Bhagavad Gita
A complete course through the Gītārtha Saṅgraha with Dr. M.A. Alwar
The text that holds yoga together
The Bhagavad Gita is the most widely read Indian philosophical text in the world — translated into over 70 languages, studied across centuries, and central to the practice of yoga in every tradition that descends from Mysore. Kṛṣṇa’s teaching to Arjuna at the moment of greatest crisis is not peripheral to yoga. It is one of its deepest roots.
The Gita is a complete and systematic teaching on the nature of the self, the purpose of action, the path of devotion, and the meaning of liberation. It addresses questions that practitioners ask every day: Why do I practice? What is the relationship between effort and surrender? How does yoga actually transform the mind? What does liberation mean in ordinary life?
This course offers the Gita as it has been understood within the tradition that produced modern yoga — the unbroken Śrīvaiṣṇava lineage of Mysore, transmitted through Kṛṣṇamācārya’s own param parā, explained by a scholar who has lived inside this text since childhood.
The Gītārtha Saṅgraha — a living framework
This course follows the Gītārtha Saṅgraha, a remarkable 10th-century CE text by Yamunāchārya — one of the great ācāryas of the Nāthamuni paramparā, and a direct predecessor of Rāmānuja.
Yamunāchārya composed the Gītārtha Saṅgraha as a concise philosophical summary of the entire Bhagavad Gita. Each verse is a precise and concentrated statement that unfolds, in study, into a detailed engagement with the corresponding chapters of the Gita itself. The depth contained in each verse is such that serious study can occupy years — this is not a text to be hurried through, but one to be inhabited.
This structured method has been transmitted within this lineage for a thousand years. It is the method through which the tradition itself has always taught the Gita — beginning with the whole, entering the detail, then returning to the whole with new understanding.
Yamunāchārya was a direct predecessor of Rāmānuja in the Nāthamuni paramparā — the same unbroken lineage that produced Kṛṣṇamācārya. To study the Gita through the Gītārtha Saṅgraha is to study it through the eyes through which this lineage has always read it.
Dr. M.A. Alwar
Ācārya, Nāthamuni Sampradāya · Senior Professor, Mahārāja’s Sanskrit College, Mysore
Born in 1972 to U.Ve. Prof. M.A. Lakṣmīthāthāchārya Swami — the Ācārya Puruṣa of the only surviving Svayam Ācārya Puruṣa Paramparā of Śrīvaiṣṇavism — Dr. Alwar has lived inside the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita since childhood. It is not a text he came to through academic study. It is a transmission he received from within the living tradition that has carried it for nearly a millennium.
With over two decades of teaching experience, he is known for exceptional lucidity — making the most demanding philosophical distinctions of Viśiṣṭādvaita accessible to students from any background, without sacrificing their precision or depth.
Dr. Alwar stands in the Nāthamuni Sampradāya — the same unbroken lineage from which Kṛṣṇamācārya himself descended. To study the Bhagavad Gita with him is to receive it through the same philosophical understanding that has guided this paramparā for nearly a millennium.
What the course covers
Following the Gītārtha Saṅgraha, Dr. Alwar leads a complete study of all 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. The course moves verse by verse through Yamunāchārya’s text, each verse opening into a detailed engagement with the corresponding chapters of the Gita itself.
The crisis and the question
Chapters 1–2. Arjuna’s collapse on the battlefield and Kṛṣṇa’s opening response — the nature of the self (ātman), the distinction between the eternal and the perishable, and the first teaching on steadiness of mind.
Action and its freedom
Chapters 3–6. Karma yoga — the yoga of action performed without attachment to results. How the dedicated practitioner acts in the world while remaining inwardly free. The nature of yajña and the relationship between effort and surrender.
Knowledge and devotion
Chapters 7–12. Jñāna yoga and bhakti yoga — the yoga of knowledge and the yoga of devotion. The path of loving surrender as understood within Viśiṣṭādvaita.
The field and the knower
Chapters 13–18. Kṣetra and kṣetrajña — the field of nature and the knower of the field. The three guṇas and the Gita’s final teaching on prapatti as the highest path.
What is included
Every session recorded and available immediately — study at your own pace.
Every session as audio only — the Gita travels well on walks and in transit.
A written summary of each session — read before or after listening.
Your course never expires. The Gita rewards return visits as your understanding deepens.
Certificate of completion issued by Saṃskṛti Foundation, Mysore.
Recognised as Continuing Education for Yoga Alliance registered teachers.
Who this course is for
This course is for practitioners and teachers who feel drawn toward the philosophical world that stands behind their practice. You do not need to read Sanskrit. You do not need a background in Indian philosophy. The course is designed to be entered from wherever you are — the text will meet you there.
It is particularly suited to Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Vinyasa practitioners who have practiced seriously for some years and feel the pull toward a deeper understanding of what yoga is actually for. And to yoga teachers who want to speak about the Gita with genuine understanding — not borrowed quotes, but real comprehension of what the text teaches and why it matters.
It will be of special interest to anyone who has studied the Yoga Sūtras and wants to understand how the Gita extends and deepens that philosophical map. The two texts are the twin pillars of this tradition, and studying them together is how this lineage has always approached them.
Scholarship places available. A limited number of 50% discounted places are offered for Indian citizens. Please reach out directly to enquire.
The lineage behind this course
Kṛṣṇamācārya was a direct descendant of Nāthamuni — the 9th-century Śrīvaiṣṇava ācārya who stands at the root of the paramparā Dr. Alwar now leads. Yamunāchārya, whose Gītārtha Saṅgraha structures this course, was Nāthamuni’s lineage successor and the teacher of Rāmānuja.
When you study the Bhagavad Gita through the Gītārtha Saṅgraha with Dr. Alwar, you are entering a philosophical conversation that has been carried continuously within this lineage for a thousand years — the same conversation that formed Kṛṣṇamācārya and from which the yoga the world now practices emerged.
Enroll today
Start learning immediately. Your course never expires.
Questions first? Reach out directly — I’m happy to help.
Andrew Eppler · andrew@ashtangayogastudio.com
WhatsApp +1 (405) 503-7779
If the course fee presents a genuine difficulty, please reach out. We will find a way. 50% scholarship places available for Indian citizens.
