Bhagavad Gita (from Sanskrit Bhagavadgita ‘song of the blessed one/exalted lord’), Hindu devotional poem composed and edited between the fifth century B.C. and the second century A.D. It contains eighteen chapters and seven hundred verses, and forms the sixth book (Chapters 23– 40) of the Indian epic Mahabharata. In its narrative, the warrior Arjuna, reluctantly waiting to wage war, receives a revelation from the Lord Krishna that emphasizes selfless deeds and bhakti, or devotion. Strictly classified as smrti or fallible tradition, the Gita is typically treated as shruti or infallible revelation. Such major thinkers as Shankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva wrote commentaries on this beloved book. Shankara reads it as teaching that enlightenment comes through right (Advaita Vedanta) knowledge alone even without performance of religious duties. Ramanuja takes it to hold that enlightenment comes through performance of religious duties, particularly devotion to God for whose sake alone all other duties must be performed if one’s sins are to be washed away. Such devotion leads to (or at its zenith includes) self-knowledge and knowledge of personal Brahman. Madhva sees the Gita as emphasizing divine uniqueness and the necessity of love and attachment to God and not to oneself or the consequences of one’s deeds. K.E.Y.