Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 2 – Sankhya Yoga

Important Points of the Discourse:

1. Arjuna explains his mental distress and confusion and surrenders to Lord Krishna for guidance. (1-10)
2. Description of Atma. (11-30)
3. The necessity to fight the battle according to Kshatriya Dharma. (31-38)
4. The Doctrine of Nishkama karma. (39-53)
5. The man of steadfast wisdom. (54-72)

Verses 1 to 72

• In this manner, when Arjuna was plunged in a state of despondency, with eyes blurred with tears, Lord Krishna addressed this speech to him. (2.1)
• The Blessed Lord said: O Arjuna! Whence, in this critical situation, has this mental dejection takes hold of you, shameful and Heaven-excluding? (2.2)
• O Arjuna! Do not yield to impotence. It does not befit you. Cast off this wretched weakness of heart. Arise, O scorcher of enemies! (2.3)
• Arjuna Said: O Krishna! Bhishma and Drona are my teachers fit to be worshipped. How can I attack them with arrows in the battle? (2.4)
• It would be better, indeed, to live on alms in this world rather than to slay these high-souled teachers. But if I kill them, even here I shall enjoy wealth and desires stained with their blood. (2.5)
• We do not know which would be the better for us: that we should conquer them or they should conquer us. Arrayed against us stand the very sons of Dhritarāshtra, after slaying whom we should not wish to live. (2.6)
• (O Krishna!) My mind is distracted by the taint of pity and I am ignorant of what my duty is, and so, I ask you to teach me what is good for me. I am your disciple. I take refuge in you. (2.7)
• I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to dispel it even if I win a prosperous, unrivaled kingdom on earth with sovereignty like the demigods in heaven. (2.8)
• Sanjaya Said: Having spoke thus, Arjuna, the destroyer of foes, finally said to Lord Krishna, “I will not fight” and became silent. (2.9)
• O king Dhritarashtra! Seeing Arjuna lamenting in the middle of two armies, Lord Krishna, as if laughing loud, spoke these words. (2.10)
• The Blessed Lord said: O Arjuna! You grieve for those for whom there need be no sorrow, yet you speak words of wisdom. The wise do not grieve for the dead or living. (2.11)
• Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor these kings of men. Never will there be a time hereafter when any of us shall cease to be. (2.12)
• Just as the man in this body passes through the various stages of boyhood, youth, and old age, like so, he passes into another body after death. The wise know it and are not deluded. (2.13)
• Contact of the senses with the objects produces heat and cold, pain and pleasure. These experiences come and go, and are impermanent. Endure them, O Arjuna! (2.14)
• The firm man who is not affected by pain and pleasure, who remains equal-minded, surely is fit for immortality, O Arjuna, Chief of mortals! (2.15)
• The unreal has no being, the real has no non-being. The final truth of these two has been seen indeed by those who have experienced the essence of things. (2.16)
• (O Arjuna!) Know that Atma by which the whole universe is pervaded is indestructible. No one can cause the destruction of the imperishable. (2.17)
• These bodies which belong to the real imperishable, unknowable Atma are said to be subject to an end; therefore fight, O Arjuna!t. (2.18)
• He who thinks that Atma slays, or he who thinks that Atma is Slain, both these do not know the Truth. Atma does not slay, nor is slain. (2.19)
• Atma is not born, nor does it ever die; after having been it does not cease to be, unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, it is not killed when the body is destroyed. (2.20)
• O Arjuna! He who knows that Atma is birthless, deathless, real, and imperishable, whom can he slay or cause to be slain? (2.21)
• Just as a man cast off his worn-out clothes and puts on new ones so also the Self throws away its worn-out bodies and takes other fresh bodies. (2.22)
• Weapons cannot cut, fire cannot burn, water cannot wet, wind cannot dry up this Atma. (2.23)
• The Atma cannot be cut, cannot be burnt, cannot be wetted, and also cannot be dried up. It is eternal, all-pervading, firm, immovable, and ancient. (2.24)
• This self is unknowable by the senses, unthinkable by the mind, and is not subject to any kind of change. Knowing this, you should not grieve. (2.25)
• O mighty-armed Arjuna! Even if you think that Self is constantly born and dies, you should not grieve in this way. (2.26)
• For to that which is born, death is certain, and to that which is dead, birth is certain. Therefore you should not grieve over the unavoidable. (2.27)
• All beings are unmanifest in their beginning, O Bhārata, manifest in their middle state, and unmanifest again in their end. Why, then, lament for them? (2.28)
• Some look on the Self as a wonder; some speak of It as a wonder; some hear of It as a wonder; still others, though hearing, do not understand It at all. (2.29)
• O Arjuna! The Self existing in the body of all beings is never slain. So it is not right for you to grieve for any creature. (2.30)
• And moreover, considering your own duty, you should not waver, for, there is nothing higher for a Kshatriya than a righteous war.(2.31)
• Happy indeed are the kshatriyas, O Pārtha, to whom comes such a war, offering itself unsought, opening the gate to heaven.. (2.32)
• But if you do not fight this righteous war you would incur sin by abandoning your own duty, name, and fame. (2.33)
• And also, these people will speak of your everlasting dishonor, and to one who is honored, dishonor is worse than death. (2.34)
• Moreover, those great warriors from whom you received honor formerly would think that you turned away from battle out of fear, and regard you with little respect hereafter. (2.35)
• Your enemies belittle your ability, and in various ways speak words of ill-fame and shame about you. What is there more painful than this? (2.36)
• If you are killed in the battle, you will go to heaven; if you win, you will enjoy the earth. Therefore arise, O son of Kunti, resolved to fight. (2.37)
• Having an equal mind in pain and pleasure, gain and loss, victory and defeat, engage in battle and thereby you will not incur sin. (2.38)
• O Arjuna! So far the knowledge of Sankhya Yoga about Atma is declared. Now hear the knowledge of Karma Yoga, knowing which you shall cast off the bondage of work. (2.39)
• In this, no effort is ever lost and no harm is ever done. Even very little of this dharma saves a man from the Great Fear. (2.40)
• O Arjuna! There is only one faith and thought for those who practice this Karma Yoga. The minds of others are divided into various branches, and their thoughts and speculations are endless.  (2.41)
• O Arjuna! The unwise utter flowery speech, taking pleasure in the laudatory words of the Vedas, and say that there is nothing else but pleasures and enjoyments either here or in Heaven. They are full of desire, with heaven as their highest goal, leading to new births as the effect of their own Karma, and they engage themselves in a multiplicity of specific works for the purpose of acquiring enjoyments and prosperity. The mind of such men who are drawn away by attachment to pleasure and wealth, cannot be concentrated to remain fixed in the ecstasy of divine contemplation. (2.42-2.44)
• The first part of the Vedas (Karma Kanda) deal with material things pertaining to the three Gunas. One should transcend the three Gunas, become free from the operation of the pairs of opposites, take refuge in the pure sattvic state, and firmly establish himself in Atma.(2.45)
• To an enlightened person who has known the Self, all the Vedas are of as much use as is a reservoir of water in a place where there is a flood. (2.46)
• You have the right to work only, and not to the fruits of work. Let not the fruit of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction. (2.47)
• O Arjuna! Steadfast in Yoga, giving up all attachment, unmindful of success or failure, do your work. Such equanimity of mind is called Yoga. (2.48)
• O Arjuna! Work with attachment is far inferior to nishkama karma. Therefore seek refuge in desireless action with equanimity of mind. Those who work for fruits and rewards are wrecked.(2.49)
• The man of equanimity born of wisdom releases himself both from good and bad even in this life. Therefore strive for nishkama karma with an equal mind. Yoga is skill in action. (2.50)
• Wise men endowed with equanimity, having abandoned the fruits of action, go to the abode beyond all sorrow and evil. (2.51)
• When your mind has crossed the mire of delusion, you will achieve indifference regarding things already heard and things yet to be heard. (2.52)
• When your intellect which is perplexed by hearing the various sastras becomes steady and immovable in ecstatic concentration, then you shall attain union with the Supreme Being. (2.53)
• Arjuna said: O Krishna! What are the characteristics of a man of steady wisdom? How does the man merged in the super-conscious state, sit and move? (2.54)
• The Blessed Lord said: When a man renounces completely all the desires of the mind, and when he is fully satisfied with his mind fixed in Atma, then he is declared to be a man of steady wisdom. (2.55)
• He whose mind is not troubled in sorrow, who does not hanker after pleasures and is free from attachment fear and hatred, is called the sage of steady wisdom. (2.56)
• He who has no attachment to anything anywhere, who does not rejoice and hate when good and bad things happen, his wisdom is fixed and steady. (2.57)
• When the yogi, like the tortoise drawing back its limbs into its own shell, withdraws all the senses from the sense objects, his wisdom is firmly fixed. (2.58)
• When a man rejects the sense objects by withdrawing the senses, he becomes free from the sense world only. The longing or taste for them still remains in the mind. Even this longing is removed when the self is perceived. (2.59)
• O Arjuna! The turbulent senses carry away the mind even of the learned man though he is striving to control them.(2.60)
• Having restrained all the senses the harmonized should sit intent on me. His wisdom is steady whose senses are under control. (2.61)
• As a man contemplates sense-objects, attachment for them arises, from attachment, desire for them will be born, from desire arises anger, from anger comes delusion, from delusion, comes loss of memory, from loss of memory, comes destruction of discrimination, and from destruction of discrimination he perishes.(2.62 & 2.63)
• But the self-controlled man free from attraction and repulsion, with his senses under restraint though moving among objects, attains peace. (2.64)
• When a man attains peace, all sorrow and suffering caused by the unbalanced mind and rebellious senses come to an end. By peace and purity, the mind is soon fixed in the Self. (2.65)
• The man whose mind is not under his control has no Self-knowledge and no contemplation either. Without contemplation he can have no peace; and without peace, how can he have happiness? (2.66)
• As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away the discrimination. (2.67)
• Therefore, O Arjuna! his knowledge is steady whose senses are completely restrained from all sense objects. (2.68)
• That which is, night to all beings, in it the sage is awake; where all beings are awake, that is the night for the sage who sees (the Self). (2.69)
• As the ocean is filled with water flowing into it from all sides and remains immovable, so the man into whom all desires flow, but is not a bit affected attains peace and not the man who craves the desires. (2.70)
• That man who lives completely free from desires, without longing, devoid of the sense of “I” and “mine,” attains peace.(2.71)
• Having obtained this Brahmi state man is not deluded. Being established in this even at the end of life man attains oneness with Brahman (Moksha). (2.72)