Bhagavad Gitâ ('The Song of the Adorable') is the title of a lengthy theosophical poem which has been incorporated in the great Indian epic, the Mahâbhârata, although it is clearly of later date than the rest of that work, its composition being usually assigned to the first or second century after Christ. The leading theme of the poem is the exaltation of the god Vishnu in his human form or avatâr of Krishna, and throughout it the god speaks in his own person. In this incarnation Vishnu became the charioteer of Arjuna, a chief of the Pândus, who were then at war with their kinsmen, the Kurus. On the eve of a battle, when Arjuna is appalled at the thought of slaughtering his own kindred, Krishna sets before him the duties demanded of him as a member of the warrior caste, and at the same time propounds an eclectic system of philosophy of an ethical pantheistic type, laying especial emphasis on the doctrine of bhakti, or faith in the Supreme Being, whom he declares himself to be. The poem is divided into three sections, each containing six chapters, called upanishads ('secret doctrine'), a name which shows the mystical character of the work. In the first section, the duties and observances of caste are directly inculcated, and asserted to be entirely in harmony with the principles of the Yoga philosophy—viz. asceticism and meditation, by which absorption in the Deity, the highest object of humanity, is attained. In the second, the pantheistic doctrines of the Vedânta philosophy are expounded and taught. In the third, the pantheism of the Vedânta is interwoven with the dualism of the Sânkhya philosophy. The remarkable similarity existing between many of the ideas and expressions of the poem and those of the New Testament has led some scholars—e.g. Weber, Lorinser, and Nève—to infer an actual borrowing from the latter. This theory has, however, been vigorously combated by Telang, and is still sub judice.
The Bhagavad Gitâ has been edited by Schlegel (Bonn, 1846), with a Latin translation, and by Thompson (Hertford, 1855). It has been translated into English by Wilkins (1785), Thompson (1855), Davies (1882), Telang (Bombay, 1875), and by the same in 'Sacred Books of the East,' vol. viii., and Chatterji (1887); also into German, French, and modern Greek, as well as into most of the modern Indian languages. The philosophy of the Bhagavad Gitâ has been discussed by W. von Humboldt in a special treatise (1827), and commented on by Chintamon (1874).