Chapter 2-  The Yoga of Knowledge, Part 2

Translation by Jayaram V

37. "O Kaunteya, if you are killed ( in the battle) you will ascend to heaven. On the contrary if you win the war you will enjoy the comforts of earthly kingdom. Therefore get up and fight with determination.

38. "With equanimity towards happiness and sorrow, gain and loss, victory and defeat , fight. This way you will not incur any sin.

39. "So far I have described to you the knowledge of Samkhya yoga. Now listen O Partha, to that (path) which is suitable to your intelligence by which you can be released from the bondage of karma.

40. "There is no loss in this effort, no reverse effect. Even a small effort releases you from the fear of death.

41. "Those whose intellect is turned inward into their inner selves, have only one aim in this world, O Kurunandana, while the intelligence of those who are not engaged thus run in many directions.

42. "Men of superficial knowledge who take delight in the debate of the Vedas using flowery words, say that there is nothing else besides.

43. "Hearts filled with desires, they engage in many specific religious actions with a desire to gain heavenly life, good birth and attainment of sensuous life and material wealth.

44. "Their attachment to worldly pleasures and material wealth takes away their intelligence and they cannot achieve mental discipline.

45. "The Vedas speak of the three gunas (qualities). Transcend the three gunas and go beyond the dualities, ever established in sattva( purity), indifferent to personal welfare and ever established in the self.

46. "Of what use water in great reservoir to a man who has well water with him? Similarly of what use knowledge of all the Vedas to a person who has gained the knowledge of Brahman ?

47. "You have a right to perform your assigned duty, but not to the results of your actions at any time. Let there be no desire in you for the fruits of your actions. Nor should you ever get attached to inaction or non-performance of duty.

48. "Established in (karma) Yoga, do your duties O Arjuna sacrificing all attachment, with the same attitude towards success and failure. Equanimity of mind in all situations is called yoga.

49. "Actions that bind are far inferior to actions that are performed with equanimity of mind . Therefore O Dhananjaya, take refuge in Buddhi yoga (equanimity of mind). Only the wretched yearn for the fruits of their actions.

50. "The yogi of equal mindedness can get rid of both his good and bad gains in this very life. Therefore engage yourself in this yoga , for yoga is but skill in performing actions.

51. "Performing activities with equanimity of mind, leaving aside the concern for the results, great men are liberated for ever from the bonds of birth and death and go beyond the world of illusions.

52. "When your intelligence crosses the mire of illusions, you will become disinterested in what is heard and what is yet be heard.

53. "When your mind remains impervious to the conflicting statements of the Vedas and becomes stable and fixed in samadhi (absorbed in the self), you have then achieved the perfect state of buddhi yoga.

54. Arjuna asked," He who is established firmly in the equanimity of his mind (samadhi) and has attained skill in the stability of mind (sthithapragna)- what is his language? How does he speak and how does he sit and walk?

55. "Said Lord Supreme like this," When a person gives up all the desires in his waking mind and when his self is turned inward and satisfied within itself, at that time he is said to be a 'sthithapragna' ( one who is stabilized in awareness).

56. "Undisturbed when there is adversity, indifferent to happiness, free from attachment, fear and anger, he is called a sage of stable mind.

57. "Who is everywhere free from relationships, who does not praise or loathe favorable or unfavorable circumstances, his mind is stabilized.

58. "He who can withdraw his senses completely from the sense objects the way a tortoise withdraws its limbs , his intelligence is firmly established.

59. "Sense object cease to torment him who practices abstention, although the taste for them still remains in his consciousness. Even that feeling will also disappear completely when he experiences the Supreme State.

60. "The sense forcibly throw out of balance even the mind of a man who has complete knowledge of discrimination and is trying his best to control them.

61. "Therefore he who subjugates all his senses by keeping them firmly under his full control, and seated properly meditates upon Me, his intelligence is stabilized

62. "By constantly thinking of sense objects, one develops attachment with them. From attachment is born desire and from desire comes anger.

63. "From anger develops delusion, from delusion comes confusion of memory, from confusion of memory loss of intelligence and when intelligence is lost, the breath of life is also lost.

64. "But a man whose mind is under control, even if moving among the sense objects, as his senses are also under his control, he is freed from passion and anger and attains Divine Mercy.

65. "On achieving God's mercy, all his suffering is destroyed and he becomes cheerful. In that cheerful state his buddhi (intelligence) is sufficiently established.

66. "(Without God's mercy) there cannot be intelligence or happiness. And the one who is not established in peace, where is happiness for him?

67. "The senses certainly drive away the intelligence of a person whose mind is constantly engaged even if on only one of the roaming senses, just as the winds blow away a boat floating on the waters.

68. "Therefore O mighty armed Arjuna, when the senses are controlled from all directions from the sense objects, his intelligence is firmly established.

69. "The state which is considered as night (unknown) by all the beings is a state of enlightenment for the awakened soul but the state in which all beings think they are awake is perceived as night by enlightened seer.

70. "As the ocean which is though full of water remains unagitated when the river waters continue to flow into it, the awakened soul remain undisturbed to the stream of desires flowing into him. Not him who is desirous of fulfilling his desires.

71. "He who gives up all his desires and lives without the awareness of any need, without any sense of ownership and egoism, he attains peace.

72. "This is the state of realization, O Partha, after achieving which one is not deluded. At the time of death if one remains in this state of consciousness one achieves the state of Brahma nirvana (the state of Supreme realization.)

Thus ends the second chapter named Yoga of Knowledge in the Upanishad of the divine Bhagavad-Gita , the knowledge of the Absolute, the yogic scripture, and the debate between Arjuna and Lord Krishna.

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