The Bhagavad Gita is an important and precious book for Theosophists, just as it is for Hindus.
H. P. Blavatsky requested that excerpts from it be read – along with the poetic account of Buddha’s life and teachings in “The Light of Asia” – each year upon the anniversary of her death, an occasion which came to be known as White Lotus Day. It was also as a direct result of meeting two English Theosophists who were students of HPB that Mahatma Gandhi first read the Bhagavad Gita, which famously became his most favourite of all books and which he described as “the book par excellence for the knowledge of truth.”
“Bhagavad Gita” literally means “Song of God” or “Divine Song” or “The Lord’s Song” and has also been called “The Song Celestial.” It is without doubt the most popular and universally loved of all Hindu scriptures. It consists of a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna and is admired by multitudes around the world for its practical yet profound spiritual philosophy of life. Some have described it as “the Manual of Life” and “the Gospel for the 21st Century.”
It is quite often studied, read, and referred to, in the various lodges of the United Lodge of Theosophists around the world, particularly using the translation or, rather, rendition prepared by William Quan Judge, who was co-founder of the modern Theosophical Movement with H. P. Blavatsky and was also her closest and most trusted colleague. (See Who was William Quan Judge? and Understanding The Importance of Mr. Judge) He described this rendition of the Gita as “the result of a careful comparison of all the English editions and of a complete retranslation from the original wherever any obscurity or omission was evident in the various renderings consulted.”
As was mentioned in the first of the articles just linked to, WQJ’s renditions or interpretations of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita “were both prepared by him in collaboration with J. H. Connelly, . . . Connelly’s name was removed without comment or explanation from the ULT editions of these works.” They were most likely predominantly Judge’s own work though, as even during his own lifetime this edition of the Gita was referred to as “the Judge edition.”
If one wants to make a deep, detailed, in depth study and exploration of the Bhagavad Gita, in order to accurately find out what the text literally and truly says in each sentence, the Judge rendition will not satisfy.
It lacks all verse numbering, making it an anomaly when compared with all other extant versions of the scripture, and also making it more difficult to directly compare with other versions. It also contains a few unfortunate errors, including often translating “Brahman” as “Brahmā” (although the two are connected, there is a big difference between them metaphysically and philosophically) and occasionally writing “self” in lower case when Atman, the Higher Self, is meant. This rendition was produced at a time when various Sanskrit terms which are now generally well known to spiritual seekers and enthusiasts of Eastern spirituality worldwide were completely unfamiliar and brand new to people outside of Asia and so the richness of incorporating certain Sanskrit terms that are deep in meaning and significance and quite crucial to an accurate textual understanding of the Gita (such as Brahman, Atman, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Dhyana, Buddhi Yoga, Avyaktam, Yajna, to name just a few) is mostly not present. What is “Brahman” in the original Sanskrit is usually rendered “The Supreme Spirit” or “The Supreme Self” by Judge. This is not exactly a faulty expression to use but it will not appeal much to ardent Gita enthusiasts. Judge’s foremost intention was to produce an edition that could be appreciated and practically applied by anyone in the West, without them having to learn a lot of Sanskrit terminology or familiarise themselves with the subtleties of Hindu schools of philosophy.
It has been discovered by ourselves as well as by some other Theosophists that the Judge rendition is actually quite strongly based on J. Cockburn Thomson’s translation of 1855. The latter is often far from being textually reliable but Judge’s version is often much more trustworthy. One peculiarity of Thomson’s translation which Judge keeps in almost every case is translating “yoga” as “devotion.” From the perspective of a serious textual student of the Gita such as described above, this is likely to frustrate, since in Sanskrit and thus in the Gita, the actual word for “devotion” is “Bhakti” and this is only one of the several forms of Yoga (which means “union” and any path of spiritual practice which leads to that goal of union with the Divine) presented by Krishna in the scripture. The Bhagavad Gita is thus not actually called “The Book of Devotion” (as many associates of the ULT think) but rather “The Book of Yoga” or, more accurately, “The Scripture of Yoga.” The Gita’s twelfth chapter, titled Bhakti Yoga, meaning “The Yoga of Devotion,” is titled “Devotion by means of Faith” in the Judge rendition but “faith” in Sanskrit is Shraddha rather than Bhakti. Having made a very in depth textual study of the Bhagavad Gita ourselves, including closely comparing numerous different translations, we have never seen anyone else (with the exception of those very early pre-Judge translations) translate the word “yoga” as “devotion.”
But although to some it may seem like it, we do not say all of the above in order to criticise, nor to deter people from the William Judge rendition. We merely say it in order to bring clarity to various aspects that ought to be mentioned, as well as to hopefully temper some ULT associates’ tendencies of presenting it as perfect, infallible, or as the most accurate translation available, since it is not truly a translation, nor perfect and infallible. However, once one comes to realise that WQJ clearly knew well that he was rendering “yoga” as “devotion” and that this was not an accident on his part, and once one also realises – principally through the book “Notes on The Bhagavad Gita” and also his highly recommended article of the same title published in the book “Theosophical Articles and Notes” – that the “devotion” is referring to “mental devotion” rather than to what most people think of as religious devotion through prayers, hymns, or idol worship etc. towards a personal or anthropomorphic conception of the Divine, and once one comes to understand that one’s mental devotion is really the crux of real spiritual development and evolution, Judge’s rendition takes on a much more living quality and valuable character than it might otherwise have.
Since we all have a mind and are all “thinkers” in evolution, every one of us is continually engaged in “mental devotion” towards someone or something. There is always a particular subject, object, person, being, desire, or expectation (whether positive or negative) which occupies and receives the vast majority of our thoughts, feelings, and inner focus, over the course of days, weeks, months, years, or an entire lifetime. Usually we have not consciously and deliberately selected it but nonetheless it either helps us or holds us back, transforming us either into someone better and freer or someone worse and more shackled to our lower nature and lower influences and impulses.
As WQJ’s article “Meditation, Concentration, Will” says, there is always that “on which the heart is set.” Theosophy emphasises that “thought is the real plane of action” and so it is only natural that true Yoga relates primarily to transforming and spiritualising it, so as to raise our inner being closer to the Divine within us. In his posthumously published article “Occultism,” occultism or esotericism is described as “an epitome of the science of Thought.” William Judge’s rendition of the Bhagavad Gita and also his overall approach to its message and teachings brings into emphasis that the right object of our mental devotion should be the ONE Self or divine Essence or Spirit which is the true Self of each and all and the sole Life or Presence in the Universe, and also that there are numerous synthesised or integrated practices which lead us towards that, such as “devotion through the right performance of action,” “devotion by means of spiritual discernment,” “devotion by means of the discrimination of the Kshetra from Kshetrajna” and so on.
So while it is true that the more one learns and knows Sanskrit, the more Judge’s rendition is seen as unsatisfactory from the perspective of literal accuracy, it is also true that the more deeply and practically one understands Theosophy, the more useful and helpful Judge’s rendition becomes as a beneficial impetus in daily life. We do not mean to give the impression, however, that a more scholarly and textually rigorous approach to the Bhagavad Gita is in any way wrong or inadvisable; on the contrary, those who want to find out for themselves what the text actually says word for word should pursue that. But it is also fine to be solely interested in the practical value and potential of the text.
In the 1980s, almost a century after Judge’s rendition, the Santa Barbara Lodge of the United Lodge of Theosophists published one of the most textually accurate and reliable English translations of the Bhagavad Gita that has been made so far. This was translated by Raghavan Iyer and published by Concord Grove Press. As of 2023, the San Diego ULT Lodge is studying both the Judge and Iyer versions together in its weekly Bhagavad Gita class. Some ULT associates at the Universal Theosophy website have produced in 2021 what is labelled as an “Updated and Corrected” edition of William Judge’s version of the Gita, including the addition of verse numbering, and this can be accessed online here.
Ultimately, there is no such thing as a perfect and infallible translation and so it does not greatly matter what translation or rendition a person uses (except, perhaps, the extremely misleadingly translated yet very popular version by ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, i.e. the Hare Krishna movement) as long as we remember that and do not try to make an idol out of our personally preferred version. When one is seriously studying a scripture like this, it is always good to have at least two or three different translations anyway, in order to compare them.
William Judge also wrote an insightful and practical series of articles on the first seven chapters of this great text, the articles for chapters eight to eighteen being written after his death by his pupil and colleague Robert Crosbie, who founded the United Lodge of Theosophists. These are now published in book form under the title “Notes on The Bhagavad Gita.” Although described by some as a commentary on the Gita, it is technically not that. Judge himself clarified, when publishing his rendition of the Gita, that “To attach a commentary, except such an one as only a sage like Sankaracharya could write, would be audacious.” (“Antecedent Words” p. xvii)
There are of course many ways of looking at the Bhagavad Gita. To the student of Theosophy – acquainted with the universal language of mystical symbolism and the science of esotericism – Krishna represents primarily the Higher Self, “Atman” in Sanskrit, pure eternal Spirit which is the One Universal Self of All, the highermost part and innermost essence of my being, your being, and every being.
Theosophy maintains that this is the way we are to best understand and follow the advice and injunctions of Krishna in the scripture and that we are not to look upon him in the highly personal, materialised, and anthropomorphic light in which he is looked upon by many Hindus. Least of all are we to worship or adore Krishna as some sort of external god or deity!
Whilst he did truly live on the Earth and exist in the flesh as a physically incarnated being of great spiritual stature – there being more historical proof and reliable evidence for his existence than there is for that of Jesus, who he pre-dated by around 3,000 years – we are to study and approach the Bhagavad Gita from a mostly symbolical and esoteric perspective.
Whilst Krishna is our Higher Self, Arjuna is the individual human soul, who must turn towards and seek refuge in that Self. Technically, Arjuna actually represents what B. P. Wadia has called “the Antahkaranic being,” the personal self who has already formed some degree of a link with their soul and who is actively engaged in treading the Path towards it. Set on the scene of a battlefield, it in no way promotes or encourages war and violence as some enemies of Hinduism have ignorantly or even maliciously claimed – though it does not deny that Kshatriyas, or members of the military class, should do the duty that befalls them – but rather symbolises the battlefield of life or “the war within,” which each of us must at some time face. Although not a particularly long book (it has exactly 700 verses), it is truly an unforgettable classic of the world’s spiritual and religious literature.
The student of Theosophy can also come to recognise in various places and passages that Krishna is not always speaking as the Higher Self specifically. On quite a few occasions he speaks as the Logos, which is not surprising seeing as he was – according to both Hinduism and Theosophy – an Avatar, i.e. a physical incarnation of the manifested Divine. He is often represented in religious artwork as having blue skin, the blueness symbolising his close connection to the Infinite, like the vast infinitudes of the blue sky. And as, according to Theosophy, our Atman or Higher Self is inseparable from and centred or focalised in our Higher Ego, Krishna can often be seen as speaking as the trinity of Atman, Buddhi, and the Higher Manas, the immortal spiritual triad of an individual. H. P. Blavatsky has said:
“One often finds in Theosophical writings conflicting statements about the Christos principle in man. Some call it the sixth principle (Buddhi), others the seventh (Atman). If Christian Theosophists wish to make use of such expressions, let them be made philosophically correct by following the analogy of the old Wisdom-religion symbols. We say that Christos is not only one of the three higher principles, but all the three [i.e. Atman, Buddhi, and the Higher Manas] regarded as a Trinity. This Trinity . . . answers to abstract spirit, differentiated spirit, and embodied spirit. Krishna and Christ are philosophically the same principle under its triple aspect of manifestation.” (“The Key to Theosophy” p. 67-68)
In his “Antecedent Words” to the Bhagavad Gita, Mr. Judge states that “The Bhagavad-Gita tends to impress upon the individual two things: first, selflessness, and second, action; the studying of and living by it will arouse the belief that there is but one Spirit and not several; that we cannot live for ourselves alone, but must come to realize that there is no such thing as separateness, and no possibility of escaping from the collective Karma of the race to which one belongs, and then, that we must think and act in accordance with such belief.”
This article presents some interesting words and insights from HPB about the Bhagavad Gita, followed by five selected passages from the scripture (the William Judge rendition) for our meditative reflection and application. For it is no use simply to read such books . . . to use some phraseology from the Christian Bible, one must be “a doer of the Word and not just a hearer only.”
H. P. BLAVATSKY ON THE BHAGAVAD GITA
“Bhagavad-gita (Sk.). Lit., “the Lord’s Song”. A portion of the Mahabharata, the great epic poem of India. It contains a dialogue wherein Krishna – the “Charioteer” – and Arjuna, his Chela, have a discussion upon the highest spiritual philosophy. The work is pre-eminently occult or esoteric.”
– The Theosophical Glossary, p. 56
“Like the Book of Job very wrongly incorporated into the Bible, since it is the allegorical and double record of the Egyptian sacred mysteries in the temples and of the disembodied Soul appearing before Osiris, and the Hall of Amenti, to be judged according to its Karma – the Gita is a record of the ancient teachings during the Mystery of Initiation.”
– Footnote to an article titled “Bhagavad-Gita”
“We shall begin this work by expounding, so far as permitted, the esoteric meaning of the text of the Bhagavad Gita. . . . Some of our readers, especially Hindus, will be doubtless astonished to discover the almost perfect identity between the concealed sense of this immortal epic and the Arhat Tibetan Doctrine, which has been in part expounded in the Fragments and other writings.”
– Our Fifth Year
“Since the birth of the Theosophical Society and the publication of “Isis”, it is being repeated daily that all the Esoteric Wisdom of the ages lies concealed in the Vedas, the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. Yet, unto the day of the first appearance of “Esoteric Buddhism” [i.e. the book of this title, in which A. P. Sinnett presented teachings given to him in letters by the Master K.H. and the Master M.], and for long centuries back, these doctrines remained a sealed letter to all but a few initiated Brahmins who had always kept the spirit of it to themselves. The allegorical text was taken literally by the educated and the uneducated, the first laughing secretly at the fables and the latter falling into superstitious worship, and owing to the variety of the interpretations – splitting into numerous sects. . . . Most undeniably, not “nearly all” – but positively all the doctrines given in “Esoteric Buddhism” and far more yet untouched, are to be found in the Gita, and not only there but in a thousand more known or unknown MSS. of Hindu sacred writings.”
– The Bhagavad-Gita and Esoteric Buddhism
“As regards the revival of Oriental literature, the whole press of India, Ceylon, and Japan unqualifiedly gives us the credit of having done more in that direction than any other agency of modern times. We have not only helped to revive in India the ancient Tols, or pandit-schools of Sanskrit literature and philosophy, and to reawaken reverence for the class of real Yogis, or saintly devotees, but we have created a demand for reprints and translations of ancient Sanskrit classics, which is being met by the frequent issues of works of this class at Calcutta, Bombay, Benares, Lucknow, Lahore, Madras, and other Indian literary centres. Among the most important are the Vedas, Bhagavad-Gita, the writings of Shankara, Patanjali, and other renowned Aryan philosophers and mystics. The Asiatic people have publicly testified most unqualifiedly their gratitude and respect to us for what we have done on the lines of the second of our declared objects. Nor should it be overlooked that the prevalent interest in Theosophy and mystical Oriental philosophy in general, which the most casual observer is forced to see throughout Europe and America, is directly or indirectly the result of our society’s activity.”
– Recent Progress in Theosophy
SELECTIONS FROM THE BHAGAVAD GITA
THE MAN CONFIRMED IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE
(From Chapter 2 – “Sankhya Yoga” – p. 18-20 in Theosophy Company edition)
“A man is said to be confirmed in spiritual knowledge when he forsaketh every desire which entereth into his heart, and of himself is happy and content in the Self through the Self. His mind is undisturbed in adversity; he is happy and contented in prosperity, and he is a stranger to anxiety, fear, and anger. Such a man is called a Muni*. When in every condition he receives each event, whether favorable or unfavorable, with an equal mind which neither likes nor dislikes, his wisdom is established, and, having met good or evil, neither rejoiceth at the one nor is cast down by the other. He is confirmed in spiritual knowledge, when, like the tortoise, he can draw in all his senses and restrain them from their wonted purposes. The hungry man loseth sight of every other object but the gratification of his appetite, and when he is become acquainted with the Supreme, he loseth all taste for objects of whatever kind. The tumultuous senses and organs hurry away by force the heart even of the wise man who striveth after perfection. Let a man, restraining all these, remain in devotion at rest in me, his true Self; for he who hath his senses and organs in control possesses spiritual knowledge.
“He who attendeth to the inclinations of the senses, in them hath a concern; from this concern is created passion, from passion anger, from anger is produced delusion, from delusion a loss of the memory, from the loss of memory loss of discrimination, and from loss of discrimination loss of all! But he who, free from attachment or repulsion for objects, experienceth them through the senses and organs, with his heart obedient to his will, attains to tranquility of thought. And this tranquil state attained, therefrom shall soon result a separation from all troubles; and his mind being thus at ease, fixed upon one object, it embraceth wisdom from all sides. The man whose heart and mind are not at rest is without wisdom or the power of contemplation; who doth not practice reflection, hath no calm; and how can a man without calm obtain happiness? The uncontrolled heart, following the dictates of the moving passions, snatcheth away his spiritual knowledge, as the storm the bark upon the raging ocean. Therefore, O great armed one, he is possessed of spiritual knowledge whose senses are withheld from objects of sense. What is night to those who are unenlightened is as day to his gaze; what seems as day is known to him as night, the night of ignorance. Such is the self-governed Sage!
“The man whose desires enter his heart, as waters run into the unswelling passive ocean, which, though ever full, yet does not quit its bed, obtaineth happiness; not he who lusteth in his lusts.
“The man who, having abandoned all desires, acts without covetousness, selfishness, or pride, deeming himself neither actor nor possessor, attains to rest. This, O son of Pritha, is dependence upon the Supreme Spirit, and he who possesseth it goeth no more astray; having obtained it, if therein established at the hour of death, he passeth on to Nirvana in the Supreme.”
* “Muni – a wise man.”
THE ILLUMINATED SAGE
(From Chapter 5 – “Karma Sannyasa Yoga” – p. 41-42 in Theosophy Company edition)
“The illuminated sage regards with equal mind an illuminated, selfless Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and even an outcast who eats the flesh of dogs. Those who thus preserve an equal mind gain heaven even in this life, for the Supreme is free from sin and equal minded; therefore they rest in the Supreme Spirit. The man who knoweth the Supreme Spirit, who is not deluded, and who is fixed on him, doth not rejoice at obtaining what is pleasant, nor grieve when meeting what is unpleasant. He whose heart is not attached to objects of sense finds pleasure within himself, and, through devotion, united with the Supreme, enjoys imperishable bliss. For those enjoyments which arise through the contact of the senses with external objects are wombs of pain, since they have a beginning and an end; O son of Kunti, the wise man delighteth not in these. He who, while living in this world and before the liberation of the soul from the body, can resist the impulse arising from desire and anger is a devotee and blessed. The man who is happy within himself, who is illuminated within, is a devotee, and partaking of the nature of the Supreme Spirit, he is merged in it. Such illuminated sages whose sins are exhausted, who are free from delusion, who have their senses and organs under control, and devoted to the good of all creatures, obtain assimilation with the Supreme Spirit*. Assimilation with the Supreme Spirit is on both sides of death for those who are free from desire and anger, temperate, of thoughts restrained; and who are acquainted with the true Self.”
* “That is, direct knowledge of Self.”
THE DAYS AND NIGHTS
(From Chapter 8 – “Akshara Parabrahma Yoga” – p. 60-61 in Theosophy Company edition)
“All worlds up to that of Brahman are subject to rebirth again and again, but they, O son of Kunti, who reach to me have no rebirth. Those who are acquainted with day and night* know that the day of Brahma is a thousand revolutions of the yugas and that his night extendeth for a thousand more. At the coming on of that day all things issue forth from the unmanifested into manifestation, so on the approach of that night they merge again into the unmanifested. This collection of existing things having thus come forth, is dissolved at the approach of the night, O son of Pritha; and now again on the coming of the day it emanates spontaneously. But there is that which upon the dissolution of all things else is not destroyed; it is indivisible, indestructible, and of another nature from the visible. That called the unmanifested and exhaustless is called the supreme goal, which having once attained they never more return – it is my supreme abode. This Supreme, O son of Pritha, within whom all creatures are included and by whom all this is pervaded, may be attained by a devotion which is intent on him alone.”
* “This refers to those who have acquired knowledge of the ultimate divisions of time, a power which is ascribed to the perfect yogi in Patanjali’s Yoga Philosophy.”
TRUE WISDOM AND THE OBJECT OF WISDOM
(From Chapter 13 – “Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga” – p. 94-95 in Theosophy Company edition)
“True wisdom of a spiritual kind is freedom from self-esteem, hypocrisy, and injury to others; it is patience, sincerity, respect for spiritual instructors, purity, firmness, self-restraint, dispassion for objects of sense, freedom from pride, and a meditation upon birth, death, decay, sickness, and error; it is an exemption from self-identifying attachment for children, wife, and household, and a constant unwavering steadiness of heart upon the arrival of every event whether favorable or unfavorable; it is a never-ceasing love for me alone, the self being effaced, and worship paid in a solitary spot, and a want of pleasure in congregations of men; it is a resolute continuance in the study of Adhyatma, the Superior spirit, and a meditation upon the end of the acquirement of a knowledge of truth; – this is called wisdom or spiritual knowledge; its opposite is ignorance.
“I will now tell thee what is the object of wisdom, from knowing which a man enjoys immortality; it is that which has no beginning, even the supreme Brahman, and of which it cannot be said that it is either Being or Non-Being. It has hands and feet in all directions; eyes, heads, mouths, and ears in every direction; it is immanent in the world, possessing the vast whole. Itself without organs, it is reflected by all the senses and faculties; unattached, yet supporting all; without qualities, yet the witness of them all. It is within and without all creatures animate and inanimate; it is inconceivable because of its subtlety, and although near it is afar off. Although undivided it appeareth as divided among creatures, and while it sustains existing things, it is also to be known as their destroyer and creator. It is the light of all lights, and is declared to be beyond all darkness; and it is wisdom itself, the object of wisdom, and that which is to be obtained by wisdom; in the hearts of all it ever presideth.”
THE MAN WHO HAS REACHED PERFECTION
(From Chapter 18 – “Moksha Sannyasa Yoga” – p. 129-130 in Theosophy Company edition)
“Learn from me, in brief, in what manner the man who has reached perfection attains to the Supreme Spirit, which is the end, the aim, and highest condition of spiritual knowledge.
“Imbued with pure discrimination, restraining himself with resolution, having rejected the charms of sound and other objects of the senses, and casting off attachment and dislike; dwelling in secluded places, eating little, with speech, body, and mind controlled, engaging in constant meditation and unwaveringly fixed in dispassion; abandoning egotism, arrogance, violence, vanity, desire, anger, pride, and possession, with calmness ever present, a man is fitted to be the Supreme Being. And having thus attained to the Supreme, he is serene, sorrowing no more, and no more desiring, but alike towards all creatures he attains to supreme devotion to me. By this devotion to me he knoweth fundamentally who and what I am and having thus discovered me he enters into me without any intermediate condition.”
~ * ~
Other articles relating to the Bhagavad Gita and other aspects of Hinduism and Hindu philosophy can be found under the heading “HINDUISM” on our ARTICLES page. “The Doctrine of The Bhagavad Gita” by Bhavani Shankar and “Notes on The Bhagavad Gita” by T. Subba Row are two other books on this theme sometimes referred to in the United Lodge of Theosophists. They have a much more Hindu colouring and metaphysically complex nature than the Judge/Crosbie approach to the Gita but both Subba Row and Bhavani Shankar were disciples of the Theosophical Mahatmas and H. P. Blavatsky held Subba Row’s work in extremely high regard, so they are well recommended to serious aspirants.
We particularly recommend William Q. Judge’s short but crystal clear and practical article “Notes on The Bhagavad Gita” (written by him after his series of articles in the book of the same title and not to be confused with it) which briefly encapsulates the practical essence of the Bhagavad Gita. It is published by the United Lodge of Theosophists in the book “Theosophical Articles and Notes” and under the title “We Are All Arjunas” in the Indian ULT’s book of WQJ articles titled “The Heart Doctrine.” It can most easily be accessed online here. The article Mental Devotion and Buddhi Yoga is also recommended.
T H E O S O P H Y 