7-verse reading plan
Bhagavad Gita on stress: 7 verses for heavy days
For the days a deadline sits in your shoulders. Read one on your next break.
- 7 verses
- Gita, then the Yoga Vasishtha
- About 14 min to read
- Sanskrit, English, audio
The Gita is spoken minutes before a war, to a man whose hands are shaking. Krishna knew what pressure does to a mind. These seven verses start with his first lesson, that heat and cold, pleasure and pain come and go. Then come two pictures of steadiness, a lotus leaf and the ocean, and two practical verses on balance and on working with the fever gone. The last is from the Yoga Vasishtha, about a king who found freedom and kept his job.
The seven verses
- Verse 1See itThis will pass, and you can bear itGita 2.14
- Verse 2What's underneathWhy stress steals happinessGita 2.66
- Verse 3SteadyLike a lotus leafGita 5.10
- Verse 4SteadyThe ocean doesn't overflowGita 2.70
- Verse 5DoEat, rest, work, sleep: in measureGita 6.17
- Verse 6DoAct with the fever goneGita 3.30
- Verse 7A storyA king who didn't leave his jobYoga Vasishtha
This will pass, and you can bear it
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥
Heat and cold, pleasure and pain come and go. They don't last; learn to bear them.
Bhagavad Gita 2.14 · Krishna
Full translation
Contacts with the senses, O son of Kunti, bring heat and cold, pleasure and pain. They come and go; they are impermanent. Endure them, O Bharata.
हे कुन्तीनन्दन इन्द्रियोंके जो विषय जड पदार्थ हैं, वो तो शीत अनुकूलता और उष्ण प्रतिकूलता के द्वारा सुख और दुःख देनेवाले हैं तथा आनेजानेवाले और अनित्य हैं । हे भरतवंशोद्भव अर्जुन उनको तुम सहन करो ॥
What it means for you
Krishna calls these mātrā-sparśa: contacts, things that touch you and move on. A deadline, a bad week, a hard meeting. They hurt while they last, they pass, and Krishna asks you to bear them (titikṣasva) until they do.
Try this
Write down what's pressing on you. Next to each one, write roughly when it will be over.
This is about the ordinary ups and downs of life. If someone is harming or mistreating you, act on it.
Why stress steals happiness
न चाभावयतः शान्तिरशान्तस्य कुतः सुखम् ॥
Without inner discipline there's no clarity; without clarity, no peace; and without peace, where is happiness?
Bhagavad Gita 2.66 · Krishna
Full translation
A restless mind has no steady discernment, no steady purpose, no peace, and without peace, no happiness.
जिसके मनइन्द्रियाँ संयमित नहीं हैं, ऐसे मनुष्यकी व्यवसायात्मिका बुद्धि नहीं होती और व्यवसायात्मिका बुद्धि न होनेसे उसमें कर्तव्यपरायणताकी भावना नहीं होती । ऐसी भावना न होनेसे उसको शान्ति नहीं मिलती । फिर शान्तिरहित मनुष्यको सुख कैसे मिल सकता है ॥
What it means for you
Krishna lays out a chain. An unsettled mind has no clarity, without clarity there is no peace, and without peace there is no happiness, however good things look on paper. The workload is one part of stress. The other part is a mind with no place to stand.
Try this
Notice where your mind is during the busiest hour today: on the task, or three tasks ahead?
Like a lotus leaf
लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा ॥
Like a lotus leaf in water, do your work without letting the mess soak in.
Bhagavad Gita 5.10 · Krishna
Full translation
One who offers actions to Brahman, renounces attachment, and acts is not stained by wrongdoing, just as a lotus leaf is untouched by water.
जो भक्तियोगी सम्पूर्ण कर्मोंको भगवान् में अर्पण करके और आसक्तिका त्याग करके कर्म करता है, वह जलसे कमलके पत्तेकी तरह पापसे लिप्त नहीं होता ॥
What it means for you
A lotus leaf sits in water all its life, and the water still beads and rolls off it. Krishna uses it for someone who works fully and lets the mess around them roll off. You stay in the pond and keep your surface dry.
Try this
After your hardest conversation today, take one breath and picture the water rolling off.
The ocean doesn't overflow
तद्वत्कामा यं प्रविशन्ति सर्वेस शान्तिमाप्नोति न कामकामी ॥
Rivers pour into the ocean and it stays full and still. Let demands enter you the same way.
Bhagavad Gita 2.70 · Krishna
Full translation
As rivers flow into the sea and the sea remains steady, so desires may enter a disciplined person without disturbing inner peace. The person who wants pleasures does not find peace.
जैसे सम्पूर्ण नदियोंका जल चारों ओरसे जलद्वारा परिपूर्ण समुद्रमें आकर मिलता है, पर समुद्र अपनी मर्यादामें अचल प्रतिष्ठित रहता है ऐसे ही सम्पूर्ण भोगपदार्थ जिस संयमी मनुष्य को विकार उत्पन्न किये बिना ही उसको प्राप्त होते हैं, वही मनुष्य परमशान्तिको प्राप्त होता है, भोगोंकी कामनावाला नहीं ॥
What it means for you
Rivers keep pouring into the ocean and it stays full and still. Demands will keep coming. In Krishna's picture, peace comes from being deep enough to take them in.
Try this
When a new request lands, pause before replying. Let it arrive before you react.
Eat, rest, work, sleep: in measure
युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगो भवति दुःखहा ॥
Moderate in food and rest, in work and play, in sleep and waking: that's how sorrow eases.
Bhagavad Gita 6.17 · Krishna
Full translation
Yoga that destroys suffering comes from balanced eating, balanced activity, balanced work, and balanced sleep and waking.
दुःखोंका नाश करनेवाला योग तो यथायोग्य आहार और विहार करनेवालेका, कर्मोंमें यथायोग्य चेष्टा करनेवालेका तथा यथायोग्य सोने और जागनेवालेका ही सिद्ध होता है ॥
What it means for you
This is the Gita at its most practical. Krishna tells Arjuna that the yoga which ends sorrow belongs to someone moderate in food, movement, work, sleep and waking. A lot of stress starts as a schedule with no rest built into it.
Try this
Pick one thing to put back in balance this week: a proper meal, a fixed bedtime, or a real break.
Act with the fever gone
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः ॥
Hand your work to something higher, drop the 'mine' and the hoping, and act with the fever gone.
Bhagavad Gita 3.30 · Krishna
Full translation
Surrender all actions to me with the disciplined mind. Free from desire, possessiveness, and sorrow, fight.
तू विवेकवती बुद्धिके द्वारा सम्पूर्ण कर्तव्यकर्मोंको मेरे अर्पण करके कामना, ममता और संतापरहित होकर युद्धरूप कर्तव्यकर्मको कर ॥
What it means for you
The Sanskrit is vigata-jvaraḥ: with the fever gone. Krishna still wants Arjuna to fight, and to fight without the heat of 'mine' and anxious hoping. Offer the work to something larger than your worry, and do it.
Try this
Before your next big task, say what it's for beyond you. Then begin.
Surrender here means letting go of anxious grasping. Your judgement and responsibility stay with you.
A king who didn't leave his job
न कालमतिवर्तन्ते महान्तः स्वेषु कर्मसु ॥
Get up and do today's work. Great people don't let the hour slip by.
Yoga Vasishtha, Upashama Prakarana
Janaka on the palace roof
Walking in his garden one spring, King Janaka overheard hidden sages singing about the self. Shaken, he climbed to his palace roof and questioned everything he had lived for. When his attendant came to call him to the day's work, he could have walked away from the throne. He didn't. He went back and did his duties, but with a mind that no longer clutched.
You don't have to leave your life to change it. Do the day's work with a mind that doesn't clutch.
What it means for you
When stress builds, it's tempting to dream of quitting everything. Janaka kept the same work and held it differently.
Try this
Do one task today the way Janaka would: fully, and without checking for applause.
That's all seven.
Come back to the one that stayed with you, or let Wisdom pick seven verses for your own situation.
Your situation is your own
Seven verses picked for your stress.
Everyone gets the same seven on this page. Tell Wisdom what you're facing in a sentence or two, and it picks verses for you.
Week 1 is free. A few questions, about two minutes.
On iPhone, Wisdom gives you one verse each morning, read aloud. Get the app →
Common questions
What does the Bhagavad Gita say about stress?
Which Gita shloka calms the mind?
Is the Gita telling me to just accept a stressful situation?
Should I read one verse a day or all seven at once?
More Gita verses on stress
- Bhagavad Gita 2.48Evenness of mind is yoga.
- Bhagavad Gita 18.66Krishna’s last word: set it all down and take refuge. Do not grieve.
