The Bhagavad Gita has 18 chapters and 700 shlokas in the Gita Press Gorakhpur edition. Each chapter is called a yoga, a discipline, and each takes one step in the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna on the field of Kurukshetra. Below is every chapter with its Sanskrit name, English meaning, verse count and what it teaches.

• Chapters 1–6 · Karma — the discipline of action — From Arjuna's despair to the seat of meditation: who the self is, and how to act without being bound.
• Chapters 7–12 · Bhakti — the discipline of devotion — Who Krishna is: the source of all, the universal form, and the devotion that reaches him most easily.
• Chapters 13–18 · Jnana — the discipline of knowledge — Nature and the self, the three gunas, faith and duty, gathered into the final teaching on liberation.

1. Chapter 1: Arjuna Vishada Yoga — The Yoga of Arjuna's Despair (47 verses)
   On the field of Kurukshetra, Arjuna sees teachers, elders and kinsmen in both armies, is overcome by grief and sets down his bow, refusing to fight. His despair is the question the rest of the Gita answers.
2. Chapter 2: Sankhya Yoga — The Yoga of Knowledge (72 verses)
   Krishna's teaching begins: the self is eternal and is not slain when the body is slain; do your duty without attachment to its fruit. The chapter closes with the marks of the person of steady wisdom, the sthita-prajna (2.55–72), and is often called the Gita in brief.
3. Chapter 3: Karma Yoga — The Yoga of Action (43 verses)
   Why action cannot simply be given up: the world runs on action, so act without attachment, as an offering. The wise act to hold the world together (loka-sangraha), and desire and anger are named as the enemy that clouds knowledge.
4. Chapter 4: Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga — The Yoga of Knowledge and Renunciation of Action (42 verses)
   Krishna reveals that he taught this yoga in ages past and takes birth whenever dharma declines (4.7–8). Action done in knowledge binds no one, and knowledge, learned from a teacher, burns all karma to ash as fire burns wood.
5. Chapter 5: Karma Sannyasa Yoga — The Yoga of Renunciation (29 verses)
   Renouncing action and acting selflessly both lead to the goal, but selfless action is the easier path. The yogi acts while inwardly untouched, seeing the same self in a learned brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste (5.18).
6. Chapter 6: Dhyana Yoga — The Yoga of Meditation (47 verses)
   The practice of meditation: the seat, the posture, moderation in food and sleep, and the steadying of a mind Arjuna calls harder to hold than the wind (6.34). A yogi who falls short is not lost; the effort carries into the next life.
7. Chapter 7: Jnana Vijnana Yoga — The Yoga of Knowledge and Realization (30 verses)
   Krishna as the source of everything: a lower nature of eight elements and a higher nature that is life itself. Among thousands, one strives for perfection (7.3), and four kinds of people seek him: the distressed, the seeker of wealth, the seeker of knowledge and the wise (7.16).
8. Chapter 8: Akshara Brahma Yoga — The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman (28 verses)
   Arjuna asks what Brahman, the self and karma are, and what happens at death. Whatever one remembers at the last moment, that one attains (8.5–6), so remember Krishna always. The chapter ends with the two paths the departing soul may take.
9. Chapter 9: Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga — The Yoga of Royal Knowledge and Royal Secret (34 verses)
   The royal knowledge, the royal secret: all beings rest in Krishna, yet he is not bound by them. Whoever offers a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water with devotion, he accepts (9.26), and no devotee, whatever their birth, is turned away.
10. Chapter 10: Vibhuti Yoga — The Yoga of Divine Glories (42 verses)
    Krishna's divine glories, listed so the mind has somewhere to rest: among the Adityas he is Vishnu, among lights the sun, among rivers the Ganga, among letters the A. Whatever is glorious or mighty is a spark of his splendour (10.41).
11. Chapter 11: Vishvarupa Darshana Yoga — The Yoga of the Vision of the Universal Form (55 verses)
    Given divine sight, Arjuna sees the universal form: all worlds within it, the warriors of both armies rushing into its mouths, and the words I am Time, destroyer of worlds (11.32). Terrified, he asks to see the gentle, familiar form again.
12. Chapter 12: Bhakti Yoga — The Yoga of Devotion (20 verses)
    Arjuna asks which is better, worship of the personal form or of the formless. Krishna answers that the devotee whose mind rests in him is the highest, though the formless path also arrives, more arduously. The chapter ends with the qualities of the devotee he loves (12.13–20).
13. Chapter 13: Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga — The Yoga of the Field and the Knower of the Field (34 verses)
    The body as the field (kshetra) and the self as the knower of the field (kshetrajna). What knowledge really is — humility, non-injury, steadiness, freedom from ego — and the distinction between prakriti, purusha and the Supreme who dwells alike in all beings.
14. Chapter 14: Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga — The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas (27 verses)
    The three gunas of nature — sattva, rajas and tamas — how each binds the embodied self, what each produces in life and after death, and the marks of the one who has gone beyond all three.
15. Chapter 15: Purushottama Yoga — The Yoga of the Supreme Person (20 verses)
    The ashvattha tree with its roots above and branches below, to be felled with the axe of non-attachment. The living self is an eternal fragment of Krishna; beyond the perishable and the imperishable stands the Supreme Person, Purushottama.
16. Chapter 16: Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga — The Yoga of the Divine and Demoniac Natures (24 verses)
    The divine endowment (fearlessness, purity, non-injury, truth) and the demoniac (pride, arrogance, anger, harshness). Desire, anger and greed are the three gates to ruin (16.21), and the scriptures are the measure of what should and should not be done.
17. Chapter 17: Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga — The Yoga of the Threefold Division of Faith (28 verses)
    Faith takes the colour of one's nature, sattvic, rajasic or tamasic, and so do the food one eats, the sacrifice, austerity and charity one performs. The chapter closes on the meaning of Om Tat Sat.
18. Chapter 18: Moksha Sannyasa Yoga — The Yoga of Liberation through Renunciation (78 verses)
    The difference between sannyasa and tyaga, the five causes of every action, and duty according to one's nature. The whole teaching gathers into one verse: take refuge in me alone, and I will free you from all sin, do not grieve (18.66). Arjuna's doubt is gone; he will act (18.73).

Chapter-by-chapter guides

Long-form reading guides for the chapters we have covered so far.

• Chapter 1 · Arjuna Vishada Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 — Arjuna Vishada Yoga: Why the Gita Opens with a Breakdown, Not a Teaching
• Chapter 2 · The Foundation — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 — The Foundation: Soul, Action Without Attachment, and the Sthitaprajna
• Chapter 3 · Karma Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 — Karma Yoga: Why You Must Act, the Wheel of Sacrifice, and Conquering Desire
• Chapter 4 · Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 — Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga: The Avatara Verse Everyone Quotes, the Puzzle of Action in Inaction, and the Twelve Yajnas That End in Knowledge
• Chapter 5 · Karma Sannyasa Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5 — Karma Sannyasa Yoga: Arjuna Asks Whether to Walk Away or Keep Working, and Krishna Answers in One Line
• Chapter 6 · Dhyana Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6 — Dhyana Yoga: Arjuna Says the Mind Cannot Be Held, Krishna Agrees With Him, and Then Gives Him Two Words
• Chapter 7 · Jnana Vijnana Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7 — Jnana Vijnana Yoga: Krishna Names Four Kinds of People Who Come to Him, Including the One Who Comes for Money, and Calls All Four Virtuous
• Chapter 8 · Akshara Brahma Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8 — Akshara Brahma Yoga: Arjuna Asks Seven Questions About Dying, and Krishna Answers Six of Them in Two Verses
• Chapter 9 · Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 — Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga: Krishna Calls This the Easiest Teaching in the Gita, and Then Prices It at a Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit and Water
• Chapter 10 · Vibhuti Yoga — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10 — Vibhuti Yoga: Krishna Spends Twenty Verses Listing What He Is, Including the Gambling of Cheats, and Then Says Knowing the List Was Never the Point