59 pages • 1 hour read
Swami Prabhavananda, Transl. Christopher IsherwoodBhagavad Gita
Nonfiction | Scripture | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Field and Its Knower”
Arjuna returns to his questions. He asks Krishna about the objects of wisdom such as the body and the spirit. Krishna explains the concept of the Field. The Field is many things. It includes an awareness of the self, insight, the human senses, the body, thoughts, desires, pleasures, hatred, and pain. The Field is a metaphor for the body and the body is composed of more than just the physical feelings and senses. A free person can understand the Field and comprehend how the body and the spirit are both separate and different.
The body also includes the spirit and the mind. The Field also contains patience; an absence of deceit, harm, and arrogance; purity; restraint; an indifference to the senses and the self; the ability not to rely on earthly desires and the results of one’s actions; and the use of yoga as an expression of devotion to Krishna. All of these qualities are contained in the wisdom of the self.
A person can become immortal if they can understand the divine force that links everything together. This force is named Brahman and it is not a being and it is not a non-being. Brahman is found in everything and can be too subtle for many people to detect even though it is always present. Braham is beyond light and beyond darkness. It constitutes the content and the goal of wisdom.
Krishna explains that a person who understands the metaphor of the Field and the body’s relationship to wisdom can become one with Krishna. The Field is the lower self and the higher self. A person must understand their body, their spirit, and their wisdom to achieve enlightenment. Some people achieve this through meditation, some through yoga, and some people are devoted to Krishna enough to pass beyond death and come to know themselves through the words of others.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Three Gunas”
Krishna makes another promise to tell Arjuna the “uttermost wisdom” (106) that helped the sages escape the bonds of their bodies. He explains the Prakriti, which is “the womb of all wombs” and the basis of all observable reality. Prakriti is composed of three innate qualities known as the gunas. The highest Guna is sattwa, or lucidity, the truthfulness or purity of things. Rajas is the passion guna, which can be activity, movement, egoism, or self-centeredness. Tamas, or dark inertia, is the darkest guna; it is associated with inactivity, laziness, chaos, neglect, and ignorance. The three gunas are the “bonds that bind” (107) a person to their body. Sattwa enslaves happy people, rajas enslaves active people, and tamas enslaves deluded people.
Krishna explains the different ways the gunas can affect a person. People who die in sattwa will go to a sinless home among the gods. Those who die in rajas will be reincarnated among good, active people. Those who die in tamas will be reincarnated in among bad, dull people and thus be further from reincarnation. Sattwa sends people to the highest places, rajas keeps them in the same place, and tamas sends them somewhere worse.
The person who transcends all three gunas will reach enlightenment. This person will neither hate nor love the gunas but will be indifferent to them. People who worship Krishna with “unfaltering love” (110) will transcend the three gunas and reach a union with Brahman.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Devotion to the Supreme Spirit”
The giant Aswattha is a fig tree with its roots in heaven. Its branches stretch toward Earth. The branches and the roots stretch in complicated directions, and knowing each root and each branch is impossible for those who are still bound to Earth.
People who contemplate their Brahman (their soul) will sharpen their “axe of non-attachment” (111) and learn how to cut through the roots and branches of Aswattha. People who have thrown off their ignorance and who have begun to understand enlightenment are free from pride and delusion. They have beaten the evil that is worldly attachment and now live in union with their inner-self.
Krishna sees two types of beings in the world: those who are mortal and those who are immortal. Every creature’s personality is mortal, while the personality of god is supposedly immortal. There is one other being: the “supreme Atman” (113), which is the unchanging, transcendent force that is Krishna. This knowledge is the supreme truth, and anyone who understands it will fulfil the purpose of their life.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Divine and Demonic Tendencies”
Krishna explains the idea of a person who is “born with tendencies toward the divine” (114). These people are truthful, wise, fearless, controlled, willing to sacrifice, disciplined, studious, peaceful, compassionate, modest, courageous, and moderate. Those who are born with “demonic tendencies” (114) are angry, hostile, and ignorant. Arjuna, Krishna says, was born with tendencies toward the divine.
Nature is comprised of two types of being: those who tend toward the divine and those who tend toward the demonic. Krishna goes into more depth about those with demonic tendencies. They have no truth or purity and do not follow religion. They are the “enemies of mankind” (115) who work only to gratify their senses. They are riddled with anxieties and are always busy and dishonest. Their urges can never be satisfied. They loathe Krishna and deny him. They will slip further and further down the ladder of reincarnation. Lust, rage, and greed are the three doors to hell. They must be avoided.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Three Kinds of Faith”
Arjuna is interested in those who are religious but pray in the wrong manner. Krishna explains that faith follows the model of the three gunas. People of sattwa worship god, people of rajas worship power and money, and people of tamas worship “the spirits of the dead” (117). People who worship in the wrong manner have become blinded to the truth by their devotion to their sensory satisfaction.
Krishna uses food as an example. People of sattwa enjoy food that increases their strength and energy. People of rajas enjoy food that is bitter, salty, hot, and acidic. People of tamas perversely enjoy food that is stale, rotten, and tasteless.
Likewise, people of the different gunas approach self-sacrifice differently. Sattwa encourages people to deny themselves small pleasures and leads to a reverence for spiritual teachings and a dedication to god. Rajas leads to hollow demonstrations of austerity that are prideful and not actually reverential. People who take austerity and self-flagellation too seriously are just torturing themselves, and they belong to tamas. Krishna explains similar models for gift-giving and mediation. A person who practices religion in the wrong manner is considered “unreal” (119) and does not produce a good result in this life or the next.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Yoga of Renunciation”
Arjuna wants to learn about renunciation and non-attachment. Krishna explains that renunciation means “the complete giving up of all actions which are motivated by desire” (120). Acts such as sacrifice, donations, and austerity are necessary as a means of spiritual purification, but only to those who understand the correct methods, and only when they are performed without attachment or regard for the results. Renunciation can almost manifest in different ways depending on a person’s alignment to one of the three gunas.
No person can entirely just give up action or perform a total renunciation, but people who abandon any concern for the results of their actions are non-attached. Krishna explains that there are two types of renunciation. Sannyasa is the renunciation of selfish acts, and tyaga is the renunciation of action that is based on results. Tyaga is achieved by fulfilling obligations without desiring anything in return. Real renunciation is achieved by people who no longer desire physical rewards. People seeking to achieve tyaga must master their body, their spirit, their ego, their deeds, and the divine will. Once a person is free from ego and has mastered their body, they will no longer endure stress, as they will not feel indebted to ego or selfish desires. They are wholly dedicated to serving Krishna. This person will be aware that success, failure, and other passions are no longer relevant because they are part of a larger spirit which is Krishna.
Krishna asks Arjuna whether these answers are satisfactory. Arjuna thanks Krishna and announces that his faith is stronger than ever. Arjuna dedicates himself to Krishna. The narrative returns to Sanjaya, who closes by proclaiming that the conversations between Krishna and Arjuna reveal “sacred and wonderful truths” (130). He thanks Krishna for his teachings and ends with a prayer.
Part 3 Analysis
The later chapters of the Bhagavad Gita consider the people who do not live their lives in the correct manner. Until this point the text has largely focused on the positive aspects of religion. Krishna has talked about the best way to live and the benefits to be gained from doing so. But he widens his scope and considers the idle people who through either ignorance or unwillingness do not live good lives. These people receive the most stinging criticism in the book, and Krishna labels them enemies. The latter stages of the book are a warning against how not to live rather than an encouragement of how to dedicate oneself to god.
The distinction drawn between the good and the bad plays into the theme of binary divisions. Krishna frequently divides concepts and subjects into two distinct and opposing categories. These categories are not always pejorative and do not necessarily reflect good or bad when Krishna discusses them. The distinction between the body and the soul, for instance, operates on this basis. Neither one is more important than the other. They are separate but equally important, and a person must understand and nourish both to achieve enlightenment. The distinctions drawn between good and bad, body and soul, and even the two opposing armies reflect Krishna’s eagerness to divide everything into binary categories.
The text’s ending does not resolve the battle. The war between the two armies is not portrayed, nor is the outcome explained. The fight itself is not particularly important in the context of the Gita. Instead, the battle is a catalyst for the real narrative thrust of the novel: the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna. The battle’s resolution is irrelevant in the grander scheme of the narrative. The real battle is not between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The real battle is the fight for Arjuna’s understanding. Krishna wages this subtle war in an effort to broaden his influence in the world. He convinces Arjuna so well that Arjuna dedicates his life to Krishna. In turn, Arjuna will convince others, and they will convince others also. The battle is won in the mind of Arjuna.
The climax of the text is not a fight or a standoff between two armies. Rather, the climax came earlier, with the reveal of Krishna’s true form to Arjuna. This reveal has a profound effect on Arjuna. This new understanding of Krishna completely reorients the way Arjuna understands life. He may leave the battlefield with a victory, and he may win himself a kingdom, but neither will be as important as the renewed understanding of faith that he has gained from Krishna. Though the battle seems like the narrative crux of the novel, the fight for Arjuna’s soul provides the real resolution in the Bhagavad Gita.
