Understand Gita

Tables of the Bhagavad-gītā

Where the Gītā describes things side by side, a table makes them clear: Kṛṣṇa's opulences in the Tenth Chapter, the three modes of nature in everything we do, and who surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. Every cell is quoted from its verse.

Kṛṣṇa's opulences: "Among … I am …" In the Tenth Chapter Kṛṣṇa names the best of every category as His own opulence. All of them are only a spark of His splendor (10.41).

Verse	Among	I am
10.21	Ādityas	Viṣṇu
10.21	lights	the radiant sun
10.21	the Maruts	Marīci
10.21	the stars	the moon
10.22	the Vedas	the Sāma-veda
10.22	the demigods	Indra
10.22	the senses	the mind
10.22	living beings	the living force [knowledge]
10.23	all the Rudras	Lord Śiva
10.23	the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas	the lord of wealth [Kuvera]
10.23	the Vasus	fire [Agni]
10.23	the mountains	Meru
10.24	priests	the chief, Bṛhaspati, the lord of devotion
10.24	generals	Skanda, the lord of war
10.24	bodies of water	the ocean
10.25	the great sages	Bhṛgu
10.25	vibrations	the transcendental om
10.25	sacrifices	the chanting of the holy names [japa]
10.25	immovable things	the Himalayas
10.26	all trees	the holy fig tree
10.26	sages and demigods	Nārada
10.26	the singers of the gods [Gandharvas]	Citraratha
10.26	perfected beings	the sage Kapila
10.27	horses	Uccaiḥśravā
10.27	lordly elephants	Airāvata
10.27	men	the monarch
10.28	weapons	the thunderbolt
10.28	cows	the surabhi
10.28	procreators	Kandarpa, the god of love
10.28	serpents	Vāsuki
10.29	the celestial Nāga snakes	Ananta
10.29	the aquatic deities	Varuṇa
10.29	departed ancestors	Aryamā
10.29	the dispensers of law	Yama, lord of death
10.30	the Daitya demons	the devoted Prahlāda
10.30	subduers	time
10.30	the beasts	the lion
10.30	birds	Garuḍa
10.31	purifiers	the wind
10.31	the wielders of weapons	Rāma
10.31	fishes	the shark
10.31	flowing rivers	the Ganges
10.32	all creations	the beginning and the end and also the middle
10.32	all sciences	the spiritual science of the Self
10.32	logicians	the conclusive truth
10.33	letters	the letter A
10.33	compounds	the dual word
10.33	creators	Brahmā
10.34	women	fame, fortune, speech, memory, intelligence, faithfulness and patience
10.35	hymns	the Bṛhat-sāma
10.35	poetry	the Gāyatrī verse
10.35	months	November and December
10.35	seasons	flower-bearing spring
10.36	the splendid	the splendor
10.37	the descendants of Vṛṣṇi	Vāsudeva
10.37	the Pāṇḍavas	Arjuna
10.37	the sages	Vyāsa
10.37	great thinkers	Uśanā
10.38	punishments	the rod of chastisement
10.38	those who seek victory	morality
10.38	secret things	silence
10.38	the wise	wisdom

"I am also …" Opulences Kṛṣṇa names without a category.

Verse	I am
10.20	the Self, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the hearts of all creatures
10.20	the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings
10.33	inexhaustible time
10.34	all-devouring death
10.34	the generator of all things yet to be
10.36	the gambling of cheats
10.36	victory
10.36	adventure
10.36	the strength of the strong
10.39	the generating seed of all existences

The three modes of nature, side by side Chapters 14, 17 and 18 describe how goodness, passion and ignorance show themselves in everything we do. Read across a row to compare.

	Goodness	Passion	Ignorance
At death	attains to the pure higher planets 14.14	takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities 14.15	takes birth in the animal kingdom 14.15
Where they go	gradually go upward to the higher planets 14.18	live on the earthly planets 14.18	go down to the hellish worlds 14.18
Worship	worship the demigods 17.4	worship the demons 17.4	worship ghosts and spirits 17.4
Food	sweet, juicy, fattening and palatable 17.8	too bitter, too sour, salty, pungent, dry and hot 17.9	cooked more than three hours before being eaten, which is tasteless, stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean 17.10
What such food does	increase the duration of life, purify one's existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction 17.8	cause pain, distress, and disease 17.9	—
Sacrifice	performed according to duty and to scriptural rules, and with no expectation of reward 17.11	performed for some material end or benefit or performed ostentatiously, out of pride 17.12	performed in defiance of scriptural injunctions 17.13
Austerity	not to benefit themselves materially but to please the Supreme 17.17	performed in order to gain respect, honor and reverence 17.18	performed foolishly by means of obstinant self-torture, or to destroy or injure others 17.19
Charity	given out of duty, at the proper time and place, to a worthy person, and without expectation of return 17.20	performed with the expectation of some return, or with a desire for fruitive results, or in a grudging mood 17.21	performed at an improper place and time and given to unworthy persons without respect and with contempt 17.22
Knowledge	one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all existences 18.20	a different type of living entity is seen to be dwelling in different bodies 18.21	attached to one kind of work as the all in all, without knowledge of the truth 18.22
Action	performed without attachment, without love or hate, by one who has renounced fruitive results 18.23	performed with great effort by one seeking to gratify his desires 18.24	performed in ignorance and delusion without consideration of future bondage or consequences 18.25
The worker	free from all material attachments and false ego, who is enthusiastic and resolute and who is indifferent to success or failure 18.26	attached to the fruits of his labor and who passionately wants to enjoy them, who is greedy, envious and impure and moved by happiness and distress 18.27	materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating 18.28
Understanding	knows what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, what is binding and what is liberating 18.30	cannot distinguish between the religious way of life and the irreligious, between action that should be done and action that should not be done 18.31	considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion 18.32
Determination	unbreakable, which is sustained with steadfastness by yoga practice 18.33	holds fast to fruitive result in religion, economic development and sense gratification 18.34	cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusion 18.35
Happiness	in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar 18.37	appears like nectar at first but poison at the end 18.38	blind to self-realization, which is delusion from beginning to end 18.39

Who surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, and who does not Four kinds of people do not surrender (7.15); four kinds of pious people come to Kṛṣṇa (7.16).

Do not surrender (7.15)	Render devotional service (7.16)
grossly foolish 7.15	the distressed 7.16
lowest among mankind 7.15	the desirer of wealth 7.16
whose knowledge is stolen by illusion 7.15	the inquisitive 7.16
partake of the atheistic nature of demons 7.15	he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute 7.16

Every cell is quoted word for word from the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is translation of the verse shown with it, in English and in Hindi. Row labels and headings are ours.