From Babaji’s book ‘Bhagavad Gītā’ —

Bhagavad Gītā has eighteen chapters, and each is designated as a type of yoga.

The word yoga has many different meanings. In the Gītā it is used principally in the sense of the means undertaken to accomplish or to be united with one’s goal. Therefore, the word yoga can also be translated as “path,” as has been done here especially in the chapter titles.

There are primarily three different types of yoga, namely, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga. When we employ karma, or selfless action, for uniting with or reaching our goal, it is called karma-yoga. Similarly, when we cultivate jñāna, or the intuitive insight of our conscious identity with the Absolute, it is called jñāna-yoga. When bhakti, or devotion, is adopted as the means of attaining unity in love, it is called bhakti-yoga. In the case of the latter, bhakti is not only the means but also the goal.

The eighteen chapters of the Gītā can be grouped into three sets of six chapters each.

The first set focuses predominantly on karma-yoga, the second set on bhakti-yoga, and the third on jñāna-yoga. But to some extent all three topics can be found throughout all the chapters. The first chapter is introductory and doesn’t outline any specific yoga. It is titled “The Path through Despondency” (Visāda-yoga), because it describes Arjuna’s dejected mental-emotional state after he surveys the armies on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. It can be considered as a yoga, or transformational means, only in the sense that dejection itself, when it leads to self-inquiry, becomes the basis of authentic practice. In the state of dejection, one’s ordinary absorption in materialistic pursuits is slackened, and thus deliberation on God becomes a distinct possibility.

In Chapter 2, the main topic is sāṅkhya-yoga, a type of analytic jñāna-yoga. This chapter is interspersed with instructions on karma-yoga. Chapter 3 deals mainly with karma-yoga. Chapter 4 describes karma-yoga culminating in jñāna-yoga, and Chapter 5 explains how the end result of karma-yoga and jñāna-yoga is the same; thus, the wise person sees no difference between them. Chapter 6 mainly delineates dhyāna-yoga, popularly known as rāja-yoga, although there is also some description of karma-yoga in the beginning. Dhyāna-yoga, which can be subsumed under jñānayoga, is the yoga of meditation.

In Bhagavad Gītā, both karma-yoga and jñāna-yoga are described as combined with bhakti-yoga. This is a special feature of the Gītā, that it describes every yoga as interpenetrated by bhakti-yoga.

Thus, the first six chapters of the Gītā focus more on karma-yoga.

The second six chapters offer an elaborate exposition of bhakti-yoga. In Chapter 7, Śrī Kṛṣṇa explains that He is the source of the cosmos and that everything manifests from Him. Those who surrender to Him can transcend the bondage of the material world. Consequently, a person who is truly wise takes shelter of Him, knowing that everything is a manifestation of Him. In Chapter 8, Śrī Kṛṣṇa explains the process of attaining liberation through meditation on His sound representation in the form of ‘Om’. He also speaks of the path of darkness, which leads to heaven, and the path of light, which culminates in liberation.

In Chapter 9, He resumes the topic of His manifestation in the material cosmos, which He began in Chapter 7. He concludes the chapter with the recommendation to adhere to the path of bhakti. In Chapter 10, He describes the process of meditation on the phenomenal objects of His majesty as manifest in the universe. In Chapter 11, there is the account of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s revelation of His cosmic form to Arjuna. Chapter 12 is spoken in response to Arjuna’s question as to which form of meditation is superior — on the unqualified Absolute or on the Absolute qualified by form. From this starting point, Śrī Kṛṣṇa goes on to explain the process of bhakti and describes the characteristics of His devotees.

In the last group of six chapters, it is predominantly jñāna-yoga that is described. Chapter 13 defines the psycho-somatic organism as a field (kṣetra) and consciousness as the knower of the field (kṣetrajña). Śrī Kṛṣṇa also explains that He is the real knower of all fields whatsoever, and that everything in this material world is the combination of matter and consciousness. Chapter 14 describes the three guṇas of primordial nature. Chapter 15 describes the Supreme Person in His feature of immanence. Chapter 16 describes both the divine and ungodly attributes that are born of conditional nature. Chapter 17 explains the three divisions of faith, food, sacrifice ( yajña), charity, and penance, all in accordance with the guṇas of nature.

In Chapter 18, the final chapter, Śrī Kṛṣṇa provides a summary and the final conclusion of His teachings. Although this chapter refers to all three yogas, it ends with a strong recommendation in favor of bhakti-yoga.