The holy geeta chapter 2-yoga of knowledge

THE HOLY GEETA
COMMENTARY by
swami Chinmayananda
T K G NAMBOODHIRI
THIRUVALLA, KERALA, INDIA
Presentation adapted from
THE HOLY GEETA, Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, July 2013
Mumbai

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CHAPTER 2
SANKHYA YOGA
YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2, Sankhya Yoga, gives an exhaustive summary of the
whole philosophical content of the Geeta. The first ten verses
explain the way in which Arjuna totally surrenders to the Krishna-
influence. From verses11 to 46, a digest of the ‘logic of thought’ in
Sankhya philosophy is given. Verses 47 to 60 contain a hasty sketch
of the Yoga-of-Action, while verses 61 to 70 cover the Path-of-Love.
The two concluding verses 71 & 72 touch upon the Path-of-
Renunciation. Hence, this chapter is verily an epitome of the entire
Geeta.
In the Geeta, Vyasa Deva has given a synthesis of all the known
Paths-to-Perfection given in the Vedas, viz. Jnana, Bhakti & Karma,
by which people of all persuasions can walk hand-in-hand to
Liberation

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
Lord Krishna’s First Response to Arjuna(Verses 2.1 to 2.3)
Sanjaya said: To him who was thus overcome with pity & despondency, with eyes full of
tears & agitated, Madhusudana spoke these words:
The Blesses Lord said: Whence is this perilous condition come upon thee, this dejection,
un-Aryan-like, heaven-excluding, disgraceful, O Arjuna?
Yield not to impotence, O Partha! It does not befit thee. Cast off this mean weakness of
heart! Stand up, O Parantapa.
The second chapter opens with an announcement from Sanjaya which, with a
few rightly chosen words, gives a complete picture of Arjuna’s sad mental state
of desperation. Sri Krishna is surprised to see that a king, claiming to be an
Aryan, is feeling so flabbergasted on the battlefield. In stinging reproachful
words, he is deliberately lashing out at the anxiety-state-neurosis in Arjuna. So
far Krishna was silent, because he knew that it would have been useless to
contradict Arjuna earlier. But the tears in Arjuna’s eyes indicated that his inward
confusion has climaxed. Soft words of sympathy would not have revived Arjuna.
Thus Krishna lashed out at his friend with these stinging arrows of ridicule,
dipped in the acid of satire! He ends it with an appeal to Arjuna to “get up &
act”.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
Arjuna’s Hollow Arguments (Verses 2.4 & 2.5)
Arjuna continues with hollow arguments:
How, O Madhusudana, shall I in battle fight with arrows against Bhishma &
Drona, who are fit to be worshipped?
Better indeed in this world, is to eat even the bread of “beggary” than to slay
the most noble of teachers. But, if I kill them, even in this world all my
enjoyment of wealth & desires will be stained with blood.
The hollowness of Arjuna’s argument is revealed when it is seen that the imminent war is
not between individuals, but the two forces are arrayed to fight for certain principles,
dharma versus adharma. Here, Arjuna has no individual right of honour or dishonour, or
to show respect or disrespect to persons in the enemy side. Arjuna’s egoism was the
cause of this moral confusion. Due to false estimate of himself & his problem, Arjuna
poses here as a martyr of his own morality & ethical goodness. He says that it will be
nobler for himself & his brothers to live upon bread earned through begging. He points
out that his Aryan –heart would neither be able to enjoy the kingdom nor its wealth,
because everything will be smeared with the blood of his killed relatives.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
Arjuna’s surrender to Sri Krishna (Verses 2.6 & 2.7)
The state of hysteria attacking his intellectual composure, Arjuna says: I
can scarcely say which will be better; that we should conquer them or
that they should conquer us. Even the sons of Dritarashtra, after slaying
whom we do not wish to live, stand facing us.
Having realized his helpless impotency within, Arjuna surrenders totally
to Krishna, saying:
My heart is overpowered by the taint of pity; my mind is confused as to
duty. I ask Thee. Tell me decisively what is good for me, I am Thy disciple.
Instruct me, who has taken refuge in Thee.
Here, Arjuna admits the psychological shattering felt by him; his intellect
is obstructed by a cloud of confusion regarding what Dharma & Adharma
are for him at this time. He indicates his readiness to follow all the
instructions of the Lord & maintain perfect faith in His wisdom.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
Arjuna’s refusal to fight (Verses 2.8 to 2.10)
Arjuna continues: I do not see that it would remove this
sorrow that burns up my senses, even if I should attain
prosperous & unrivalled dominion on earth, or even
Lordship over the gods.
Sanjaya said: Having spoken thus to Hrishikesha,
Gudakesha, the destroyer of foes, (he) said to Govinda: “I
will not fight”; and became silent.
To him who was despondent in the midst of the two armies,
Hrishikesha as if smiling, O Bharata, spoke these words.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
Grieve not for the dead or living (Verse 2.11)
The Blessed Lord said:
You have grieved for those that should not be grieved for; yet, you speak words
of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.
The Great Master Krishna starts his instructions to Arjuna with this verse. Lord
Krishna is trying to remove the very source of Arjuna’s delusion. The deep-
seated ignorance in man not only veils his Divine Nature from him, but also
projects the misconception that he is conditioned by his own body, mind &
intellect. This is the seed of Arjuna’s delusory attachments with his own
relations, & compassion for them which has made him impotent & helpless.
Krishna starts his entire Geeta lesson with his attempt to re-educate Arjuna. He
starts with a discourse on the Eternal Reality. It is Arjuna’s delusion that he can
kill the souls of Bhishma, Drona & other warriors. Krishna advises Arjuna to
renounce his physical, emotional & intellectual estimates of these people & to
revaluate the situation through spiritual understanding. This transcendental
Truth has been suddenly presented here as a shock-therapy to Arjuna.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
We are all Eternal (Verse 2.12)
It is not that at any time (in the past), indeed was I not, nor
were you, nor these rulers of men. Nor verily, shall we all
ever cease to be hereafter.
Krishna here declares that the embodied Self in every one
is set on a great pilgrimage in which It comes to identify
itself with the varied forms temporarily to get a limited but
determined set of experiences. There is a continuity from
the past-through the present-to the endless future, the
Spirit remaining the same.-Theory of Reincarnation. Hence
none deserves to be grieved since all are eternal.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
DEATH IS JUST A CHANGE OF BODY (Verse 2.13)
Just as in this body the embodied (Soul) passes into childhood, youth & old age,
so also does he pass into another body; the firm man does not grieve at it.
In the progress of growth, childhood dies away & youth appears, & youth dies
before old age can assert itself. In the old man, it is evident that neither his
childhood nor his youth is with him, & yet he can remember his own early days.
It becomes clear then that something in us is common in all the different stages
of our growth, so that the same entity remembers the experiences gained by it
in the past. Thus, youthfulness may be considered as a birth, when childhood
has met with its death. So too old age. None of us is least disturbed by these
changes. Using this subjective experience of every one as a standard of
comparison, Krishna is trying to bring home to Arjuna the fact that wise men do
not worry when they leave one body for the purpose of taking another one.
Affirming the Theory of Reincarnation, death cannot be a threat to a wise man.
Just as the soul passes on from childhood to youth to old age, at the moment of
death, the soul leaves the present body & takes up a new one, according to the
Vasanas it has accumulated throughout its journey.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE DUALITIES (Verse 2.14)
The contacts of senses with objects which cause heat & cold, pleasure & pain,
have a beginning & an end. They are impermanent; endure them bravely, O
descendant of Bharata.
An object is perceived not by the sense-organs but through them. The senses
are instruments through which the ego gathers the knowledge of the various
objects. The same object can give two different types of experiences to two
different persons. Moreover, the same object can give different experiences to
the same person at different times. The external objects can convey their stimuli
& give us an experience only when our minds come in contact with the objects
through the sense-organs. Nothing can remain the same even for a short period,
in the world-of-objects where change alone is the changeless law. A wise man
despair not of things That are or things That are not. Heat & cold, success or
failure, pain or joy-none of these can be permanent. So, it is wisdom to suffer
them meekly with the comfort of the knowledge of their finite nature. They will
pass away.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CALM ENDURANCE IN PLEASURE & PAIN (Verse 2.15)
That firm man to whom, surely these afflict not, O chief among
men, to whom pleasure & pain are the same, is fit for realising the
Immortality of the Self.
Calm endurance, both in pleasure & pain, is a condition necessary for the right
knowledge of the true Self. The one who has the mental equipoise wherein he is
not disturbed by pain & pleasure, is fit for attaining Immortality. Here
Immortality indicates Eternal Perfection, not mere deathlessness. Lord Krishna
declares that the purpose of life for everyone is the attainment of Perfection. To
endure meekly with joy the little pin pricks of life-heat & cold, success & failure,
pain & joy- is the highest training that life can provide to all of us. The equipoise
of the mind, both in pleasure & sorrow entertained by a wise man makes him fit
for the highest cultural self-development. When one understands the finite
nature of the objects of the world, one gains enough balance for calm
endurance.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE REAL NEVER PERISHES (Verse 2.16)
The unreal has no being; there is no non-being of the Real; the truth about both
these has been seen by the Knowers of the Truth.
Rishis of the past have defined the Un-Real as: that which was not in the past & which
will not be in the future, but that which seemingly exist only in the present. Naturally, the
Real is: that which defies all changes & remains the same in all the periods of time: past,
present & future. An example is: on waking up from our dream, we realize that the dream
was unreal. The objects in the dream were not there when we went to bed, appear real
during the dream, & again vanishes when we are awake.
Our body, mind & intellect are ever changing in us, & all of them therefore, cannot be
Real. In order that change may occur, a changeless substratum is necessary. In order to
hold together the millions of experiences at the level of our body, mind & intellect, & to
give us the experience of a synchronised whole- our life- we must necessarily have some
substratum that is changeless & real, which is common to all three. This changeless, Real
entity is the Self in us, the Pure Awareness. The Consciousness remaining the same,
endless experiences came under it, got illuminated & died away. That One Changeless
Factor, is the Infinite in me, the Atman or the Real Self. That Spiritual Entity is Eternal,
Unborn, Undying, & Eternal.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
BRAHMAN IS INDESTRUCTIBLE (Verse 2.17)
Know That to be Indestructible by which all this is pervaded. None can
cause the destruction of That- the Imperishable.
The Real is that which envelops everything that exists, & which is the
very stuff & substance of all the worlds of perceptions, which we
experience. Different mud pots of various colours, sizes etc., may have
different names as per their contents. All of them are permeated with
one & the same stuff, the mud. Similarly, the world of finite changes is
entirely permeated through & through, & enveloped by the Real; the
Changeless. Lord Krishna adds that there is no possibility of this Real;
even for a moment, ever getting destroyed, even by a fraction.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE ETRNAL SELF ( Verse 2.18)
They have an end, it is said, these bodies of the embodied-Self. The Self is
Eternal, Indestructible, Incomprehensible. Therefore fight, O Bharata.
The physical forms, constituted of matter envelopments, are all perishable
equipment for the indwelling. This Self is the Eternal Factor, ever in Its nature,
changeless, indestructible, & incomprehensible. The matter envelopments, by
their nature is ever-changing, change being the insignia of the finite. By the two
terms Eternal & Indestructible, the Lord is indicating that neither a total nor a
partial destruction of the Supreme is possible. The Eternal is Unknowable, i.e.. It
is not knowable through the usual organs of perception. These organs, mind &
intellect, are in themselves inert & they operate only when they are dynamised
by the Consciousness. As such, they cannot make the Consciousness an object of
perception.
The words: “Fight, O son of India” is a religious call to every Hindu to discard the
defeatist mentality & face whole-heartedly the situations in every field of his
life, at every given moment of his existence. Active resistance to evil is the
Krishna-creed in the Geeta.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
HE DOES NOT KILL NOR IS HE KILLED (Verse 2.19)
He who takes the Self to be the slayer & he who thinks He is
slain; neither of them knows. He slays not, nor is He slain.
The Self being Immutable is neither slain nor can It be the
slayer. That which is killed is the perishable body & the
delusory arrogation; the notion “I am slain” belongs to the
ego-centre. The Self is that which is beyond the body & the
ego, since the Pure Consciousness is the Illuminator of
both. Being Immutable, the Self can neither be the agent
nor the object of the action of slaying.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
UNBORN ETERNAL CHANGELESS SELF ( Verses 2.20 & 2.21)
He is not born, nor does He ever die; after having been, He again ceases not to be;
Unborn, Eternal, Changeless & Ancient, He is not killed when the body is killed.
Whosoever knows Him to be Indestructible, Eternal, Unborn, & Inexhaustible, how can
that man slay O Partha, or cause others to be slain?
The Immutability of the Self is established here. The body is prone to 6 changes, viz. birth,
existence, growth, decay, disease & death, which lead to all sorrows. All these are denied
in the Self. Unlike the physical body, the Self is not born, It being the Eternal Factor that
exists at all times. Since there is no birth, there is no death, things that have a beginning
alone can end. The Atman is not something that has come to be born due to or because
of the body. Thus the Self is Unborn, Eternal, Birthless & Deathless. This is the Law-of-
Being (Dharma) of the Self
Having known the Self to be Indestructible, Eternal, Unborn, & Inexhaustible, Krishna
asks Arjuna, “How can one arrogate to oneself the stupid idea of agency?” The Lord says
neither can one cause someone to slay nor himself be a slayer. If this knowledge of the
Reality is accepted by Arjuna, he will have no more justification to consider himself to be
the killer of the Unborn.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
BODY IS JUST A CLOTHE (Verse 2.22)
Just as a man casts off his worn out clothes & put on new ones, so also the
embodied-Self casts off its worn out body & enters a new one.
A very popular verse which by a very striking example explains how the egocentric entity
in an individual readily leaves its association with one body, & arrogates to itself another
conducive envelopment for living a new set of its required experiences.
The ego-centre discards one physical form & takes on another, which will be most suited
for it to gain the next required type of experiences. As people change their clothes
depending upon their current activity, i.e. office, playground, home etc., the Jiva changes
the body at death & takes another suitable one for the next field of play. Changing of our
worn out clothes & putting on new ones cannot be a pain to any one. Similarly, when a
mind-intellect equipment finds that its embodiment in a given form is no longer useful in
its journey to perfection, this ‘worn-out’ body is discarded. The worn-out condition of a
body is to be decided neither by its age, nor by its biological condition. Only the ego can
decide the condition of its body. This verse emphasizes the doctrine of reincarnation.
Death grins only at those who have no understanding. It has no pain for those who
understand its implications & working.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE CHANGELESS IMMUTABLE SELF (Verse 2.23)
Weapons cleave It not, fire burns It not, water moistens It not,
wind dries It not.
Here the Changeless, Immutable Self is being described by Lord Krishna in terms of the
mutable & ever-changing world. In the world-of-change, objects are annihilated either
through instruments of death, or are consumed by fire, destroyed by water, or dried up
by air. All these are declared impotent in destroying the Self. One cannot wound water,
fire, air, or space with a sword because no instrument can destroy anything subtler than
itself. Therefore, the Self, subtler than even space, cannot be cut asunder by the gross
sword. The burning capacity of fire is the very Essence, the Truth within it. Therefore, fire
cannot burn its own Essence. Things are consumed by fire in space, yet space is never
burnt by fire, then how impotent fire will be in burning the cause of space, the Self?
Things get soaked only when they have got interspace within themselves. A piece of
bread can be soaked in water but not a piece of iron. Hence, water cannot soak the Self,
which homogeneously fill all space. Dehydration is possible only when there are some
traces of water in the substance dehydrated. The Supreme Consciousness contains
nothing other than Itself & so, annihilation through dehydration is not possible.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
HOW IS SELF ETERNAL? (Verse 2.24)
The Self cannot be cut, nor burnt, nor moistened, nor dried up. It is eternal, all-
pervading, stable, immovable & ancient.
If a thing cannot be annihilated by any of the known methods of destruction of nature, or by
those invented by man, then that given object must be everlasting.
That which has indestructibility should necessarily be everlasting; that which is thus Eternal
must necessarily be All-Pervading, i.e.. that which pervades everywhere & therefore, there is
nothing that is not pervaded by the All-Pervasive. The Eternal truth envelops all. The All-
Pervading has no shape, since that which has a shape is conditioned all along its outline by
something other than itself. It has only Itself all round It & at all places, & that It is
unconditioned by anything other than Itself.
A truth that is thus Eternal, Homogeneous, All- pervading, must necessarily be ‘stable’, because
no change can ever take place in it. That which is thus stable must be ‘Firm’; for it cannot shake
or move, since movement implies that the transfer of a thing from one set of time & space to
another set, where it was not there before. Since It is All-Pervading, there is no spot in space,
or period in time, where It is not already, & hence It cannot move. A motionless thing is indeed
‘Firm’. Truth is thus both stable & firm, having no movement anywhere.
The Self is not new, but It is ancient, implying that the Self is unconditioned by time & space.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
UNTHINKABLE SELF (Verse 2.25)
This Self is said to be Unmanifest, Unthinkable & Unchangeable. Therefore, knowing This
to be such, you should not grieve.
This Eternal, All-Pervading Self is certainly Unmanifest, Unthinkable, and Unchangeable. Having
known this truth in Its essential nature, it is neither possible to kill nor to get really killed.
UNMANIFEST: A thing is called manifest when we can perceive it through one or the other of our
sense-organs. That which is beyond all the 5 sense-organs is the Unmanifest. The 5 Great Elements
from Earth to Air, get progressively subtler for our perception. Ether or space is beyond our
perception. The Cause of Ether, the Self, still subtler, has thus to be Unmanifest. A full grown mango
tree though exists in the seed, it remains unmanifest for us. The Eternal, as the very subject because
of which , our sense organs perceive, cannot be perceived by them.
UNTHINKABLE: The human mind also cannot think nor can the human intellect comprehend the
Infinite. The Self being the very life that energizes the mind & the intellect, which are inert of their
own, cannot make the Self an object of their comprehension. So the word Unthinkable here means
Incomprehensible.
UNCHANGEABLE: This indicates that the Self is without parts because things that have parts in
themselves are things which have ‘form’, & thus necessarily Finite, & exhibit in themselves various
modifications & changes.
By these terms, Truth is declared as Immutable, Unmanifest, Unthinkable & Unchangeable. He who
understands the Eternal nature of the Self can have neither the occasion to perceive himself as the
slayer, nor recognize others as the slain.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
DO NOT GRIEVE OVER DEATH (Verses 2.26 & 2.27)
Even if the Self is not everlasting:
But even if you think of Him as being constantly born & constantly dying, even
then, O mighty- armed, you should not grieve.
Indeed, certain is death for the born, & certain is birth for the dead; therefore,
over the inevitable, you should not grieve.
In these two verses, the Lord gives the materialists’ point of view. For them, direct
perception alone is an authority for belief. Even they have to accept life as a constant flux
of infinite-births & infinite-deaths. If life is but a constant repetition of births & deaths,
then also one need not grieve on this occasion. That which is born must die & after death
things are born again. The materialists take life to be a constant flood of appearances of
forms arising from nowhere, & disappearing into nowhere. The theists believe that
bodies are taken up by the individual-ego to gain experience & learn to grow, &
ultimately reach the Truth behind it all. Thus both believe that life is a continuous chain
of birth & death. Against this inevitability, no intelligent man should moan. To weep is to
admit one’s own ignorance. “Keep smiling” seems to be Krishna’s philosophy of life. So he
urges Arjuna to not worry about the inevitable deaths in the ensuing war.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
COMMON MAN’S VIEW OF ARJUNA’S PROBLEM-1
In the next 10 verses, the Lord gives the common man’s view of Arjuna’s
problem.
2.28. Beings unmanifest in the beginning, & unmanifest again in their end seem
to be manifest in the middle, O Bharata. What then is there to grieve about?
The material world of objects strictly follows the law of causation. Everything is
a result of ‘causes’ & ‘effects’. Mostly the causes are unmanifest & effects
manifest. Creation is simply a projection from the unmanifest to the manifest.
So the manifest world of today was unmanifest before creation; & now for the
time being, it is available for cognition as fully manifest, only to fade away soon
into the unmanifest again. Even if viewed thus, why should one mourn? The
spokes of a wheel that turns eternally must COME DOWN only to RISE UP again.
What we see in a dream were unmanifest before, & came to manifest during the
dream, become unmanifest again upon waking up. Why moan? If there be an
Infinite, Eternal Truth which is Changeless & Deathless, in which alone is this
drama of change occurs, how is it that we are not able to realize It?

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE WONDERFUL SELF
Why is it that the Self is so difficult to realize? The Lord says:
2.29.One sees This as a wonder; another speaks of This as a wonder;
another hears of This as a wonder; yet, having heard none understands This
at all!!
Why is it that we, finite, ignorant & miserable, are not able to recognise the
Infinite, All-knowing & All-blissful Self, which is our Real Nature? In our
ignorance, the Truth seems to be a goal to be reached at a distant place & time.
But in fact, the Self being our essential nature, we are never far from It. Man
awakened to the Self’s Glory is God; God forgetful of His own glory is the
deluded man. When a mortal comes to recognise himself to be the Self, he is
struck with a wondrous ecstasy of that supra-sensuous experience. Our Rishis
used the term wonderment to indicate the exact condition at the moment our
ego drops off from the resplendent Infinite form of the Self. The true knowledge
makes a man realise that he is ‘The Soul with a body’ as opposed to the ignorant
view as ‘a body with a Soul’. Those who Listen are encouraged to Reflect upon
what they have heard & to Meditate until they realise the Self.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE INDESTRUCTIBLE SELF
2.30. This- the Indweller in the body of everyone is ever
indestructible, O Bharata; & therefore, you should not grieve for
any creature.
The subtle Reality in each body- the indwelling Spirit in every creature is
Eternal & Indestructible. All that is destroyed is only the container, the
finite matter envelopment. The Lord, hence advises Arjuna that he
should not grieve upon facing his enemies, & even killing them in battle.
This verse winds up the entire section from Verse 11 wherein the Lord
argues to establish the Eternal nature of the soul & the finite nature of
the bodies. It is established here that from the standpoint of Absolute
Truth, there is no occasion for grief & attachment.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
WAR IS KSHATRIYA’S DUTY
2.31 Further, looking at thine own duty, thou ought not to waver, for there is
nothing higher for a Kshatriya than a righteous war.
2.32 Happy indeed are the Kshatriyas, O Partha, who are called to fight in
such a battle, that comes of itself as an open door to heaven.
Here, Sri Krishna urges Arjuna to fight the war as it is his duty to fight an
unrighteous enemy. As a leader of his generation (Kshatriya), Arjuna can find
nothing more nobler than to get a glorious chance to fight for a righteous war.
Such a chance comes indeed, only to a lucky few. When a Hindu nation is called
upon to fight a righteous war, leaders are ordered to fight in defence of their
culture & to consider themselves fortunate because such battles are the wide-
open gates to Heaven.
It is interesting to note how Sri Krishna comes down from the highest principles
of Vedanta to the lower plane of material philosophy, & still lower down to the
point of view of an average worldly man, to argue logically for the need of
Arjuna to fight this war.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CONSEQUENCES OF NOT FIGHTING-1
In the next 4 verses Lord Krishna points out to Arjuna the consequences of not
fighting this war:
2.33. But if you will not fight this righteous war, then having abandoned your
own duty & fame, you shall incur sin.
2.34. People too, will recount your everlasting dishonour & to the one who has
been honoured, dishonour is more than death.
In case you refuse to engage yourself in this glorious war, then not only will you
be renouncing your own ‘personal call-of-character’(swadharma) & honour, in
not having fulfilled your noble duty, but will also incur a positive sin (of not
fighting an un-Aryan army). By running away, Arjuna will be acting against his
essential nature, that of a Kshatriya.
To a famous hero, dishonour is worse than death. This is another consequence
of not fighting this war. If Arjuna were to abandon the fight, he would do so only
because of his cowardice, & people will consider Arjuna to be a coward for ever.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CONSEQUENCES OF NOT FIGHTING-2
2.35. The great battalion commanders will think that you have withdrawn from
the battle through fear; & you will be looked down upon by those who had
thought much of you & your heroism in the past.
2.36. And many unspeakable words will your enemies speak cavilling about your
powers. What can be more painful than this?
Continuing the common man’s point of view arguments, Krishna says that not
only will the world blame Arjuna & history recount his infamy, but immediately
the great warriors & battalion commanders in the enemy lines will also start
ridiculing him. They will interpret his conscientious objections to the war as an
act of cowardice. No soldier can stand such dishonour.
Krishna drives home to Arjuna the folly of running away from the battle. It will
be intolerable when his enemies scandalize his glorious name & his chivalry in
foul language. Not only will history record for all times his cowardly retreat but
even while he lives, he will be pointed out & laughed at as a ‘hero’ who ran
away from the battlefield.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
ARISE, RESOLVED TO FIGHT
Lord Krishna concludes this section by urging Arjuna to get up &
fight:
2.37. Slain, you will obtain heaven; victorious, you will enjoy the
earth; therefore, stand up O son of Kunti, determined to fight.
Sri Krishna points out the two options Arjuna has, if he decides to fight. In case
he has to give up his life fighting, he shall certainly enter the ‘Heaven of the
Heroes’ to stay & enjoy there for aeons. If he wins, he shall certainly come to
rule over the kingdom & enjoy the world. Either way he will gain because he
was on the side of the good, fighting a righteous war.
Arise, resolved to fight: Earlier on, Arjuna, after expressing his grief & despair
had sat inert & motionless. Here Krishna asks him to come out of his moodiness
& dejection, & be determined to fight the noble war. Generalizing, we may say
that it is a divine call to Man to discard his melancholy dejections in the face of
life’s challenges & to come forward to fight as best as he can ‘the war of life’,
with a firm determination to strive & to win.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
MENTAL EQUIPOISE
Lord Krishna starts His advise on the mental attitude while working:
2.38. Having made pleasure & pain, gain & loss, victory & defeat the same, engage in
battle for the sake of battle; thus, you shall not incur sin.
Here is Krishna’s first direct statement on the technique of self-perfection. The 3 pairs of
opposites given here are experiences at 3 levels of life. PLEASURE & PAIN- intellectual
awareness; GAIN & LOSS- mental conceptions & CONQUEST & DEFEAT-physical body level
activities. One must learn to keep oneself in equilibrium in all these levels.
Pleasure & pain, gain & loss, conquest & defeat arise in the waters of life unless it is a
complete stagnation or death. We must know the art of living, being unaffected by the
rising crests or by the sinking hollows in it. This equanimity of the mind alone can bring
out the beam of inspiration & lead to success in life. Inspired work acquires a texture of
divine perfection. Rishis of India lead a an inspired life wherein they lived in perfect
unison with the Self within. Ancient Yogis discovered Yoga, a technique to bring the mind
& the intellect consciously to steadiness & poise. The Hindus of the Vedic period knew,
practised, & lived it, producing incomparable achievements.
The equanimity in the face of all situations is the secret method of keeping the mind ever
open during action. This results in the purification of the mind from Vasanas & leads to
real living & right action, which is Karma Yoga, explained in great detail in the next
chapter.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
BUDDHI YOGA
Now Lord Krishna starts his advice on Buddhi Yoga.
2.39. That, which has been taught to thee, is wisdom concerning
SANKHYA. Now listen to the wisdom concerning YOGA, having
known which, O Partha, you shall cast off the bonds-of-action.
Krishna promises that hereafter he will explain the technique of attaining
wisdom, which is otherwise called Buddhi-Yoga, “devotion through work”.
The Law of Karma forms a cardinal creed of the Hindus, according to which we
suffer the consequences of actions performed in our previous lives. Each wilfully
performed act leaves an impression upon our mind. These impressions
(Vasanas) have to be worked out in this and future lives, in order that we be
liberated from the cycle of life & death. Egocentric activities add to the Vasanas,
which can be removed only by selfless action done without any attachment to
the fruits of action. As long as the ego remains, there will be attachment, &
generation of Vasanas. As long as Vasanas remain, we have to take births to
enjoy/suffer the fruits of our actions.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
NO LOSS OF EFFORT IN YOGA
2.40. In this there is no loss of effort, nor is there any harm
(production of contrary results). Even a little of this knowledge,
even a little practice of the YOGA, protects one from the great fear.
Unfinished rituals will yield no fruits, just as ploughing & sowing
are not fulfilled, if the sequence of actions as ploughing, watering,
sowing, weeding, guarding, harvesting etc. are not kept up in that
order. Similarly, some rituals, if not performed strictly as per the
scriptures, might results in sins instead of merits. (Pratyavaya). A
misused medicine may kill the patient instead of curing the
disease. These two dangers, present in normal activities, are
avoided in Karma Yoga. Even a little effort by this technique will
eliminate fear of failure & disappointment.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
SINGLE POINTED MIND
Lord Krishna tells us the secret of success in Yoga:
2.41. Here, O Kurunandana, there is but a single-pointed determination;
many-branched & endless are the thoughts of the irresolute.
In Karma Yoga, the man works with one resolute determination,
with a single-pointed mind. Those who perform actions labouring
under endless desires for results, are not able to constantly apply
themselves to any line of action. Therefore, their endeavours end
in disastrous failures.
Here, Sri Krishna hints at the secret of Hindu success. With a single-
pointed mind, if one entertains any single resolute-determination,
& acts consistently for its success, he will definitely succeed. Man,
victimised by his ego, entertains hundreds of desires, & this mental
agitations weaken his resolve towards any one goal. This
irresolution loots away his potentialities for success.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CRITICISM OF THE VEDAS
In the next 3 verses, Krishna comes out with a stinging criticism of the ritualistic portion of the
Vedas.
2.42.Flowery speech is uttered by the unwise, taking pleasure in the eulogising words of Vedas, O
Partha, saying, “There is nothing else”.
2.43. Full of desires, having heaven as their goal, they utter flowery words, which promise new birth
as the reward of their actions, & prescribe various specific actions for the attainment of pleasure &
Lordship.
2.44. For, those who cling to joy & Lordship, whose minds are drawn away by such teaching, are
neither determinate & resolute nor are they fit for steady meditation & Samadhi.
The ritualistic portions of the Vedas are characterised here as ‘the flowery words of the unwise’.
These words written by the Sage Vyasa were most revolutionary in his time & age. These portions of
the Vedas address those who are deeply attached to pleasure & power, whose discriminative powers
are stolen by their concern for the results & rewards of their Karma. They were in the ritualism as
such, & not concerned with the Higher, to reach which the rituals are but the means.
Vyasa felt that these rituals are methods of impotent religion, as the ritualist gets involved in the
means, without aspiring for the Real Goal! Krishna is here laughing at those who mistake the means
for the end. The Karma Kanda is meant to prepare the mind to single-pointedness, when it is
pursued without specific desires. Such a prepared mind alone is fit for steady contemplation over the
Upanishadic declarations.
Sri Krishna declares in the end that such persons who are tossed about by their desires shall never
discover any experience of tranquillity in their inner life.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
VEDAS DEAL WITH GUNAS
2.45. The Vedas deal with the three attributes; be you above the three
attributes(GUNAS) Arjuna, free yourself from the pairs-of-opposites, & ever
remain in the SATTVA, freed from all thoughts of acquisition & preservation
(Yogakshema), & be established in the Self.
The 3 inseparable gunas always remain in every living creature, in varying proportion. The mind &
the intellect are constituted of these. To go beyond these is to go beyond the mind. If you remove all
the gunas, nothing will exist. Hence, Krishna advises Arjuna to “transcend the gunas”. He is asked to
be free from all the pairs-of-opposites, such as joy & sorrow, success & failure etc., be ever
established in purity (Sattva) by keeping oneself least agitated, least deluded in perception of things
& beings.
Yogakshema includes all the egocentric activities of every living being in the universe. It means to
acquire to possess, & to preserve the acquired. To renounce these two urges is to get away from the
two main fields causing sorrow & restlessness in life. How one can do all these? By becoming
Atmavan- by remaining established in the SELF. All the above urges belong to the ego, born from our
identification with the body, mind & the intellect. Geeta shows the path of detaching ourselves from
these maladies by keeping a constant sense of awareness of our Pure Divine Nature. Established in
the Self, one goes beyond worldly experiences, beyond the gunas. One who is beyond the Gunas
has no more use of the Vedas, as he becomes the Master of Vedas.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
UNIMPORTANCE OF VEDAS TO A SELF-REALIZED
2.46. To the Brahmana who has known the Self, all the Vedas are of so much use,
as is a reservoir of water in a place where there is flood everywhere.
For the spiritual seeker, the Vedas are the only source of True Knowledge. To a Self-
realized person, the ritualistic portion of the Vedas, which promise fulfilment of various
worldly desires, is completely irrelevant. Upon discovering the Self within, the seeker
comes to experience the infinite Bliss of the Divine. All the pleasures derived from
performance of work enjoined in the Vedas add up only to a tiny drop of the sea of Bliss
enjoyed permanently by the Self-realized. Sri Krishna uses a wonderful simile here to
explain this fact. Everyone has to reach the well to collect water in dry season. But when
there is flood of water everywhere, why should anybody use the well which is submerged
in the flood?
Geeta is not ridiculing or ignoring the Vedas here. It is pointing out the futility of the
Karma Kanda of the Vedas alone in gaining the Supreme. It is ridiculing the unintelligent
who have mistaken the means for the goal! The rituals performed with no anxiety for the
results purify the mind of the performer. Then a clearer discriminative power operates &
the seeker, through his sadhanas, reach the Supreme.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
GEETA’S THEORY OF KARMA
2.47. Thy right is to work only, but never for its fruits; let the fruit-of- action be
not thy motive; nor let thy attachment be to inaction.
The Geeta theory states that single-pointed, divine-dedicated Karma without desire for the fruits
leads to inner purification, precedent to spiritual awakening. Here Karma incorporates All the
activities in the social & personal life. To Krishna, Karma Yoga is the art of living & acting in a spirit of
Divine inspiration.
Wrong imaginations are the bane of life. “Fear of failure” arising from impoverished mental
equanimity is the cause of all failures. Future is always carved out in the present. Tomorrow’s
harvest depends on today’s ploughing & sowing. The present moments are to be invested
intelligently & well, so that we may reap a better time in the future. Geeta says that “if success you
seek, then never strive with a mind dissipated with anxieties & fears about the fruits”. An action
done in the Present when conditioned by a Future-time appears as the fruit-of-action. Action &
reaction. So worrying about the fruit wastes our Present & dissipate our energies. So Krishna calls
man to not to waste his present moment in futile dreams & fears, but to bring out his best to the
Present moment & leave the Future to itself. Such an inspired action is sure to bear fruit & its own
spiritual reward. A Karma Yogi must understand that his concern is with action alone & not with
results. He should not think about a specific fruit for a given action, & he should not be inactive. The
work itself is his reward, & he should get immersed in the noble work he is doing. The work is the
means to reach the Divine Goal of Self-experience.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARDS WORK
2.48. Perform action O Dhananjaya, abandoning attachment, being steadfast in
Yoga, & balanced in success & failure. Evenness of mind is called YOGA.
From here onwards Lord Krishna discusses exhaustively the technique of KARMA YOGA. A complete
effacement of the ego & its vanities is to be achieved to succeed as a truly inspired worker. This is
gained by practicing the mental equipoise described earlier. Here the word YOGA is used, for the first
time, in the sense of the ‘evenness of mind’. Evenness of mind, the tranquillity of mental equipoise
in facing all pairs-of-opposites, is defined here as Yoga. Desireless actions can be performed only
when one gets completely established in Yoga. A true worker should act not only with equipoise &
equanimity, but he should also renounce his attachment to the fruits of his actions. All our delusions
& worries belong to the ego which is a bundle of the memories of the past & hopes & expectations
for the future. To live in the ego is to live either in the burial grounds of dead moments, or in the
womb of time where the unborn future now rests. By doing so, we lose the present given to us to
act upon, to strive, to earn & to achieve. To live in the present is what is meant by “acting
established in equanimity, abandoning attachment”. To work in complete self-forgetfulness with
activities in the present is to work in inspiration which yield greatest returns.
Krishna urges Arjuna to work “established in equanimity, renouncing all of the egocentric
attachments, forgetting to worry over the results of success or failure in the activities”. The great
Yoga means to work thus with equipoise in all situations.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
SUPERIORITY OF BUDDHI YOGA
2.49. Far lower than the Yoga-of-wisdom is action, O Dhananjaya. Seek thy
refuge in wisdom; wretched are they whose motive is the ‘fruit’.
Work done with a mind undisturbed by anxieties for the results is indeed
superior to the work done by one who is worried over the results. When
thought flows in a state of flux & agitation, we call it mind. When it is single-
pointed, calm & serene, it is called the intellect or Buddhi. Buddhi-yoga here
means ‘to be established in devotion to the intellect’. In Buddhi-yoga we pursue
our duties without ever losing sight of our ultimate Goal in life. We may
interpret it as an individual’s attempt to live & act from the zone of the intellect,
which freely controls a faithful mind. The ‘objective’ mind working under the
control of the ‘subjective’ mind is Buddhi-yoga. This leads to a release from the
mental congestion created by existing Vasanas, instead of increasing Vasanas by
selfish work. Those who work with attachment to fruits-of-action are termed
“wretched” because they will incur new Vasanas by their desire-prompted
actions. Unselfish work performed in a spirit of dedication & egoless surrender
is the secret method of exhausting our Vasanas-store. Such a mind alone can
hope to attain the God-hood.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
YOGA AS SKILL IN ACTION
2.50. Endowed with the wisdom of evenness-of-mind, one casts off in this life
both good deeds & evil deeds; therefore, devote yourself to YOGA, skill in action
is YOGA.
One who has an evenness of temper accomplished by perfect withdrawal from
sentiments & emotions, established in his resolute intellect, he transcends the realm of
good & bad, and merit & demerit. The concepts of good & bad is essentially of the mind,
& reactions of merit & demerit leave behind Vasanas in our mind. One whose actions are
guided by the clear vision of his higher & diviner goal, eliminates the Vasanas, & becomes
a master of his external situations.
Here, Vyasa gives a new definition of Yoga as “dexterity in action”, in addition to the one
given before, as “evenness of mind”. This earlier definition is incorporated into the latter
one, & Karma Yoga in the all comprehensive meaning becomes the “art of working with
perfect mental equilibrium in all the different conditions of pairs-of-opposites”. The
intention of the Lord, in this verse is to arrive at a meaning of Karma Yoga as the art of
working without desires & detached from all the Vasanas within, both the good & the
bad. All actions when properly pursued become a means for the ultimate end of realizing
the Self through meditation, with a pure mind.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
EVENNESS OF MIND IN ACTION
2.51. The wise, possessed of knowledge, having abandoned
the fruits of their actions, freed from the fetters of birth, go
to the state which is beyond all evil.
Lord Krishna explains here why a man of true devotion to
work, should act, & with perfect evenness of mind strive to
achieve. Those who know the art of true living undertake
all work, maintaining in themselves the full evenness of the
mind, & thus abandon all anxieties for the fruits of their
actions. Such wise men acts upon renouncing both the ego
& the ego-motivated desires. Thus they achieve Vasana-
purgation, & overcome bondages of birth & death.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
DISGUST FOR SENSE-EXPERIENCES
2.52.When your intellect crosses beyond the mire of delusion, then
you shall attain to indifference as to what has been heard & what
is yet to be heard.
This verse assures Arjuna that when his intellect crosses over delusion, it will develop
disgust for all that has been heard & for that, which is yet to be heard. These terms
represent all sense-experiences, enjoyed & yet to enjoy.
The cause of delusion is Maya, which is itself unmanifest but is felt through its effects. At
the intellectual level, it veils the Self in us. On the mental level, Maya projects the not-
Self as the reality & causes delusion & wrong identification with the body, mind &
intellect. Here it is said that once the intellect in us is purified through Karma Yoga, it
becomes possible for it to remove the veil of Maya & see the splendour of the Spiritual
Entity. Then it comes to live its own Real Nature of Bliss Infinite. To the extent that the
illusion of ignorance melts away in an integrated intellect, to that extent its wanderings in
the sensuous-world are curtailed. The intellect of such a purified Karma yogin does not
re-live in its memory of past sensuous pleasures nor it is anxious for the sense-pleasures
yet to be enjoyed.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
IMMOVABLE & STEADY IN THE SELF
2.53. When your intellect, though perplexed by what you have
heard, shall stand immovable & steady in the Self, then you shall
attain Self-realisation.
When one’s intellect comes to steady equipoise, & is undisturbed by any
of the experiences that reach one through the 5 senses of perception,
then one is considered as having attained Yoga. Sense organs are the
antennae through which signals from the outside world creep in &
disturb the mind. One attains Yoga only when, in the midst of a barrage
of such sensual signals, he remains undisturbed & does not lose his
serenity & equipoise.
The discussion so far has made Arjuna forget his dejection & sorrow, &
he starts taking an active part in the Lord’s discourse. He raises, in the
next verse, his genuine doubt about the state of steady wisdom.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
ARJUNA’S DOUBT: STEADY WISDOM
Anxious to know the characteristics of a man of equipoise, Arjuna asks this
question:
2.54. Arjuna said:
What, O Keshava, is the description of him who has steady wisdom & who is
merged in the Superconscious state? How does one of steady wisdom speak,
how does he sit, how does he walk?
After hearing from the Lord about the Ultimate Goal which the Karma-Yogin
reaches when he has, with evenness-of-mind, perfected the ‘technique of work’,
Arjuna has a doubt as to whether after gaining this Goal, he will be able to live
in the world outside. So he wanted to know fully the condition of the Perfected
Master; as to how does he speak, how does he sit, how does he walk, etc. The
first half of the verse demands a description of a man of steady-wisdom while
established in Samadhi, with regard to his inner life. The second half asks for a
description of how such a Master will act in the world outside. How that
experience of the Self influences his actions in the outer world?

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CHARACTERISTICS OF A REALISED-MAN-1
Sri Krishna now discusses elaborately, through the next 13 verses of this chapter,
the inner & outer life of a man of Self-Realization. This discussion gives us a
thumb rule of what types of values & mental attitudes we should develop in
order to realise the Divinity within- the Pure Awareness.
2.55. When a man completely casts off O Partha, all the desires of the mind, & is
satisfied in the Self by the Self, then he is said to be the one of steady-Wisdom.
This is a brilliant summary of all that we should know about the mental
condition of a Perfect One. He is considered to be a man-of-Wisdom who has
completely cast away ALL DESIRES from his mind. An ignorant mind is the
breeding ground of desires. With the Right-Knowledge, it becomes desireless.
The Perfect One is ‘blissful 'in his own experience of the Self. The man of Steady-
Wisdom, SELF-SATISFIED IN THE SELF, can no more entertain any desire, or have
any appetite for the paltry objects of the body, of the mind or of the intellect.
He becomes the very source of all Bliss.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CHARACTERISTICS OF A REALISED-MAN-2
2.56.He whose mind is not shaken up by adversity, & who in prosperity
does not hanker after pleasures, who is free from attachment, fear &
anger is called a Sage of Steady-Wisdom.
Lord Krishna gives another characteristic of a man of Steady-Wisdom:
Equanimity in pleasure & pain. Here he is an ‘experiencer’, a bearer of
body afflictions. His heart is undisturbed by sorrow or joy, who is
unattached, fearless, & free of anger. The hundreds of emotions seen in
ordinary man are not at all seen in a Perfect-one. The 3 emotions that
must be absent in such a silent Sage, Muni, are attachment, fear & anger.
It is our attachments with things create fear of non-winning the object of
desire. To those that come between us & the object of desire, we feel
anger. In the man of Steady-Knowledge, the fire of desire does not
increase when more pleasures are attained.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
CHARACTERISTICS OF A REALISED MAN-3
2.57. He who is everywhere without attachment, on meeting with anything
good or bad, who neither rejoices nor hates, his Wisdom is fixed.
Here, Sri Krishna adds more features of the Perfect man.
He who, without attachment, squarely meets life with all equanimity & poise, is
the one who is established in Wisdom. Mere detachment from the things of life
is NOT the sign of perfection or true discrimination. Detachment from the world
outside is equally accompanied by a growing internal balance to face all the
challenges in life. Auspicious & inauspicious events are faced with perfect
equipoise without either uncontrolled rejoicing at the auspicious or any aversion
for the inauspicious. He lives, with divine freedom, dexterously meeting both
the joys & the sorrows which life may provide. He experiences the best & the
worst in life with equal detachment because He is ever established in the True &
Eternal, which is the very SELF. He neither compliments anything in this world,
nor He condemns anything. To Him everything is wonderful. He sees things as
they are without any mental colouring.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
2.58.When like the tortoise which withdraws its limbs from all
sides, He withdraws His senses from the sense-objects then His
wisdom becomes steady.
The Lord continues with his description of a man of steady-wisdom: He has
the special knack for withdrawing his senses from all the disturbing ‘fields-
of-objects’. Just as a tortoise can, even at the most distant suggestions of
danger, instinctively withdraws all its limbs into itself & feel safe within, a
man-of-Perfection can consciously withdraw all his 5 sense-organs of
perception. These 5 avenues of knowledge bring to him the innumerable
stimuli from the outer world, which upon reaching the mind provide all the
disturbances that man feels in his life. A man of Steady-Wisdom is He who
has the ready capacity to fold back His senses from any, or all the fields of
their activities. This capacity is called Pratyahara in Yoga, which is
accomplished through control of breath.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
2.59. The objects of the senses turn away from the abstinent man
leaving the longing (behind); but his longing also leaves him upon
seeing the Supreme.
An individual may come to maintain sense-withdrawal from the sense
objects due to some physical incapacity or mental mood. In such cases,
though the sense-organs come to feel an aversion for the objects, their
inclination for these objects merely remain dormant, temporarily. All sense-
objects ultimately reach those who are courting them with burning desires.
From one who is completely abstinent, sense-objects must necessarily get
repelled. But the deep taste for them that is ingrained in his mind is very
difficult to be erased completely. Lord Krishna assures here that these
mental impressions will all be totally erased only when the seeker
transcends the ego & comes to experience the Self.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
2.60. The turbulent senses, O son of Kunti, do violently carry away
the mind of a wise man, though he (may) be strong (to control
them).
The Lord had already emphasized that a Perfect-Master is one who has
complete control over his sense-appetites. A philosophical idea has to be
lived to become a spiritual process. So Krishna indicates to Arjuna the
practical method by which he should struggle hard, in order to reach the
eminence of perfection as a man of steady wisdom. Unless well-controlled,
the sense-organs will drag the mind to sense-objects. This happens even to a
highly evolved seeker. The Lord is warning the seekers to be on guard & not
let the ‘objective-mind’ take hold of & enslave the ‘subjective-intellect’. The
common cause by which very many true seekers fall away from the path is
this fact. Once an accomplished seeker relaxes his tapas, he falls back into
the field of the senses & loses his mental poise & concentration.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
2.61. Having restrained them all, He should sit steadfast, intent on Me; His
wisdom is steady, whose senses are under control.
Arjuna is warned here that as a seeker of Self-Perfection, he should constantly struggle to control his
sense-organs & their mad lustful wanderings in their respective fields.
According to Western psychology, To Control is to Suppress, & thus unhealthy. But the Vedic theory
is not pointing to any mental suppression at all. It is only advising an inward blossoming, an inner
growth & development by which one’s sense-enjoyments drop out to make room for the perception
of a newer field of more satisfying Bliss. Lord Krishna advises not only a withdrawal from the
unhealthy sensuousness, but also gives the healthy method of doing so by the positive technique of
Self-Perfection. Through a constant attempt at focussing our attention on the Supreme, he advises
Arjuna to be steady.
The Rishis of ancient India in their lived experience discovered for themselves, that all the previously
existing Vasanas could be eradicated by exposing the mind to the quiet atmosphere of meditation
upon the All-Perfect Being. By this process, the one who has come to gain a complete mastery over
his sense-organs is one who is Steadfast-in-Wisdom. There is no excessive force to control the
senses in this technique, instead, the sense-organs, on their own accord, lye tamely surrendered.
Such a Perfect One has neither ruined his instruments-of-cognition nor closed down the avenues of
Knowledge in him.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
SOURCE OF ALL EVIL IN MAN
In the following five verses, Lord Krishna explains the Hindu Psychological Theory of the fall of
man from Godhood.
2.62. When a man thinks of objects, attachment for them arises; from attachment, desire is
born; from desire arises anger..
2.63. From anger comes delusion; from delusion, loss of memory; from loss of memory, the
destruction of discrimination; from destruction of discrimination, he perishes.
The ladder-of-fall of an unsuccessful seeker is beautifully described here. Like a tree
which emerges from a seed, the source of all evil starts from our own wrong thinking.
When we constantly think about a sense-object, the consistency of that thought creates
within us an attachment for the object. When more thoughts flow towards that object,
they crystallize a Burning Desire for the possession & enjoyment of that object. The same
force of emotion when directed towards the obstacles in the way of our enjoyment,
becomes Anger. An intellect fumed with anger comes to experience Delusion. The
deluded intellect loses the power of Discrimination, because it loses all of the memories
of the past. He loses his sense of proportion & dignity of culture, or Conscience. Once his
conscience is dulled, he becomes a two-legged animal hankering after satisfying his
hungers of the flesh. Thus the Contemplation of Sense-objects becomes the source of all
evils.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE MEANS OF DELIVERANCE
2.64. But the self-controlled man moving among objects, with his
senses under restraint, & free from both attraction & repulsion,
attains peace.
He alone, who with perfect self-control, goes through life among the infinite
number of sense-objects, each trying to bind him, & approaches them with
neither love nor hatred, comes to enjoy Peace. By running away from the sense-
objects none can attain inner peace. The outer world-of-objects can entangle
only those who lend the power to the objects to smother them. An individual
who lives in self-control will not lend his own life’s dynamism to an object to
persecute him, through his own aversion to, or love for that object. This
condition of the mind is called tranquillity or peace (Prasada). Living with self-
control among sense-objects with least attachment or aversion towards them is
the means of deliverance for man from desire-prompted anger, delusion & other
consequences.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEACE IS ATTAINED?
2.65. In that peace all pains are destroyed; for, the intellect of the
tranquil-minded soon becomes steady.
In tranquillity all sorrows are destroyed. A peaceful mind is the
significance of happiness. The least agitated man is proof against all
sorrows inasmuch as sorrow is nothing but a state of agitation in the
mind.
Destruction of sorrows is the elimination of Vasanas. We have seen that
the Vasana granulations, giving a thick coating to the subjective mind,
are the cause for its delusion & consequent sorrows for the imperfect
ones. The Perfect One transcends the Vasanas through Buddhi Yoga.
Keeping the mind in tranquillity, consciously brought about through an
intelligent life of self-control, is the secret of eliminating all Vasanas.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
ABSENCE OF TRANQUILITY
2.66. There is no knowledge (of the Self) to the unsteady; and to
the unsteady no meditation; and to the unmeditative no peace; to
the peaceless, how can there be happiness?
Here is an explanation of why quietude of the mind is so essential for Self-
perfection. Unless the mind is quiet, one will have neither the intellectual
leisure for cultural self-development, nor the inner energy for consistently living
spiritual perfections. Unless there is tranquillity, there cannot be steadiness of
intellectual application to problems of life. Without this self-evaluation, one
cannot develop devotion to Self-Knowledge. Without such a glorious Goal, our
life will be a lost ship in an ocean, going nowhere, reaching nowhere, &
ultimately floundering upon some treacherous rock. Such a person will not
know what the peace of mind is. To such a restless person, where is happiness?
To live in balance & sail safely on the uncertain waves of the ocean of life, we
must have a constant perception of the Real.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
SENSE-CONTROL FOR KNOWLEDGE
2.67.The mind which follows in the wake of the wandering senses, carries
away his discrimination, as the wind carries away a boat on the waters.
2.68. Therefore, O Mighty-armed, his knowledge is steady whose senses
are completely restrained from sense-objects.
Just as a ship with the sails up is at the mercy of fitful storms & reckless
waves, the life of a man is ruined, if his mind is unanchored & left to be
carried here & there by uncontrolled senses. Life in self-control alone is
life worth living, if we demand anything more than sorrow. He alone is a
man-of-wisdom, rooted in joy & bliss, who has completely restrained all
his senses from their objects. The sense-objects will not, in a Perfect man,
disturb his mind & rob him of peace & tranquillity. He who has conquered
the ego & has transcended his matter identifications, come to live in
freedom & perfect control over the tyrannical sense organs.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
DAY & NIGHT FOR THE SAGE
2.69. That which is night to all beings, in that the self-controlled
man keeps awake; where all beings are awake, that is the night for
the Sage (MUNI) who sees.
Here the Lord brings out the idea that the world as experienced by an ordinary
man is different from what is perceived by a Sage. The two pints of view, of the
ignorant & of the wise are contrasted. The ignorant never perceives the world as
it is; he always throws his own mental colour to the objects & thinks that the
imperfections within his mind to be a part & parcel of the objects perceived.
Only when this colouring medium is removed, the world appears As It Is. What
we see through the media of the body-mind-intellect, looks imperfect, but it is
really not so. A Mastermind is he, who as rooted in his wisdom, opens up the
windows of his perception & looks at the world through the eye-of-wisdom. The
egocentric, finite mortal is asleep to the world- of- perception that is enjoyed &
lived by the man of steady-wisdom; & the perfect one cannot see & feel the
thrills & sobs which the ego experiences in its selfish life of finite experience.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE EQUIPOISE OF THE PERFECT MAN
2.70. He attains Peace into whom all desires enter, as waters enter
the ocean, which filled from all sides, remains unmoved but not the
‘desirer of desires’.
Lord Krishna uses a beautiful simile to illustrate the equipoise of a man-of-
Perfection. Millions of gallons of water reach the ocean continuously through
various rivers, but the level of water in the ocean remains unchanged. Similarly,
even though an infinite number of sense-objects may pour in their stimuli into
the mind of the Perfect Man, they do not create any commotion within his
bosom. Such an individual, who always finds his own level of balance in the
midst of sense-objects, alone can truly discover peace & happiness within
himself. Also, Krishna positively denies any true peace or joy to those who are
‘desirers of desires’. This idea is just opposite to the modern view of the
materialist, who thinks that fanning up desires & satisfying as many of them as
possible, is the way to attain peace & happiness. The great Indian thinkers of the
past discovered that the joy created through satisfaction of desires can never be
complete. The ‘desirer of desires’ can never come to perfect peace.

THE HOLI GEETA
T K G Namboodhiri
THE BRAHMIC STATE
2.71. That man attains peace who, abandoning all desires, moves about without longing,
without the sense of ‘I-ness’ & ‘My-ness’.
2.72.This is the BRAHMIC-state, O son of Pritha. Attaining this, none is deluded. Being
established therein, even at the end of life, one attains oneness with Brahman.
Lord Krishna concludes this chapter of Yoga of Knowledge by describing the condition of one who
has controlled his senses & left all thoughts of individuality. These two verses are also thought of as
describing the Yoga of Renunciation, which is explained later on.
The mental condition of the one who have discovered Real Peace within is described in the first line
of these verses. He renounces all desires & has no attachments or longings. His intellect is without
any sense of ego which is the cause of attachments & longing. Sannyasa means sacrifice & to live in a
spirit of sacrifice after renouncing completely one’s ego & its desires. Geeta does not advise a
sannyasi to run away from life, but asks him to learn the art of living his life in constant inspiration
gained through an intelligent renunciation of his egocentric misconceptions.
In the last verse of the chapter, Krishna says that to realize the Self in one’s own bosom is to realize
the Self which is All-pervading & Eternal. To experience the Self is to become the Self, & so this state
is called Self-hood (Brahmic state). The last line assures us that having once attained Self-hood, one
cannot fall back into his ancient delusions. Even in old age, nay, even in the last moment of this life,
if one can attain that egoless state of tranquillity, it is sufficient to gain the Brahmic-state

The holy geeta chapter 2-yoga of knowledge

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