Sanjaya :-Addressing Arjuna, who was full of sorrow and pity for his kinsmen and was shedding tears on account of them, Lord Krishna said the following words. (II-1)
Sree Bhagavan :--Arjuna! How has this blasphemous infatuation, quite unbecoming of noble men seized you at this critical hour?Yield not to un-manliness, which does not befit you. Shake away the weakness of heart and stand up to fight.You are here to scorch your enemies. (II-2,3)
Arjuna:-Oh! Madhusudana! Bhishma and Drona are worthy of my greatest reverence. Oh! Destroyer of enemies! how can I fight them with arrows?I deem it better to live on alms than killing these great masters and enjoying the riches and pleasures stained by their blood.Besides, I am not sure whether it is better that we win them or they win us.The very sons of Dhritarashtra, after killing whom we do not even wish to live, are standing in front of us to fight. I am in a total dilemma as to what is right and what is wrong.I beseech you, take me as your humble disciple who has taken refuge in you and advise me as to which is good for me.I do not see any means to redeem this grief which is drying up by senses, even if undisputed sovereignty of an affluent kingdom or the lordship of the heaven is going to be conferred on me.(II-4 to 8)
Sanjaya(to Dhritarsahtra): Oh! King! Having spoken thus to Lord Krishna, Arjuna became silent after asserting that he would not fight. At this, Lord Krishna with a smile on His face, said the following words to the grieving Arjuna, in the midst of the two armies. (II-9,10)
Sree Bhagavan:-Oh! Arjuna! You are grieving for those who are worthy of being grieved for and yet speaking like a wise man. Wise men do not grieve either for the dead or for the living.In fact, there was never a time when I, you or these kings have not existed. Hereafter also none of us will ever cease to exist. Just as the soul abiding in the body experiences childhood, youth and old age taking place on the body, it is only natural for it to leave one body and take another. Wise men do not get deluded by this.(II-11 to 13)
Arjuna! While living in this world, contact between sense-organs and their objects gives the pairs of opposite feelings like heat and cold, pleasure and pain, etc. They being transitory, will come and go. So we have to endure them patiently.One who can take these opposite feelings with equanimity, and is not worried about them, becomes entitled to immortality. (II-14,15)
That which is unreal has no existence and that which is Real does not ever cease to exist; one who has realised this Truth can easily distinguish the Real from the unreal. Arjuna! You must know that the Reality which pervades the whole universe is imperishable and nobody can destroy it on any account.That eternal Reality is the imperishable soul that exists in all bodies ; and what is perishable are the bodies only.Therefore, you must fight without grief. (II-16 to 18)
Any one who considers that this soul can kill or can be killed, does not know the truth; because the soul can neither kill nor can it be killed.It has never born, nor does it ever die; it has not come into existence after having born at any time.The soul which is unborn, eternal, everlasting and primeval, does not die even when the body dies.Oh! Partha! if a man has known this soul as imperishable, eternal and free from birth and death, how and whom can he kill or cause to be killed? Death is nothing but a change of body for the souls. Just as a man discards worn out clothes and wears new ones, the embodied discards worn out bodies and take new ones(II-19 to 22)
Arjuna! Weapons do not cut the soul , fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, and wind does not dry it. Because this souls is incapable of being cut, burnt, getting wet and dried .Not only that, it is eternal,omnipresent,immovable and permanent. It is un-manifest, incomprehensible and immutable. After knowing so much about it, you have no cause for grief. (II -23 to 25)
Even if you believe that the soul is ever subject to births and deaths, you have no ground for grief. Because, death is sure for the born and rebirth is sure for the dead .For this reason you should not grieve over the inevitable. Arjuna, the beginning of creation is from the un-manifest, and the end of creation is by dissolution into the un-manifest. The creatures are manifest to our senses only in the interim stage. What is the cause for lamentation in this process? (II-26 to 28)
Some one perceives this soul as miraculous, some one speaks of it as a miracle, and yet another one hears about it as a miracle; but however much is heard about it, no one knows about it properly. Arjuna! This soul which is dwelling in the bodies of all creatures can never be killed; so you should not grieve on account of any one. (II-29,30)
Considering your own duty also, you have no reason to waver, because there is nothing more honourable for a Kshatriya( man of the warrior class) than a righteous war. Arjuna! An opportunity like this, which opens the gateway to heaven, usually comes by chance to lucky Kshatriyas only.If you are not fighting this righteous war, you are not only shirking your duty and losing your reputation but also incurring sin. (II-31,32,33)
Not only that, people will speak calumnies about you endlessly; and calumny for a reputed person is more dreadful than death.These great warriors who are now holding you in high esteem will think that you have run away for the war due to fear.Naturally, they will look upon you with contempt.And your enemies will certainly speak many unbecoming words disparaging your might ;and what can be more distressing than that? (II-34,35,36)
Arjuna! Now there are two possibilities before you; either die in the war and reach the heavens or win the war and enjoy the kingdom on earth. Either way you are not losing anything. Therefore, Oh! Son of Kunti! Rise up with the determination to fight. Get ready to fight this battle, prepared to accept all eventualities like pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat with equanimity. Then you will not incur any sin.(II-37,38)
What I have so far told you is based on Sankhya Yoga, the Path of Knowledge. Now hear from me about Karma Yoga, the Path of Intelligent Action, following which you will not be bound by your actions.In this path no effort is lost and no opposite result is produced. Even the least practice in this path will save you from the fear of death, which is the greatest fear of man (II-39,40)
Arjuna, in this path, what is required is only an intellect with single-pointed determination; because persons of undecided intellect will easily get distracted towards endless objectives. Prompted by the desires for worldly and heavenly pleasures they will proclaim in flowery speech that there is nothing more beneficial than those pleasures.They will quote the Vedas to support their view, engage themselves in innumerable Vedic rituals, praying for worldly and heavenly pleasures, and attain endless births and deaths as the fruit thereof.Such persons who are carried away by pleasures and luxuries cannot have a determined intellect; nor can they concentrate on the Supreme God.(II-41,42,43,44)
In fact, the Vedic rituals lay stress on things which are evolved from the three Gunas.(Sattwa, Rajas andTamas) Arjuna!. In the path of Karma Yoga you have to surpass these Gunas ;be neutral towards the pairs of opposites like pleasure and pain, loss and gain etc; be constantly established in mind with God; be completely self-controlled; and be unconcerned about supplying your needs and preserving whatever you have acquired. For a person who is thus established in the Brahman(Supreme) and is, therefore, called Brahmana, the Vedic rituals have no more use than that of a small pond or well at a place which is inundated by water on all sides.(II-45,46)
Arjuna, reverting to Karma Yoga, remember that your authority is on action alone and not on its fruits.That is to say, the motivation for your actions should never be their fruits; and you should have no inclination to remain idle also.Therefore, perform all your duties on the basis of this Karma Yoga, without any attachment on the fruits thereof treating success and failure equally.This equanimity of mind is called Yoga. Action performed with selfish motives and desire for fruits is far inferior to action based on Yoga. Those whose actions are solely motivated by the fruits thereof really deserve pity.You must therefore, seek resort only in Yoga for the performance of your actions.Those who are endowed with this balance of mind attained through Yoga , will get rid of all the bonds of all their actions, both good and bad.Oh! Arjuna!You should, therefore, practice this Yoga diligently, as Yoga is the skill in action without getting entangled in the bonds of action.Those wise men who are established in Yoga, having renounced the fruits of their actions and become free from the bonds of actions and the shackles of births and deaths, will soon attain the Supreme state of Bliss.
(II-47,48,49,50,51).
Arjuna, when your intellect gets rid of the delusion by which you forget the soul and believe that you are the body, you will become disgusted with all worldly pleasures, including those heard of and those yet to be heard of. Then gradually your intellect will be freed from the confusion due to conflicting statements from different sources and your intellect will remain steady and un-distracted from the Supreme God. When you reach this stage, you have attained Yoga,which means perfect and everlasting union with God.(II-52,53)
Arjuna said:-Oh! Keshava!What are the distinguishing features of a person who is of steady intellect and has attained this state of union with God?How does he behave and speak to others? And how does he interact with the ordinary world ?(II-54)
Sree Bhagavan said:-When a person has discarded all worldly desires and his mind remaining in unison with the soul is fully content, he can be said to be a person of steady intellect. He who remains unperturbed in sorrows and has no craving for pleasures, and who is devoid of all feelings like lust, fear and anger can be called a person of stable intellect.If a person has no special liking for anything in the world and he does not rejoice or rebuff on meeting with good or evil, take it that his intellect is steady.When a person is able to withdraw his senses from the sense-objects just like a tortoise that withdraws its limbs from all sides, then his intellect can be said to be steady. When senses are withdrawn from sense-objects, their enjoyment only is denied, but the tastes for them still persists in the senses.Even this taste will disappear in the case of a person of steady intellect who has realised the Supreme Reality. (II-55,56,57,58,59)
Arjuna,the senses are so very powerful that they carry away the mind ,even of a wise man who is practising self control.Therefore, he has always to be on the guard and keep vigilance against the senses. He should sit in meditation with all his senses kept under the control of his mind and his mind and intellect should be fully concentrated on Me. For, that person possesses a steady intellect. (II-60,61)
Now I shall tell tell you how people stray away from the right path. A man who keeps thinking of worldly pleasures naturally develops an attachment towards them. Attachment grows into desires and desires when not fulfilled lead to anger. Anger gives rise to delusion and from delusion confusion of memory arises and confusion of memory leads to failure of the intellect. When the intellect fails it ends up in total and complete ruin. of the individual.(II-62,63)
On the other hand, a self controlled person who enjoys the sense-objects through his senses which are disciplined and free from all likes and dislikes, easily attains placidity of mind. Placidity of mind eradicates all his sorrows and the intellect of a person having tranquility of mind becomes firmly established in the Supreme Self. A person who has not controlled his mind and senses cannot have a discriminative intellect, nor contemplation. Without contemplation one cannot enjoy peace of mind and without peace of mind where is happiness? (II-64,65,66)
If the mind of a person indiscriminately follows his senses, the senses will definitely carry it away the mind and intellect of that person, just like the wind carrying away an uncontrolled boat floating on the waters.Therefore, Oh! Arjuna! Only a person who restricts his senses from their objects with complete mastery over them can be said to have a steady intellect.(II-67,68)
A person of controlled mind keeps awake in the matter of realising the Self to which all others close their eyes.But he will keep his eyes closed and remain unconcerned towards worldly pleasures for which all others will keep awake and work actively .(II-69)
Even when the waters of all rivers enter the ocean, which is already full ,it still remains undisturbed. Likewise, a person whose mind remains undisturbed even when the pleasures of the world enters his mind, he alone attains lasting peace; not the one who hankers after the enjoyment of those pleasures.(II-70)
He who lives in this world after having abandoned all desires, free from attachments, likes and dislikes, egoism and craving for pleasures; that person attains peace. Arjuna! that is the state of a God-realised person. A person who reaches this state, even at the last moment of his life, is freed from all delusions and will soon attain one-ness with the Supreme Self (II-71,72)
Thus concludes the Second Chapter of Sreemad Bhagavad Gita entitled
The Yoga of Knowledge.
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