked verse by verse. No third-party translation appears anywhere on this site.
How do I report an error?
Write to info@gitabhawan.org.in. Corrections are published, not quietly made.