{"id":25857,"date":"2021-01-30T20:32:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T00:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=25857"},"modified":"2021-02-05T15:44:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T19:44:14","slug":"bhagavad-gita-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who are The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> characters? Why are they important in the story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> is told as a story within a story. The story begins with Sanjaya recounting a vision to a king, Dhritarashtra. The story he tells is about a prince, Arjuna, and the god Krishna. Each of The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> characters has an important role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> characters and what they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> Characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are four The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> characters. The four characters in the story are each necessary and important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arjuna <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first of The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> characters is Prince Arjuna. Prince Arjuna leads the Pandavas\u2019 army. His chariot is driven by Sri Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who has taken a mortal form in The Bhagavad Gita<\/em>. Krishna has been Arjuna\u2019s friend and advisor throughout his life, but he can\u2019t fight this battle. Leading the army is Arjuna\u2019s dharma\u2014his duty and destiny.<\/strong> Krishna is only there to support him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: \u201cSri,\u201d sometimes spelled \u201cShri,\u201d is a term of respect that doesn\u2019t have a direct translation.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Arjuna sees that the fighting\u2019s about to start, he asks Krishna to drive his chariot in between the two armies so that he can take a closer look at his enemies. When he sees the people in the Kauravas\u2019 army, he recognizes many of them as his own family and friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arjuna is overcome with despair. He tells Krishna that he doesn\u2019t want to fight against his own family, and that his family fighting within itself will lead to chaos in the kingdom. He also says that there are great heroes and respected scholars on the other side, and Arjuna questions how he could ever live with himself if he killed them in battle. Arjuna says that it would be better to lay down his weapons and let the Kauravas kill him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Prince Arjuna leads the Pandavas\u2019 army. His chariot is driven by Sri Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who has taken a mortal form in The Bhagavad Gita<\/em>. Krishna has been Arjuna\u2019s friend and advisor throughout his life, but he can\u2019t fight this battle. Leading the army is Arjuna\u2019s dharma\u2014his duty and destiny.<\/strong> Krishna is only there to support him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna explains that temporary things shouldn\u2019t be considered real. Pain and pleasure, heat and cold, and even life and death are temporary.<\/strong> Similarly, the temporary bodies of the men Arjuna will fight against aren\u2019t real; their true selves are eternal and immutable, and change bodies as a living person changes clothes. Knowing that, Krishna asks rhetorically, how can Arjuna kill or be killed by them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who understand the difference between the real and the illusory will remain calm in any situation, unaffected by either hard times or good times. Such people have taken a key step toward breaking the cycle of reincarnation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if Arjuna can\u2019t currently separate his ideas of the temporary bodies from the true souls that inhabit them, Krishna points out that death and rebirth happen to everyone. These men will die whether or not Arjuna kills them, and there\u2019s no point in mourning the inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arjuna is awed by everything that Krishna has told him. Over the course of this conversation, Krishna has guided him from being a short-sighted warrior prince, concerned only with the battle in front of him, to someone who\u2019s ready to begin the true spiritual work of breaking free from karma<\/a> and reincarnation by devoting himself to Vishnu. However, Arjuna is still a practical person who needs to see things in order to fully grasp them. He begs Krishna to reveal his true, immortal self: the master of all creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna agrees, promising to show Arjuna his countless forms, a sight that the greatest sages and mystics have longed to see but have never been allowed to. However, Krishna warns Arjuna that he won\u2019t be able to see this vision with his eyes; instead, Krishna grants him spiritual sight<\/a> that can perceive the true form of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arjuna then sees a being who shines like a thousand suns all rising together. Krishna\u2019s true self<\/a> has an infinite number of faces overseeing the entire universe. He carries countless weapons in countless hands as symbols of his limitless power. Within Krishna\u2019s body, Arjuna sees the form of every object that has ever existed merged into one. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arjuna is completely overwhelmed and falls to his knees. He tries to tell Krishna what he is seeing. He sees the god Brahma sitting on a lotus flower, all of the ancient sages, and mythical monsters. The entire universe makes up God\u2019s body, which has infinite mouths, stomachs, arms, and eyes. The being wears a crown and gleams with heavenly jewels. The light that radiates from its body warms everything that exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanjaya<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another one of The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> characters is Sanjaya. The Bhagavad Gita <\/em>is framed as a story-within-a-story. Sanjaya, an advisor to king Dhritarashtra, is having a vision of the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna and telling the king what he sees.<\/strong> This is possible because Sanjaya has been blessed with the gift of divine sight, so he\u2019s able to see everything that happens at Kurukshetra as if he were there in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanjaya\u2019s Prediction<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sanjaya, who has been observing Arjuna and Krishna\u2019s conversation and reporting what he hears to king Dhritarashtra, says that he is overwhelmed and overjoyed to have heard the divine mysteries directly from Krishna himself. He also reveals that he saw the divine vision of Krishna\u2019s true, infinite form\u2014something that supposedly only Arjuna had seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanjaya predicts that, in spite of the Kauravas\u2019 much larger army, the Pandavas will win the battle with Arjuna and Krishna leading them. He says that anywhere Krishna and Arjuna are, there is certain to be victory, happiness, wealth, and wisdom.<\/strong> That final prediction marks the end of The Bhagavad Gita<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhritarashtra<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a great deal of history drawing these two armies to Kurukshetra. This is demonstrated through the conversation of two of The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A man named Pandu, of the Kuru dynasty, was the king of Hastinapura. While he ruled he shared power with his brother Dhritarashtra. However, Pandu died young, and Dhritarashtra was born blind, so he couldn\u2019t be named king under the laws of Hastinapura. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, Pandu\u2019s son Yudhishthira should have been the next king, but he was too young to take the throne. Dhritarashtra continued to rule in Yudhishthira\u2019s stead until he became old enough to take the throne himself. However, when Yudhishthira came of age, Dhritarashtra began plotting for his own son Duryodhana to succeed him instead. That scheming led to the current conflict between the Pandavas, the supporters of Yudhishthira who call themselves the sons of Pandu; and the Kauravas, the supporters of Duryodhana and so-called sons of Kuru\u2014though, in reality, both sides are part of the Kuru dynasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the battle begins, prince Duryodhana of the Kauravas studies the opposing army. He reports that there are many great heroes among the Pandavas, but that their own army has equally great men and is much larger. He ends with a call for his soldiers to stand firm and support Bhishma, the eldest of the Kurus and the leader of their army. Bhishma responds to this by blowing a conch horn\u2014a call to arms, which is taken up by the rest of his army. The Pandava army responds with horns and drums of their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanjaya and Dhritarashtra<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Bhagavad Gita <\/em>is framed as a story-within-a-story. Sanjaya, an advisor to king Dhritarashtra, is having a vision of the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna and telling the king what he sees.<\/strong> This is possible because Sanjaya has been blessed with the gift of divine sight, so he\u2019s able to see everything that happens at Kurukshetra as if he were there in person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhritarashtra refers to Kurukshetra as the \u201cfield of dharma<\/em>.\u201d Dharma, which can be loosely translated as both duty and law, refers both to the cosmic rules of the universe and to people\u2019s individual destinies. Calling Kurukshetra the field of dharma implies that what\u2019s about to happen isn\u2019t only a physical battle, but a spiritual struggle over what is right and just.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who are The Bhagavad Gita characters? Why are they important in the story? The Bhagavad Gita is told as a story within a story. The story begins with Sanjaya recounting a vision to a king, Dhritarashtra. The story he tells is about a prince, Arjuna, and the god Krishna. Each of The Bhagavad Gita characters has an important role. Read more about The Bhagavad Gita characters and what they do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,33,6],"tags":[197],"class_list":["post-25857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-people","category-spiritual","tag-the-bhagavad-gita","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who are The Bhagavad Gita characters? Told as a story within a story, there are four main characters in the Bhagavad Gita. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who are The Bhagavad Gita characters? Told as a story within a story, there are four main characters in the Bhagavad Gita. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-31T00:32:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-05T19:44:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-31T00:32:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T19:44:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/\"},\"wordCount\":1427,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Bhagavad Gita\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"People\",\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/\",\"name\":\"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-31T00:32:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T19:44:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"Who are The Bhagavad Gita characters? Told as a story within a story, there are four main characters in the Bhagavad Gita. Read more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know - Shortform Books","description":"Who are The Bhagavad Gita characters? Told as a story within a story, there are four main characters in the Bhagavad Gita. Read more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know","og_description":"Who are The Bhagavad Gita characters? Told as a story within a story, there are four main characters in the Bhagavad Gita. Read more.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-01-31T00:32:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-02-05T19:44:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know","datePublished":"2021-01-31T00:32:29+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-05T19:44:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/"},"wordCount":1427,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The Bhagavad Gita"],"articleSection":["Books","People","Spiritual"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/","name":"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-31T00:32:29+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-05T19:44:14+00:00","description":"Who are The Bhagavad Gita characters? Told as a story within a story, there are four main characters in the Bhagavad Gita. Read more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/bhagavad-gita-characters\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Bhagavad Gita Characters: Four People to Know"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meditation-sunset-person-statue-garden-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25857"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26402,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25857\/revisions\/26402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}