Bhagavad Gītā
A complete course through the Gītārtha Saṅgraha · Dr. M.A. Alwarśreyān svadharmo viguṇaḥ paradharmāt svanūṣṭhitāt
Bhagavad Gītā 3.35 — Better is one’s own duty, imperfectly performed…The text that holds yoga together
The Bhagavad Gītā 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 Gītā 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 Gītā as it has been understood within the tradition that produced modern yoga — the unbroken Śrīvaiṣṇava lineage of Mysore, transmitted through Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya's own paramparā, 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 Yamunācārya — one of the great ācāryas of the Nāthamuni paramparā, and a direct predecessor of Rāmānuja.
Yamunācārya composed the Gītārtha Saṅgraha as a concise philosophical summary of the entire Bhagavad Gītā. Each verse is a precise and concentrated statement that unfolds, in study, into a detailed engagement with the corresponding chapters of the Gītā 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 Gītā — beginning with the whole, entering the detail, then returning to the whole with new understanding.
Yamunācārya was a direct predecessor of Rāmānuja in the Nāthamuni paramparā — the same unbroken lineage that produced Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya. To study the Gītā through the Gītārtha Saṅgraha is to study it through the eyes through which this lineage has always read it.
Dr. M.A. Alwar
Senior Professor, Mahārāja's Sanskrit College, Mysore · Scholar in the Nāthamuni SampradāyaDr. Alwar was born in 1972 into the household of U.Ve. Prof. M.A. Lakṣmīthāthācārya Swami — the Ācārya Puruṣa of the only surviving Svayam Ācārya Puruṣa Paramparā of Śrīvaiṣṇavism. He grew up inside the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gītā, not as a text approached through academic study but as a living transmission received from within the 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.
To study the Bhagavad Gītā with Dr. Alwar is to receive it through a scholar formed entirely within the Nāthamuni Sampradāya — the same paramparā from which Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya descended, carrying forward the philosophical understanding that has guided this lineage for nearly a thousand years.
What the course covers
Following the Gītārtha Saṅgraha, Dr. Alwar leads a complete study of all 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gītā. The course moves verse by verse through Yamunācārya's text, each verse opening into a detailed engagement with the corresponding chapters of the Gītā itself.
The crisis and the question
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
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
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
Kṣetra and kṣetrajña — the field of nature and the knower of the field. The three guṇas and the Gītā'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 Gītā travels well on walks and in transit.
A written summary of each session — read before or after listening.
Your course never expires. The Gītā 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 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 Gītā 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 Gītā 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
Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya was a direct descendant of Nāthamuni — the 9th-century Śrīvaiṣṇava ācārya who stands at the root of this paramparā. Yamunācārya, whose Gītārtha Saṅgraha structures this course, was Nāthamuni's lineage successor and the teacher of Rāmānuja.
When you study the Bhagavad Gītā 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 Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya, and from which the yoga the world now practices emerged.
Enrol 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.
The Bhagavad Gītā, the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, and the Sankhya Kārikā together form the philosophical foundation of yoga practice. The Sankhya Kārikā supplies the metaphysics Patañjali assumes throughout the Sūtras — puruṣa and prakṛti, the three guṇas, the path to kaivalya — without which much of the Yoga Sūtras remains opaque. Studied together these three texts give the practitioner the complete philosophical world from which the yoga we now practice emerged. All three courses include video, audio, and written notes with permanent access.
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