BHAGAVADGITA in ENGLISH
- CHAPTER 2 -
Contents of the Gita
Summarized
1
Sanjaya said: Seeing
Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusüdana, Krsnaa, spoke the following words.
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.
3
O son of Prthä,
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.
4
Arjuna said: O killer of enemies, O killer of Madhu,
how can I
counterattack with arrows in battle men like Bhisma and Drona, who
are worthy of my worship?
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.
6
Nor do we know which is better—conquering them or
being conquered by them. If we killed the sons of Dhåtarästra, we should not care to live. Yet they are now standing before us on the battlefield.
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.
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.
9
Sanjaya said: Having
spoken thus, Arjuna, chastiser of enemies, told Krsna, “Govinda, I shall not fight,” and fell
silent.
10
O descendant of Bharata, at that time Krsna, smiling, in the midst of both the armies, spoke the following words to the
grief-stricken Arjuna.
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.
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.
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.
14
O son of Kunti, 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.
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.
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.
17
That which pervades the entire body you should know
to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul.
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.
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.
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.
21
O Pärtha, how can a person who knows that the soul
is indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable kill anyone or cause
anyone to kill?
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.
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.
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.
25
It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable
and immutable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body.
26
If, however, you think that the soul [or the
symptoms of life] is always born and dies forever,
you still have no reason to lament, O mighty-armed.
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.
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?
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.
30
O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body
can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any living being.
31
Considering your specific duty as a kshatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on
religious principles; and so there is no need for
hesitation.
32
O Pärtha, happy are the kñatriyas to whom such
fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of
the heavenly planets.
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.
34
People will always speak of your infamy, and for a
respectable person, dishonor is worse than death.
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.
36
Your enemies will describe you in many unkind words
and scorn your ability. What could be more painful for you?
37
O son of Kunti, 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.
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.
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 Parthä, when you act in such knowledge you can free
yourself from the bondage of works.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
48
Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning
all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga.
49
O Dhananjaya,
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.
50
A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of
both good and bad actions even in this life. Therefore strive for
yoga, which is the art of all work.
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].
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.
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.
54
Arjuna said: O Krsna, 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?
55
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pärtha,
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.
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.
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.
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.
59
The embodied soul may be restricted from sense
enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing
such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he
is fixed in consciousness.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
65
For one thus satisfied [in Kåñëa
consciousness], the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness,
one’s intelligence is soon well established.
66
One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krsna 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?
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.
68
Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are
restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thus end the Second Chapter of
the Çrémad Bhagavad-gétä in the matter of its Contents.
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