The Bhagavad Gita is the most famous, but it is one of many gītās - "songs" of spiritual instruction set as dialogues - woven through the Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Each takes the same form: a realised teacher answers a sincere seeker, and the conversation becomes scripture. Together they show how the one teaching is sung again and again in different voices - Shiva to Parvati, the Devi to the gods, Rama to Lakshmana, a butcher to a proud monk.
Lord Shiva → Goddess Parvati
Source: Skanda Purana (Uttara Khanda)
The nature and supreme glory of the Guru - that the guru is not a person but the very principle of grace through which the Self is recognised. Chanted daily in many ashrams.
★ The foundational text on guru-tattva; ~182 verses in the common recension.
The Goddess (Bhuvaneshwari) → the gods & King Himalaya
Source: Devi Bhagavata Purana (Book 7)
The Shakta vision of the Absolute as the Divine Mother - non-dual (Advaita) but personal: she is Brahman, the world is her play, and devotion + knowledge of her grants liberation. Includes her teaching on yoga and her own worship.
★ The Shakta counterpart to the Bhagavad Gita.
Lord Shiva → Sri Rama
Source: Padma Purana (Uttara Khanda)
Shiva appears to Rama, grieving for Sita, and teaches him the nature of the Self, devotion, and the means to liberation - the Shaiva parallel to Krishna teaching Arjuna.
Sri Rama → Lakshmana
Source: Adhyatma Ramayana (Uttara Kanda)
Rama, as the supreme teacher, expounds pure Advaita to Lakshmana - the identity of the individual self with Brahman, and jnana as the direct means to moksha.
Lord Ganesha (as Gajanana) → King Varenya
Source: Ganesha Purana (Krida Khanda)
A Ganapatya reworking of the Gita's teaching - karma, jnana and bhakti yoga taught by Ganesha; many verses parallel the Bhagavad Gita closely.
Sage Ribhu → his disciple Nidagha
Source: Shiva Rahasya (and the Tamil rendering by Bhikshu Sastrigal)
Among the most uncompromising statements of Advaita ever sung - relentlessly affirming "All is Brahman; I am That" until the mind dissolves in it.
★ A favourite of Sri Ramana Maharshi, who had it read aloud at his ashram.
Sri Krishna → Uddhava
Source: Srimad Bhagavata Purana (Book 11)
Krishna's final teaching before leaving the world - sometimes called the "last message of Krishna" - on detachment, bhakti, the avadhuta's 24 gurus, and the path beyond the Bhagavad Gita.
★ Covered in detail on the Krishna-lila page.
Read more →A righteous butcher → the monk Kaushika
Source: Mahabharata (Vana Parva)
A humble butcher who has perfected his duty teaches a proud brahmin ascetic that doing one's own dharma with devotion - however lowly the work - is a higher path than renunciation without wisdom. Vivekananda loved this teaching.
★ The original "your work is your worship" lesson.
