30 Days with the Gita

Act; the outcome isn't yours.

BG 2.47 — Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached. read →

Steadiness is the practice.

BG 2.48 — Perform action, O Dhananjaya, dwelling in union with the divine, renouncing attachments and balanced evenly in success and failure: equilibrium is called yoga. read →

Attention becomes attachment.

BG 2.62 — Man, musing on the objects of sense, conceiveth an attachment to these; from attachment ariseth desire; from desire anger cometh forth; read →

Do the work, drop the claim.

BG 3.19 — Therefore, without attachment, constantly perform action which is duty, for, by performing action without attachment, man verily reacheth the Supreme. read →

You are your own lift or weight.

BG 6.5 — Let him raise the self by the Self and not let the self become depressed; for verily is the Self the friend of the self, and also the Self the self's enemy; read →

Sensations pass; sit through one.

BG 2.14 — The contacts of matter, O son of Kuntî, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, they come and go, impermanent; endure them bravely, O Bhârata. read →

Start with not harming.

BG 12.13 — He who beareth no ill-will to any being, friendly and compassionate, without attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving, read →

Your own flawed work beats a borrowed one.

BG 18.48 — Congenital duty, O son of Kunti, though defective, ought not to be abandoned. All undertakings indeed are clouded by defects as fire by smoke. read →

Let go of what's worn out.

BG 2.22 — As a man, casting off worn-out garments, taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others that are new. read →

Weigh gain and loss the same.

BG 2.38 — Taking as equal pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, gird thee for the battle; thus thou shalt not incur sin. read →

Doing it well is the discipline.

BG 2.50 — United to the Pure Reason one abandoneth here both good and evil deeds; therefore cleave thou to yoga; yoga is skill in action. read →

Neither chase the high nor flinch.

BG 2.56 — He whose mind is free from anxiety amid pains, indifferent amid pleasures, loosed from passion, fear and anger, is called a sage of stable mind. read →

Anger runs downhill to wreckage.

BG 2.63 — From anger proceedeth delusion; from delusion confused memory; from confused memory the destruction of Reason; from destruction of Reason he perishes. read →

You're already in motion.

BG 3.5 — Nor can anyone, even for an instant, remain really actionless; for helplessly is everyone driven to action by the qualities born of nature. read →

Do the assigned thing.

BG 3.8 — Perform thou right action, for, action is superior to inaction, and, inactive, even the maintenance of thy body would not be possible. read →

People copy what you do.

BG 3.21 — Whatsoever a great man doeth, that other men also do; the standard he setteth up, by that the people go. read →

Don't run someone else's playbook.

BG 3.35 — Better one's own duty, though destitute of merit, than the duty of another, well discharged. Better death in the discharge of one's own duty; the duty of another is full of danger. read →

Stance weighs as much as act.

BG 4.18 — He who seeth inaction in action, and action in inaction, he is wise among men, he is harmonious, even while performing all action. read →

Depend on nothing to feel steady.

BG 4.20 — Having abandoned attachment to the fruit of action, always content, nowhere seeking refuge, he is not doing anything, although doing actions. read →

Understanding is what clears it.

BG 4.38 — Verily there is no purifier in this world like wisdom; he that is perfected in yoga finds it in the Self in due season. read →

Let it land without soaking in.

BG 5.10 — He who acteth, placing all actions in the Eternal, abandoning attachment, is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters. read →

It's earned today, not inherited.

BG 6.6 — The Self is the friend of the self of him in whom the self by the Self is vanquished; but to the unsubdued self the Self verily becometh hostile as an enemy. read →

The middle is the method.

BG 6.16 — Verily yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess, nor who is too much addicted to sleep, nor even to wakefulness, O Arjuna. read →

Still flame, not no flame.

BG 6.19 — As a lamp in a windless place flickereth not, to such is likened the Yogi of subdued thought, absorbed in the yoga of the Self. read →

The practice is the returning.

BG 6.26 — As often as the wavering and unsteady mind goeth forth, so often reining it in, let him bring it under the control of the Self. read →

Don't be what unsettles the room.

BG 12.15 — He from whom the world doth not shrink away, who doth not shrink away from the world, freed from the anxieties of joy, anger, and fear, he is dear to me. read →

Drop the pose first.

BG 13.8 — Humility, unpretentiousness, harmlessness, forgiveness, rectitude, service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control. read →

Three doors out: wanting, anger, greed.

BG 16.21 — Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, wrath, and greed; therefore let man renounce these three. read →

True, and without the cut.

BG 17.15 — Speech causing no annoyance, truthful, pleasant and beneficial, the practice of the study of the Scriptures, are called the austerity of speech. read →

Do it because it needs doing.

BG 18.9 — He who performeth a prescribed action, saying, "it ought to be done," O Arjuna, relinquishing attachment and also fruit, that relinquishment is regarded as pure. read →