Reading room

Commentary on the Bhagavadgītā

Adi Shankara

The oldest surviving commentary on the Gītā. Śaṅkara reads it as a teaching of liberating knowledge: disinterested action purifies the mind, but only knowledge of the self liberates, and renunciation is the way of life that befits it. The introduction sets out the twofold Vedic path of action and renunciation, and the commentary argues against those who combined works and knowledge. It is one of the three legs of the Vedāntic canon and, being accessible, the usual gateway into his thought.