The Bhagavad Gita is the highest expression of philosophical Hinduism. It is a chapter of the immense Indian epic, the Mahabharata, the saga of the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

Arjuna, hero of the Pandavas, is about to confront the army of the Kauravas on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. Among the opposing army are his friends and relatives. Convinced that it would be wrong to kill his own kinsmen, Arjuna is overcome by despair. He lays down his bow and declares that he will not fight.

The God Vishnu, incarnated as the charioteer Krishna, explains that Arjuna should do his duty and do battle. The human soul, which is part of the universal soul, is immortal - therefore no-one is actually slain. If people perform the duties appropriate to their station, without attachment to success or failure, then they cannot be stained by action. The rest of the poem provides the full philosophy underlying this insight.

The Gita is variously dated between the third century BC and the fourth century AD. The reason for uncertainty is that the Gita is not always consistent and may be the work of several hands. One strand was probably written by a follower of the philosophy expressed in the Upanishads, in which Brahman is the highest unity underlying reality. Another strand, focussed on a more personal deity, may have been added later by a devotee of the supreme god Vishnu.

The Gita is panentheistic rather than pantheistic. God is in all things, and all things are in God. But the visible universe springs from only a fraction of Vishnu's glory. There is also a hidden part of God which extends beyond the universe.

Nevertheless, the Gita contains probably the most powerful and thoroughgoing expression of pantheism in world scripture. The one God is the pinnacle of all things - the radiant sun of lights, the thought organ of sense organs, the intellect of beings, the ocean of waters, the Himalayas of mountain ranges, the Ganges of rivers. He is also the inherent essence of everything - including evil. He is the gambling of rogues, the courage of the courageous, the rod of disciplinarians, the statecraft of politicians, the Knowledge of the knowing.

The text is from the translation of Franklin Edgerton, The Bhagavad Gita, Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1944.
 
 

The one who thinks that Atman is a slayer, and the one who thinks that Atman is slain, both are ignorant, because Atman neither slays
nor is slain. (2.19)

The Atman is neither born nor does it die at any time, nor having been it will cease to exist again. It is unborn, eternal, permanent, and
primeval. The Atman is not destroyed when the body is destroyed. (2.20)

Wise Karma-yogis, possessed with mental poise by renouncing the attachment to the fruits of work, are indeed freed from the
bondage of rebirth and attain the blissful divine state. (2.51)

The desire for sensual pleasures fades away if one abstains from sense enjoyment, but the craving (for sense enjoyment) remains. The
craving also disappears from the one who has seen (or known) the Supreme. (2.59)

Restless senses, O Arjuna, forcibly carry away the mind of even a wise person striving for perfection. (2.60)

Having brought the senses under control, one should fix one's mind on the Self. One's Prajna becomes steady whose senses are under
control. (2.61)

Those who are devoid of attachment, whose mind is fixed in knowledge, who do work as Servants to the Lord, all Karma of such
liberated persons dissolves away. (4.23)

Brahman is the oblation. Brahman is the clarified butter. The oblation is poured by Brahman into the fire of Brahman. Brahman shall
be realized by the one who considers everything as (a manifestation or) an act of Brahman. (4.24)
Some yogis perform the Yajna (sacrifice) of worship to Devas alone, while others offer Yajna itself as offering in the fire of Brahman
by performing the Yajna (of Self-knowledge). (4.25)

Some offer their hearing and other senses (as sacrifice) in the fires of restraint, others offer sound and other objects of the senses (as
sacrifice) in the fires of the senses. (4.26)

Others offer all the functions of the senses, and the functions of Prana (Breath) as sacrifice in the fire of the yoga of self-restraint that
is kindled by knowledge. (4.27)

Others offer their wealth, their austerity, and their practice of yoga as sacrifice, while the ascetics with strict vows offer their study of
scriptures and knowledge as sacrifice. (4.28)

Those who are engaged in yogic practice, reach the breathless state by offering inhalation into exhalation and exhalation into
inhalation as sacrifice. (4.29)

Others restrict their diet and offer their inhalations as sacrifice into their inhalations. All these are the knowers of sacrifice, and are
purified by (theirs) sacrifice. (4.30)

Those who perform Yajna obtain the nectar (of knowledge) as a result of their sacrifice and attain eternal Brahman. O Arjuna, even
this world is not (a happy place) for the non-sacrificer, how can the other world be?. (4.31)

Thus many types of sacrifice are described in the Vedas. Know them all to be born from Karma or the action of body, mind, and
senses. Knowing this, you shall attain moksha. (4.32)

The knowledge sacrifice is superior to any material sacrifice, O Arjuna. Because, all actions in their entirety culminate in knowledge.
(4.33)

But those who worship the imperishable, the undefinable, the unmanifest, the omnipresent, the unthinkable, the unchanging, the
immovable, and the eternal Brahman; (12.03)

Restraining all the senses, even minded under all circumstances, engaged in the welfare of all creatures, they also attain Me. (12.04)
Self-realization is more difficult for those who fix their mind on the formless Brahman, because the comprehension of the unmanifest
Brahman by the average embodied human being is very difficult. (12.05)

But, to those who worship Me as the personal God, renouncing all actions to Me; setting Me as their supreme goal, and meditating on
Me with single minded devotion; (12.06)

I swiftly become their savior, from the world that is the ocean of death and transmigration, whose thoughts are set on Me, O Arjuna.
(12.07)

Therefore, focus your mind on Me alone and let your intellect dwell upon Me through meditation and contemplation. Thereafter you
shall certainly come to Me. (12.08)

If you are unable to meditate (or focus your mind) steadily on Me, then seek to reach Me, O Arjuna, by practice of (any other)
spiritual discipline. (12.09)

If you are unable even to do any discipline, then be intent on performing your duty for Me. You shall attain perfection just by working
for Me (as an instrument, just to serve and please Me, without selfish motives). (12.10)

If you are unable to work for Me then just surrender unto My will with subdued mind, and renounce (the attachment to, and the
anxiety for) the fruits of all work (by learning to accept all results, as God-given, with equanimity). (12.11)

Knowledge is better than mere ritualistic practice, meditation is better than mere knowledge, renunciation of the fruit of work is better
than meditation, peace immediately follows the renunciation of (the attachment to) the fruit of work. (12.12)