Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 — The Foundation

Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, Sankhya Yoga, is the philosophical foundation on which every other chapter rests. Arjuna, paralysed by grief on the battlefield, finally surrenders and asks Krishna to be his teacher.

Key themes

1. 1.The eternal Self — the body dies, the Self does not. Krishna explains atma with three famous verses (2.13, 2.20, 2.22).
2. 2.Swadharma — every person has a duty appropriate to their station; running from it is a betrayal of one's own nature.
3. 3.Action without attachment to fruit — karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana (2.47). The seed of Karma Yoga.
4. 4.The Sthitaprajna — the description of a person of steady wisdom (2.54-72). One who is not shaken by gain or loss, praise or blame.

How to study it

• Read slowly. One or two verses a day with commentary (Shankara, Adi Shankaracharya's bhashya, or a contemporary translator like Eknath Easwaran).
• Memorise 2.47 and 2.62-63 — the verses on action and on the descent into desire.
• Reflect daily on the Sthitaprajna verses. They are a portrait of the goal.

A starting verse

"karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana | mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi"

You have a right to action alone, never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive; nor let your attachment be to inaction.