Bhishma Parva, the sixth of eighteen books
Krishna speaks it on the first morning of the war, before a single arrow. The reader hears it later, on the night Bhishma falls.
The Bhagavad Gita is chapters 23 to 40 of the Bhishma Parva, the sixth of the Mahabharata's eighteen books, in the Pune critical edition (chapters 25 to 42 in the vulgate that Nilakantha commented on). Sanjaya tells it to the blind king Dhritarashtra, starting from the king's own question at Gita 1.1 (MBh 6.23.1).
The Gita is told looking back. By the time Sanjaya tells it, Bhishma has already fallen.
Before the battle, Vyasa offers blind Dhritarashtra the sight to watch it. He would rather not see his family die, so Vyasa gives the sight to his charioteer Sanjaya instead.
On the tenth day Sanjaya comes back from the field and tells the king that Bhishma lies on a bed of arrows. Dhritarashtra asks him to tell it all from the beginning.
Sanjaya describes the armies drawn up on the field. The king asks what his sons and Pandu's sons did, and Sanjaya's answer is the Gita.
Arjuna sees his teachers and kin in the other army, puts down his bow, and Krishna answers him across 700 verses. Chapters 23 to 40 in the critical edition, 25 to 42 in the vulgate.
Yudhishthira walks unarmed to the Kaurava lines to ask his elders for their blessing. Yuyutsu, one of Dhritarashtra's sons, crosses over to the Pandavas. The battle begins.
The Gita begins with a blind king asking what happened and ends with the man who saw it for him.
धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः । मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय ॥
dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ | māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāścaiva kimakurvata sañjaya ||
O Sanjaya, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do, assembled on the holy field of Kurukshetra and eager for battle?
Dhritarashtra to Sanjaya · Bhagavad Gita 1.1
व्यासप्रसादाच्छ्रुतवानेतद्गुह्यमहं परम् । योगं योगेश्वरात्कृष्णात्साक्षात्कथयतः स्वयम् ॥
vyāsaprasādācchrutavānetadguhyamahaṃ param | yogaṃ yogeśvarātkṛṣṇātsākṣātkathayataḥ svayam ||
By Vyasa's grace, I heard this supreme secret yoga directly from Krishna, the Lord of yoga, as he spoke it himself.
Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra · Bhagavad Gita 18.75
The Gita has 18 chapters. The epic has 18 books, and the war lasts 18 days. A chapter a day takes the same 18 days.
In the Ashvamedhika Parva, with the war won, Arjuna admits that what Krishna told him has slipped away. Krishna says he cannot tell it the same way twice, and tells him an older story instead, the Anugita.
यत्तु तद्भवता प्रोक्तं पुरा केशव सौहृदात् । तत्सर्वं पुरुषव्याघ्र नष्टं मे व्यग्रचेतसः ॥
yattu tadbhavatā proktaṃ purā keśava sauhṛdāt | tatsarvaṃ puruṣavyāghra naṣṭaṃ me vyagracetasaḥ ||
What you told me then, Keshava, out of friendship, has all slipped away from me, tiger among men, because my mind was scattered.
Arjuna to Krishna · MBh 14.17.6
After the war, in the palace at Hastinapura, Arjuna asks Krishna to tell him again what he taught on the battlefield.
स हि धर्मः सुपर्याप्तो ब्रह्मणः पदवेदने । न शक्यं तन्मया भूयस्तथा वक्तुमशेषतः ॥
sa hi dharmaḥ suparyāpto brahmaṇaḥ padavedane | na śakyaṃ tanmayā bhūyastathā vaktumaśeṣataḥ ||
That teaching was complete for reaching Brahman. I cannot tell it again, in full, the way I did then.
Krishna to Arjuna · MBh 14.17.12
Krishna then tells an older story instead, the Anugita, which runs through the next chapters of the Ashvamedhika Parva.
Some of the Gita's lines turn up elsewhere in the epic, spoken by other people.
त्रिविधं नरकस्येदं द्वारं नाशनमात्मनः । कामः क्रोधस्तथा लोभस्तस्मादेतत्त्रयं त्यजेत् ॥
trividhaṃ narakasyedaṃ dvāraṃ nāśanamātmanaḥ | kāmaḥ krodhastathā lobhastasmādetattrayaṃ tyajet ||
Three gates lead to hell and ruin the self: desire, anger and greed. So give up these three.
Vidura to Dhritarashtra · MBh 5.33.73
आत्मनात्मानमन्विच्छेन्मनोबुद्धीन्द्रियैर्यतैः । आत्मा ह्येवात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥
ātmanātmānamanvicchenmanobuddhīndriyairyataiḥ | ātmā hyevātmano bandhurātmaiva ripurātmanaḥ ||
Seek the self through the self, with mind, intellect and senses held steady. The self alone is the self's friend, and the self alone its enemy.
Vidura to Dhritarashtra · MBh 5.34.65
कर्म खल्विह कर्तव्यं जातेनामित्रकर्शन । अकर्माणो हि जीवन्ति स्थावरा नेतरे जनाः ॥
karma khalviha kartavyaṃ jātenāmitrakarśana | akarmāṇo hi jīvanti sthāvarā netare janāḥ ||
Whoever is born here has to act, tamer of enemies. Only things that cannot move live without action. No one else does.
Draupadi to Yudhishthira · MBh 3.32.3
नाहं धर्मफलाकाङ्क्षी राजपुत्रि चराम्युत । ददामि देयमित्येव यजे यष्टव्यमित्युत ॥
nāhaṃ dharmaphalākāṅkṣī rājaputri carāmyuta | dadāmi deyamityeva yaje yaṣṭavyamityuta ||
I do not practise dharma hungry for its fruit, princess. I give because it should be given. I worship because worship should be offered.
Yudhishthira to Draupadi · MBh 3.31.2
Week 1 of the Gita by email: one verse a day and what it asks of you.
Send my weekBhishma Parva chapter numbers are given in both the Pune critical edition and the vulgate. Gita lines and their English come from our Gita pages.
The Mahabharata Sanskrit on this page (books 3, 5 and 14) comes from a southern-recension text whose chapter numbers run close to the Kumbhakonam edition, so they can differ from the critical edition. The English is Wisdom's own, read with Nilakantha's commentary, with K. M. Ganguli's public-domain translation consulted.
Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla.