Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sacred Hindu text that is incorporated into the Mahabharata and takes the form of a philosophical dialogue in which Krishna instructs the prince Arjuna in ethical matters and the nature of God.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Sanskrit bhagavad-gītā, song of the Blessed One (Krishna) : bhagavat-, fortunate, blessed (from bhagaḥ, good fortune; see bhag- in Indo-European roots) + gītā, song (from gāyati, he sings).]

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Examples

  • Americans 'naive but characteristic conflation of Eastern religions isn't new; in 1845 Ralph Waldo Emerson called the Bhagavad-Gita (which is Hindu scripture) "the much renowned book of Buddhism."

    The Clash of the Yogis 2010

  • Although the Bhagavad-Gita is a story about war, it is trying to say that every warrior that has died on a battlefield has considered that as a death of honor.

    Buddhism vs. Bhagavad-Gita 2009

  • Far from shoring up a contrast between the secular West and the spiritual East, that is, the Bhagavad-Gita has regularly offered support to critical or heterodox currents within Euro-American culture, whether they regard themselves as rationalistic or Romantic.

    'The Reach of Reason': An Exchange Livingston, Rick 2001

  • The Bhagavad-Gita which is a treatise on Raj Yoga, gives prominence to three aspects of concentration.

    AE in the Irish Theosophist George William Russell 1901

  • Vedic hymns of the Hindus or the profound depth of the philosophic reach of the Upanishads, those sublime “guesses at truth,” or the great excellence of the Bhagavad-Gita which is the gem of all Hindu literature.

    India's Problem, Krishna or Christ 1881

  • I have many more friends who will be reading the New Testament, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Talmud, the Koran, and "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" the way W.C. Fields said he was reading the Bible: this is, looking for loopholes.

    May 21 Rapture: Books We Will (And Won't) Be Reading If The World Really IS Ending Tomorrow (PHOTOS) 2011

  • The Bhagavad-Gita says "a wise person is judged by her actions, not by the fruits of her actions."

    Richard (RJ) Eskow: "Helpless President Lit" - The Latest Trend in Political Tragedy RJ 2011

  • The Bhagavad-Gita says "a wise person is judged by her actions, not by the fruits of her actions."

    Richard (RJ) Eskow: "Helpless President Lit" - The Latest Trend in Political Tragedy RJ 2011

  • Her language is old and reeks of the Bhagavad-Gita.

    Half a Lotus Meg Tuite 2011

  • He began by reading Richard Rhodes's 928-page "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" and then reached out to his collaborator Peter Sellars, who wrote the libretto in part from transcripts of interviews with the famous physicist, as well as the words of Charles Baudelaire, Muriel Rukeyser, and Christopher Isherwood's translation of the Bhagavad-Gita.

    Busting Out of Musical Lockdown Julia Flynn Siler 2011

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