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This reader gathers, verse by verse, what Sri Aurobindo wrote that bears on the Bhagavad Gita. The text of the Gita is the Sanskrit of Anilbaran Roy’s edition, with a transliteration in roman letters, numbered as Sri Aurobindo’s text has it: 701 slokas. Chapter 13 opens with Arjuna’s question (prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva…), which Sri Aurobindo treats as part of the text in “The Field and its Knower” (“Arjuna is therefore made to put a question…”), so the chapter has 35 slokas; chapter 1 follows the usual division into 47 slokas (Anilbaran Roy divides 1.26–37 differently and counts 46). Sri Aurobindo himself nowhere gives sloka numbers for chapter 13.
What is gathered
- His translation of the first six chapters (CWSA 5), set beside each verse of the passage that contains it.
- His renderings: the English he gives of a verse in the course of Essays on the Gita, and the verses he set as mottoes at the head of chapters of The Life Divine.
- Essays on the Gita (CWSA 19): the paragraphs that treat each verse, with the verse marked where it is treated.
- Every other place in his works where a verse is cited, its Sanskrit quoted, its rendering quoted, or the verse alluded to: The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, the essays, the Record of Yoga, the letters, the Bengali writings.
- Text of his printed in the Arya or the SABCL that the CWSA does not carry in the same form, and his letters printed only in his correspondents’ books.
- The evening talks, recorded by those present — always labelled as such, because the words are the recorders’.
- The passages that speak of the Gita as a whole, without a verse.
How each source is labelled
Every passage carries its place: volume, piece, page. Where the English is not his own — the translations of his Bengali writings printed in CWSA 9 — this is said. Anilbaran Roy’s compiled rendering of each verse (from his compilation The Gita) is given as his compilation; the words of it that stand in Sri Aurobindo’s writings are shown in ink and the others in grey, so that what is his can be seen at a glance. His automatic writings of the Record of Yoga period (Yogic Sadhan and the scripts) are included and marked “automatic writing”. The editorial matter of the CWSA (notes on the texts, front matter) is left out.
How the passages were found
The passages were gathered by several independent nets, so that what one misses another catches: the verse references marked in Essays on the Gita; explicit citations (“Gita IV. 7”); the Sanskrit of a verse quoted in any script or spelling; his English renderings quoted elsewhere; the allusions marked in the archive’s lexicon; the Gita terms of the CWSA glossary located on their pages; his translation aligned with the verses passage by passage; short Sanskrit phrases of a verse in any script; and a lexicon of the Gita’s names, persons and doctrine (the three Purushas, the gunas, swadharma, works without desire of the fruit, the Avatar and the Vibhuti, equality, surrender…) run over every passage of every witness, each candidate then read and judged by AI as bearing on the Gita directly, indirectly through its doctrine, or not at all. The gathering and the alignment were done by computer and checked by AI, not by a human editor; the source line always leads back to the text itself.
How each link was checked
Every link between a passage and a verse has a standing, shown on the passage. In the reference table: the curated table of quotations, translations and paraphrases lists this passage for this sloka (the curator’s own entries; the table’s whole-chapter rows do not confirm single slokas). Marked in the Essays: the verse is marked in the paragraph of Essays on the Gita. His translation: the passage of CWSA 5 that renders the verse. Every other link was read by AI against the text of the verse and kept only where something in the passage identifies that sloka (its words quoted in any script, his rendering of it, a citation, or a discussion that points to this sloka and no other): checked by AI. Links where the passage bears on the teaching but nothing identifies this sloka are less certain: they are hidden unless asked for (Settings, or the button above the passages of a verse), and are marked when shown. Links that proved wrong — a common term only, a phrase from another text, a name, a Record of Yoga line that is not this verse — were removed, and links found under the wrong sloka were moved to the right one.
- In the reference table924
- Marked in the Essays664
- His translation (CWSA 5)280
- Checked by AI and kept952
- Moved to another sloka94
- Removed as wrong391
Dates
Each passage carries the date it was written, or for talks the date they were spoken, so that the passages of a verse can be read from the latest to the earliest or the reverse (Settings). The date comes from the text itself wherever it gives one: the day of a Record of Yoga entry, the date printed after a letter, the issue of the Karmayogin or the Arya in which a piece appeared (Essays on the Gita: one chapter an issue, August 1916 to July 1920; the book text was revised later), the date of a recorded talk. Where the CWSA gives a period for a section, that period is shown. Where there is nothing closer, the period of the CWSA volume is shown, marked “(vol.)” and set in a dashed outline, so that a rough date is never taken for a precise one. Hover over a date to see its basis.
Corrections of the source text
The Sanskrit of the verses is that of Anilbaran Roy’s edition as transcribed. Forty-seven evident misprints of the transcription (for instance nāntyaṁ for nānyaṁ in 14.19, madbhagataprāṇā for madgataprāṇā in 10.9, tavāṁ for tvāṁ in chapter 11) were found by AI proofreading against the standard text and corrected; each verse so corrected says so under its text.
The AI-synthesised translation
Each verse also carries a translation made by AI, labelled AI wherever it appears. It is not Sri Aurobindo’s text. The manner of his renderings in Essays on the Gita was first set down as a style guide from his own renderings; then every verse was rendered from the Sanskrit with all the materials gathered here. Where Anilbaran Roy’s compiled rendering was exact, complete and in his voice it was approved; otherwise the verse was rendered anew, using his own words wherever they exist, and a note gives the reasons. On each verse, and in “His Gita” read in the AI translation, “Changes from Anilbaran Roy” shows the difference word by word: his words left out struck through, the new words underlined; Settings can make this the default.
In numbers
- Verses with a passage of his683 of 701
- Passages gathered3,796
- Links from passages to verses6,192
- Compiled renderings wholly in his words · partly · not found274 · 233 · 194
