Bhagavad Gita Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. How does the Bhagavad Gita generally relate the paths of disciplined action, knowledge, and devotion?
It presents them as connected approaches that can support spiritual realization
It teaches that only intellectual knowledge has lasting value
It rejects action and devotion in favor of physical austerity alone
It treats them as mutually hostile systems that cannot be combined
2. A difficult responsibility genuinely belongs to someone’s role, while a more appealing task belongs to another person’s role. Which choice best reflects the Gita’s teaching on svadharma?
Take the other person’s duty because it feels more attractive
Choose whichever duty brings greater public recognition
Avoid both duties until certainty removes every difficulty
Perform one’s own duty imperfectly rather than imitate another’s duty well
3. A person of steady wisdom receives praise without craving it and criticism without collapsing. Which description best matches the Gita’s ideal?
A person who has stopped making all decisions
A person who remains inwardly steady amid pleasure and pain
A person whose peace depends on being admired
A person who hides every feeling from other people
4. Someone remains composed through temporary comfort and discomfort instead of being ruled by either. Which Gita principle is most directly reflected?
Seeking pleasure as proof of spiritual progress
Avoiding every situation that may cause emotion
Equanimity amid changing sensory experiences
Treating physical experience as permanently fixed
5. What most directly leads Arjuna to seek Krishna’s guidance at the beginning of the dialogue?
He cannot remember the military formation he was assigned
He wants Krishna to predict which army will win
He is distressed by the prospect of fighting relatives, teachers, and companions
He has decided to leave the battlefield to become a king elsewhere
6. A person performs necessary work carefully but does not make personal reward the sole reason for acting. Which teaching does this most closely illustrate?
Intellectual study without participation in worldly duties
Withdrawal from every social responsibility
Ritual action performed mainly to secure prosperity
Karma yoga, or disciplined action without attachment to its fruits
7. On which battlefield does the Bhagavad Gita’s dialogue take place?
Lanka
Kurukshetra
Panchavati
Prayaga
8. Near the end of the dialogue, after giving his teaching, what does Krishna tell Arjuna to do?
Reflect fully on the teaching and then act as he chooses
Withdraw immediately, regardless of what he has understood
Ask another warrior to make the final choice for him
Obey without reflecting because questioning is forbidden
9. During meditation, a person notices that the mind has wandered. What response most closely follows Krishna’s instruction?
End the practice because wandering proves meditation is impossible
Follow each thought until it naturally reaches a conclusion
Repeatedly bring the mind back under steady direction
Replace meditation with constant physical activity
10. What role does Krishna hold beside Arjuna during the battlefield dialogue?
Commander of the opposing army
Arjuna’s charioteer and spiritual guide
Neutral messenger between both armies
Priest conducting a victory ritual
11. How is the symbolic ashvattha tree described in Chapter 15?
As growing from the battlefield and bearing weapons as fruit
As having no roots and representing complete nonexistence
As standing beneath the ocean with branches above the clouds
As having roots above and branches below
12. How many chapters are traditionally contained in the Bhagavad Gita?
12
18
24
16
13. A student works with clarity, calmness, balance, and a sincere desire to understand. Which guna is most prominent in this description?
Sattva
Rajas
Tamas
Ahamkara
14. In Chapter 13, the distinction between kshetra and kshetrajna is primarily a distinction between what?
The field, including the body, and the knower of the field
Right action and forbidden action
Sacred ritual and ordinary work
The battlefield and the kingdom being contested
15. Why does Krishna grant Arjuna divine sight before revealing the universal form?
To help Arjuna see distant movements elsewhere on the battlefield
To allow Arjuna to read sacred verses written in the sky
Because Arjuna has temporarily become physically blind
Because ordinary human vision is inadequate for beholding that cosmic manifestation
16. According to the Gita’s teaching on action, what most strongly binds a person to the results of work?
Using practical skill while completing a task
Choosing work that benefits other people
Attachment to outcomes and identification with being the sole doer
Reflecting before deciding how to act