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CHAPTER TWO Contents of the Gītā SummarizedTEXT 1: Sañjaya said: Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind
depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusūdana, Kṛṣṇa, spoke the following
words. TEXT 2: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna,
how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man
who knows the value of life. They lead not to higher planets but to infamy. TEXT 3: O son of Pṛthā, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become
you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the
enemy. TEXT 4: Arjuna said: O killer of enemies, O killer of Madhu, how
can I counterattack with arrows in battle men like Bhīṣma and Droṇa, who are worthy of my worship? TEXT 5: It would be better to live in this world by begging than
to live at the cost of the lives of great souls who are my teachers. Even
though desiring worldly gain, they are superiors. If they are killed,
everything we enjoy will be tainted with blood. TEXT 6: Nor do we know which is better – conquering them or being
conquered by them. If we killed the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra,
we should not care to live. Yet they are now standing before us on the
battlefield. TEXT 7: Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all
composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to
tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul
surrendered unto You. Please instruct me. TEXT 8: 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. TEXT 9: Sañjaya said: Having spoken thus, Arjuna, chastiser of
enemies, told Kṛṣṇa,
“Govinda, I shall not fight,” and fell silent. TEXT 10: O descendant of Bharata, at that time Kṛṣṇa, smiling, in the midst
of both the armies, spoke the following words to the grief-stricken Arjuna. TEXT 11: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking
learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who
are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead. TEXT 12: Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor
all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. TEXT 13: As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body,
from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body
at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. TEXT 14: O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness
and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance
and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense
perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without
being disturbed. TEXT 15: O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not
disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly
eligible for liberation. TEXT 16: Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of
the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal
[the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the
nature of both. TEXT 17: That which pervades the entire body you should know to be
indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul. TEXT 18: The material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and
eternal living entity is sure to come to an end; therefore, fight, O
descendant of Bharata. TEXT 19: Neither he who thinks the living entity the slayer nor he
who thinks it slain is in knowledge, for the self slays not nor is slain. TEXT 20: For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any
time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come
into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not
slain when the body is slain. TEXT 21: O Pārtha, how can a person who knows that the soul is
indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable kill anyone or cause anyone to
kill? TEXT 22: As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the
soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless
ones. TEXT 23: The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor
burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. TEXT 24: This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and
can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere,
unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same. TEXT 25: It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable and
immutable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body. TEXT 26: If, however, you think that the soul [or the symptoms of
life] will always be born and die forever, you still have no reason to
lament, O mighty-armed. TEXT 27: One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after
death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable
discharge of your duty, you should not lament. TEXT 28: All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning,
manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when annihilated. So
what need is there for lamentation? TEXT 29: Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as
amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing
about him, cannot understand him at all. TEXT 30: O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body can
never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any living being. TEXT 31: Considering your specific duty as a kṣatriya, you should know that there is
no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles; and so
there is no need for hesitation. TEXT 32: O Pārtha, happy are the kṣatriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening
for them the doors of the heavenly planets. TEXT 33: If, however, you do not perform your religious duty of
fighting, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and
thus lose your reputation as a fighter. TEXT 34: People will always speak of your infamy, and for a
respectable person, dishonor is worse than death. TEXT 35: The great generals who have highly esteemed your name and
fame will think that you have left the battlefield out of fear only, and thus
they will consider you insignificant. TEXT 36: Your enemies will describe you in many unkind words and
scorn your ability. What could be more painful for you? TEXT 37: O son of Kuntī, either you will be killed on the
battlefield and attain the heavenly planets, or you will conquer and enjoy
the earthly kingdom. Therefore, get up with determination and fight. TEXT 38: Do thou fight for the sake of fighting, without
considering happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat – and by
so doing you shall never incur sin. TEXT 39: Thus far I have described this knowledge to you through
analytical study. Now listen as I explain it in terms of working without
fruitive results. O son of Pṛthā, when you act in such knowledge you can free yourself from the
bondage of works. TEXT 40: In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a
little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type
of fear. TEXT 41: Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and
their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who
are irresolute is many-branched. TEXTS 42-43: Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the
flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for
elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth.
Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life, they say that there
is nothing more than this. TEXT 44: In the minds of those who are too attached to sense
enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the
resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not
take place. TEXT 45: The Vedas deal mainly with the subject of the three modes
of material nature. O Arjuna, become transcendental to these three modes. Be
free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be
established in the self. TEXT 46: All purposes served by a small well can at once be served
by a great reservoir of water. Similarly, all the purposes of the Vedas can
be served to one who knows the purpose behind them. TEXT 47: You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you
are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause
of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your
duty. TEXT 48: Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all
attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga. TEXT 49: O Dhanañjaya, keep all abominable activities far distant
by devotional service, and in that consciousness surrender unto the Lord.
Those who want to enjoy the fruits of their work are misers. TEXT 50: A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of both
good and bad reactions even in this life. Therefore strive for yoga, which is
the art of all work. TEXT 51: By thus engaging in devotional service to the Lord, great
sages or devotees free themselves from the results of work in the material
world. In this way they become free from the cycle of birth and death and
attain the state beyond all miseries [by going back to Godhead]. TEXT 52: When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest
of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all
that is to be heard. TEXT 53: When your mind is no longer disturbed by the flowery
language of the Vedas, and when it remains fixed in the trance of
self-realization, then you will have attained the divine consciousness. TEXT 54: Arjuna said: O Kṛṣṇa, what are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged
in transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he
sit, and how does he walk? TEXT 55: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pārtha, when a
man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise
from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction
in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental
consciousness. TEXT 56: One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the
threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from
attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind. TEXT 57: In the material world, one who is unaffected by whatever
good or evil he may obtain, neither praising it nor despising it, is firmly
fixed in perfect knowledge. TEXT 58: One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense
objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in
perfect consciousness. TEXT 59: Though the embodied soul may be restricted from sense
enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements
by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness. TEXT 60: The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that
they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is
endeavoring to control them. TEXT 61: One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full
control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady
intelligence. TEXT 62: While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person
develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from
lust anger arises. TEXT 63: From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion
bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and
when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool. TEXT 64: But a person free from all attachment and aversion and
able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can
obtain the complete mercy of the Lord. TEXT 65: For one thus satisfied [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness], the
threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such satisfied
consciousness, one’s intelligence is soon well established. TEXT 66: One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness] can have
neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is
no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace? TEXT 67: As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even
one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man’s
intelligence. TEXT 68: Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are
restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence. TEXT 69: What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for
the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for
the introspective sage. TEXT 70: A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of
desires – that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled
but is always still – can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to
satisfy such desires. TEXT 71: A person who has given up all desires for sense
gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of
proprietorship and is devoid of false ego – he alone can attain real peace. TEXT 72: That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after
attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the
hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God. |