New Testament track · step 6 of 6 · ← matching OT step
New Testament · Step 6 · Paths of love and service
The Bhagavad Gita: love, service and the New Testament
Step 5 asked what it means to abide in the divine. The Bhagavad Gita’s answer is practical: love God wholeheartedly (bhakti) and work without craving the results (karma yoga). The New Testament also ends its path in love and service. This page sets the two side by side. It quotes the texts first, keeps interpretation in Reflection boxes, and reports what scholars have said about the parallels.
Translations used
- K. T. Telang (1882): The Bhagavadgîtâ, Sacred Books of the East vol. 8. This is a prose translation in the public domain. sacred-texts.com. Telang does not number verses. The verse numbers here are the standard ones. Footnote numbers and page markers in the online text are omitted from the quotations.
- Edwin Arnold (1885): The Song Celestial, a verse paraphrase in the public domain. Project Gutenberg #2388. Yogananda recommended it: “The most poetical English translation is Edwin Arnold’s THE SONG CELESTIAL” (Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 1, note; source). Arnold is freer than Telang, so both are shown where the wording matters.
- Bible verses are KJV, with links to compare YLT, NRSVue, ESV and NIV.
The Gita’s teaching on māyā, the divine power that hides and reveals (7.14, 7.25, 4.6), is set beside Paul’s “things which are not seen” on a side page: Maya and the unseen.
1. Bhakti: the path of devotion
Gita
Chapter 12 is the Gita’s chapter on devotion. Krishna begins with the whole heart:
“Place your mind on me only; fix your understanding on me. In me you will dwell hereafter, (there is) no doubt.”— Gita 12.8, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
The chapter ends by describing the devotee Krishna loves. The marks are moral, not ecstatic:
“That devotee of mine, who hates no being, who is friendly and compassionate, who is free from egoism, and from (the idea that this or that is) mine, to whom happiness and misery are alike, who is forgiving, contented, constantly devoted, self-restrained, and firm in his determinations, and whose mind and understanding are devoted to me, he is dear to me.”— Gita 12.13–14, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
Chapter 9 says that even the smallest gift, given with love, is enough, and that the devotee and God dwell in each other:
“To those men who worship me, meditating on me and on no one else, and who are constantly devoted, I give new gifts and preserve what is acquired by them.”— Gita 9.22, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Whoever with devotion offers me leaf, flower, fruit, water, that, presented with devotion, I accept from him whose self is pure. Whatever you do, O son of Kuntî! whatever you eat, whatever sacrifice you make, whatever you give, whatever penance you perform, do that as offered to me.”— Gita 9.26–27, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Whoso shall offer Me in faith and love
A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water poured forth,
That offering I accept, lovingly made
With pious will. Whate'er thou doest, Prince!
Eating or sacrificing, giving gifts,
Praying or fasting, let it all be done
For Me, as Mine.”— Gita 9.26–27, tr. Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885) · source
“I am alike to all beings; to me none is hateful, none dear. But those who worship me with devotion (dwell) in me, and I too in them.”— Gita 9.29, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Even if a very ill-conducted man worships me, not worshipping any one else, he must certainly be deemed to be good, for he has well resolved. He soon becomes devout of heart, and obtains lasting tranquillity. (You may) affirm, O son of Kuntî! that my devotee is never ruined.”— Gita 9.30–31, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
The Gita’s “last word” (18.65–66) gathers all of this into one appeal:
“On me (place) your mind, become my devotee, sacrifice to me, reverence me, you will certainly come to me. I declare to you truly, you are dear to me. Forsaking all duties, come to me as (your) sole refuge. I will release you from all sins. Be not grieved.”— Gita 18.65–66, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Give Me thy heart! adore Me! serve Me! cling
In faith and love and reverence to Me!
So shalt thou come to Me! I promise true,
For thou art sweet to Me!
And let go those—
Rites and writ duties! Fly to Me alone!
Make Me thy single refuge! I will free
Thy soul from all its sins! Be of good cheer!”— Gita 18.65–66, tr. Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885) · source
Sri Ramakrishna summed up the Gita with a pun:
“What is the significance of the Gita? It is what you find by repeating the word ten times. It is then reversed into 'tagi', which means a person who has renounced everything for God.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 3 · source
New Testament
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”— Matthew 22:37-40, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”— 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”— 1 Corinthians 13:13, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“Charity” in the KJV translates Greek agapē; NRSVue, ESV and NIV all read “love” (use the compare links).
Resemblance. Both texts put wholehearted love of God first and test it by how a person treats others. Gita 12.13–14 (“hates no being … friendly and compassionate … free from egoism … forgiving”) reads like a companion to 1 Corinthians 13 (“kind … envieth not … seeketh not her own … not easily provoked”). In both, love shows up as freedom from self-concern rather than as a feeling.
Difference. Jesus pairs love of God with love of neighbour as a second, equal commandment. The Gita’s devotee is “friendly and compassionate” to all, but its central relationship is between the devotee and Krishna. Paul’s hymn also never names God; it describes love itself. Each text has its own centre of gravity.
2. Karma yoga: the path of selfless service
Gita
“Your business is with action alone; not by any means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be your motive (to action). Let not your attachment be (fixed) on inaction.”— Gita 2.47, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Therefore always perform action, which must be performed, without attachment. For a man, performing action without attachment, attains the Supreme.”— Gita 3.19, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Dedicating all actions to me with a mind knowing the relation of the supreme and individual self, engage in battle without desire, without (any feeling that this or that is) mine, and without any mental trouble.”— Gita 3.30, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“He who, casting off (all) attachment, performs actions dedicating them to Brahman, is not tainted by sin, as the lotus-leaf (is not tainted) by water.”— Gita 5.10, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
Ramakrishna gave the same advice to the reformer Vidyasagar, who ran schools and relief work:
“It is very good if you can perform them in a selfless spirit, renouncing egotism, giving up the idea that you are the doer. Through such action one develops love and devotion to God, and ultimately realizes Him.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 3 · source
New Testament
“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”— John 13:14-15, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”— Mark 10:45, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”— Matthew 6:3-4, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”— Luke 17:10, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”— Luke 22:42, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Resemblance. “Your business is with action alone; not … with fruit” and “not my will, but thine” both ask for action with the self taken out of the motive. Matthew 6 (“let not thy left hand know”) and Luke 17:10 (“we have done that which was our duty”) make the same point about not claiming credit. Gita 3.30 (“dedicating all actions to me”) and Gethsemane both hand the outcome to God.
Difference. Gethsemane is a prayer under anguish, and Jesus asks for the cup to pass before he yields. The Gita asks for equanimity (“without any mental trouble”). The settings differ sharply too. Krishna is urging a warrior to fight a just war; Jesus washes feet and goes to the cross without resisting. Many readers take the Gita’s battle as an allegory of inner struggle. This site notes that reading but does not assume it.
3. Further parallels
Mutual indwelling: Gita 9.29 and John 15
“But those who worship me with devotion (dwell) in me, and I too in them.”— Gita 9.29, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”— John 15:4-5, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”— John 14:20, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
The grammar is almost the same: “in me, and I too in them” and “in me, and I in you.” Both link indwelling to love and devotion rather than to knowledge alone. This is the strongest verbal parallel on the page. It also connects Step 6 back to Step 3 (Unity) and Step 5 (Abiding).
The sole refuge: Gita 18.66 and Matthew 11:28
“Forsaking all duties, come to me as (your) sole refuge. I will release you from all sins. Be not grieved.”— Gita 18.66, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”— Matthew 11:28-30, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Both are invitations spoken in the first person by the divine figure: come to me, and I will release you or give you rest. Both promise relief from burden (“sins”, “heavy laden”) and both end in comfort (“Be not grieved”; “rest unto your souls”). The Gita’s “forsaking all duties” (Arnold: “Rites and writ duties!”) loosely echoes the New Testament’s contrast between an easy yoke and burdensome law. Hindu commentators debate what “all duties” means, and Christian readers will hear grace in Matthew 11 in a way the Gita does not frame it.
Divine descent: Gita 4.7–8, John 1:14 and Philippians 2
“Whensoever, O descendant of Bharata! piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself. I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety.”— Gita 4.7–8, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“When Righteousness
Declines, O Bharata! when Wickedness
Is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take
Visible shape, and move a man with men,
Succouring the good, thrusting the evil back,
And setting Virtue on her seat again.”— Gita 4.7–8, tr. Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885) · source
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”— John 1:14, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”— Philippians 2:5-8, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Resemblance. Both describe the divine taking a human form for the sake of the world (Arnold: “move a man with men”; John: “dwelt among us”).
Difference. This is where scholars urge the most care. Krishna’s descent is repeated (“age after age”) and its purpose is to restore righteousness and destroy evil-doers. The New Testament presents the incarnation as unique and once for all, and Philippians stresses self-emptying, servanthood and death, not victory over the wicked. Geoffrey Parrinder’s Avatar and Incarnation (below) is a book-length comparison of exactly this pair of ideas.
The cosmic vision: Gita 11, Revelation 1 and the Transfiguration
“If in the heavens, the lustre of a thousand suns burst forth all at once, that would be like the lustre of that mighty one.”— Gita 11.12, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“If there should rise
Suddenly within the skies
Sunburst of a thousand suns
Flooding earth with beams undeemed-of,
Then might be that Holy One's
Majesty and radiance dreamed of!”— Gita 11.12, tr. Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885) · source
“And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:”— Revelation 1:16-17, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”— Matthew 17:2, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
All three describe the divine figure shining like the sun, and in Gita 11 and Revelation 1 the seer is overwhelmed (Arjuna’s “hair standing on end”; John falling “as dead”). In both, the vision ends with reassurance and a return to the familiar form: Krishna says “Be not alarmed” (Telang, 11.49) and takes again his “mild, human form” (11.51), and Jesus lays a hand on John and says “Fear not.” See Step 4 for the Transfiguration in full. The content differs: Arjuna sees the whole universe inside Krishna’s body, and Krishna declares “I am death, the destroyer of the worlds” (Telang, 11.32), while John sees the risen Christ among lampstands.
4. What scholars have said
Western interest in Gita–Gospel parallels began with a claim of borrowing. Scholarship has since moved to comparison without borrowing. Each item below is cited only as far as its source could be checked. Paraphrase is marked.
The borrowing debate (1869–1914)
Franz Lorinser, Die Bhagavad-Gîtâ (Breslau, 1869), archive.org scan, argued that the Gita’s author knew the New Testament. B. G. Tilak’s Gita Rahasya summarises the claim and the reply:
“Dr. Laurincer has drawn the conclusion that the writer of the Gītā knew about the Bible; and he has said that the Gītā must have been written about 500 years after the Bible.”— B. G. Tilak, Gita Rahasya, Appendix (English tr.) · source
“the late Mr. Telang has, in the introduction to his versified translation of the Bhagavadgītā, fully refuted that argument”— Tilak, same page (Telang’s 1875 verse translation, not the 1882 prose version quoted above) · source
A German review of Lorinser, translated in the Indian Antiquary, was cautious at the time:
“the proof has not yet been adduced that in the Bhagavad Gita we have a piece of Christianity translated into the form of Indian conceptions.”— “On Dr. Lorinser’s Bhagavad Gita and Christian writings”, Indian Antiquary (wisdomlib transcription, not yet proofread) · source
Richard Garbe (Tübingen) is best known for arguing that the Gita’s theistic verses were original and its Vedantic verses were added later. The Deutsche Biographie says modern Indology no longer accepts that thesis, though it stimulated research. It adds that his Indien und das Christentum (1914) brought the long India–Christianity debates back “auf ihr Normalmaß” (“to their normal proportions”; this site’s translation) (Deutsche Biographie; see also Who Was Who in Indology).
Comparison without borrowing (20th century)
Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine monk who lived in India, wrote a full Christian commentary on the Gita, River of Compassion (1987). He states the modern consensus plainly:
“I do not intend to suggest that there was any Christian influence in the composition of the Bhagavad Gita — a view which is now generally rejected — or that there is anything specifically Christian about it.”— Bede Griffiths, River of Compassion: A Christian Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, Introduction · source
- Geoffrey Parrinder, Avatar and Incarnation (Wilde Lectures, Oxford; Faber, 1970): a comparative study of the Hindu avatar and the Christian incarnation, as its title and subtitle state (catalogue record).
- R. C. Zaehner, The Bhagavad-Gītā, with a Commentary Based on the Original Sources (Clarendon Press, 1969): a full scholarly translation and commentary by an Oxford Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics (Google Books record).
- Eric J. Sharpe, The Universal Gita: Western Images of the Bhagavadgita (Duckworth / Open Court, 1985): a survey of English translations that traces how Romantic readings of the Gita developed in the West and how Christian missionaries often misunderstood it (overview).
- Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Hindu God, Christian God (Oxford University Press, 2001): Christian and Hindu theologies read side by side on themes including divine embodiment (OUP).
These works are described from their catalogue records and publisher pages. They are not quoted because their texts could not be checked online.
Where this leaves a reader. The borrowing theory is not accepted today. Griffiths calls it “now generally rejected,” and Garbe’s biographer credits him with cutting the debate down to size. What remains is the more interesting fact that two unrelated traditions, at their devotional heights, describe love of God, unselfish work, mutual indwelling and a divine refuge in strikingly similar words. Scholars such as Parrinder and Clooney show that the differences (one incarnation or many; grace or discipline; a cross or a battlefield) matter as much as the likenesses. For a practitioner, both texts point the same way at the end of the path: the measure of what was realised in meditation is how one loves and serves.
Not used (could not be verified)
- Paramahansa Yogananda, God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita (Self-Realization Fellowship, 1995): in copyright, with no authorised online text to check. Not quoted or paraphrased.
- Catherine Cornille’s work on interreligious dialogue: no passage on the Gita could be checked, so it is not cited.
- Garbe’s own Gita chapter in Indien und das Christentum: not read directly. Garbe is cited only through the reference works above.
Eastern perspective · Upanishads · Gita
Love in the Upanishads: where the Gita’s bhakti comes from
The Gita’s devotion did not appear from nowhere. Late Upanishads already use the word bhakti, and the Brihadaranyaka explains all love as love of the one Self in the beloved.
“Lo, verily, not for love of the husband is a husband dear, but for love of the Soul (Ātman) a husband is dear. Lo, verily, not for love of the wife is a wife dear, but for love of the Soul a wife is dear.”— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.5, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“To him who has the highest devotion (bhakti) for God, And for his spiritual teacher (guru) even as for God, To him these matters which have been declared Become manifest [if he be] a great soul (mahātman)”— Shvetashvatara Upanishad 6.23, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“And whoso thus
Discerneth Me in all, and all in Me,
I never let him go; nor looseneth he
Hold upon Me;”— Gita 6.30, tr. Edwin Arnold (1885) · source
Yajnavalkya’s teaching to his wife Maitreyi says that whatever we love, we are loving the Self in it. Read beside 1 John 4 (“every one that loveth is born of God”), it suggests why the two great commandments belong together: if God is in the neighbour, love of one is love of the other. This pairing is interpretation.
Where the traditions differ
Yajnavalkya’s point can be read as Self-knowledge (Advaita) rather than devotion; the Gita and Ramanuja make it personal love for a personal Lord. In the New Testament love is first God’s act (“not that we loved God, but that he loved us”), not a discovery of a shared Self.
Light thread
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”— 1 John 1:5, KJV · source
“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”— Malachi 4:2, KJV · source