The Bhagavad Gita · A reading companion
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2Sankhya Yoga
The self, action and steady wisdom
Vedika editorial guide · 72 verses in the chapter · Selected passages below
Chapter 2 summary
Chapter 2 moves from Arjuna’s grief to Krishna’s teaching on the enduring self, responsible action and steadiness of mind. It introduces questions that later chapters develop: what changes, what endures, and how can a person act without being ruled by the hoped-for result?
Reading the chapter
Follow these passages in order. The notes are Vedika’s synthesis; they are not a word-for-word translation or a substitute for a commentary.
Bhagavad Gita 2.1–10
From argument to discipleship
Arjuna’s hesitation becomes an explicit request for guidance. The scene matters: Krishna’s response addresses a person caught in a particular conflict, not a detached philosophical puzzle. Keep Arjuna’s question in view while reading the instruction that follows.
Bhagavad Gita 2.11–30
The self and the changing body
Krishna distinguishes the embodied self from bodily change and death. Verse 2.20 gives a concentrated statement of this teaching. Different Vedanta traditions explain the relation between the self and ultimate reality differently; a short summary cannot settle those disagreements.
Bhagavad Gita 2.47–72
Action without surrendering judgment
Verse 2.47 joins freedom from attachment to results with a warning against attachment to inaction. Arjuna’s question in 2.54 then turns philosophy toward character: how does someone of steady wisdom live? Read the concluding portrait alongside the instruction to act, rather than treating detachment as indifference.
Selected Sanskrit verses & English meaning
Selections from Vedika’s published chapter collection. This page does not reproduce all the chapter’s verses. English renderings are those stored in that collection; a named translator is not recorded there.
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन् नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः । अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṃ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ / ajo nityaḥ śāśvato'yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
It is never born, nor does it ever die. It has not come into being and will not come into being. It is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, and primeval. It is not slain when the body is slain.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana / mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo'stv akarmaṇi
You have the right to perform your duties, but never to the fruits of your actions. Let not the fruits be your motive, nor let attachment be to inaction.
स्थितप्रज्ञस्य का भाषा समाधिस्थस्य केशव । स्थितधीः किं प्रभाषेत किमासीत व्रजेत किम् ॥
sthita-prajñasya kā bhāṣā samādhi-sthasya keśava / sthita-dhīḥ kiṃ prabhāṣeta kim āsīta vrajeta kim
O Keshava, what is the description of one whose wisdom is steady, who is fixed in meditation? How does the man of steady wisdom speak? How does he sit? How does he walk?
Does 2.47 mean that results do not matter?
It does not instruct the reader to abandon action. The verse addresses attachment to its fruits and explicitly warns against attachment to inaction. Responsible effort and a demand to control every outcome are different concerns.
Sources & reading across traditions
The primary text is Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, within the Mahabharata. Verse ranges above identify the passages behind the reading notes. Philosophical interpretations differ among traditions.
Read Chapter 2 with Swami Mukundananda’s commentary ↗An attributed devotional commentary for comparison; not the credited source of Vedika’s English renderings.