Bhagavadgita 2.p7
The Bhagavadgîtâ (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 8) 2.p7
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2.p7
The Deity said:
When a man, O son of Prithâ! abandons all the desires of his heart, and is pleased in his self only and by his self, he is then called one of steady mind. He whose heart is not agitated in the midst of calamities, who has no longing for pleasures, and from whom (the feelings of) affection, fear, and wrath have departed, is called a sage of steady mind. His mind is steady, who, being without attachments anywhere, feels no exultation and no aversion on encountering the various agreeable and disagreeable (things of this world). A man's mind is steady, when he withdraws his senses from (all) objects of sense, as the tortoise (withdraws) its limbs from all sides. Objects of sense draw back from a person who is abstinent; not so the taste (for those objects). But even the taste departs from him, when he has seen the Supreme. The boisterous senses, O son of Kuntî! carry away by force the mind even of a wise man, who exerts himself (for final emancipation). Restraining them all, a man should remain engaged in devotion, making me his only resort. For his mind is steady whose senses are under his control. The man who ponders over objects of sense forms an attachment to them; from (that) attachment is produced desire; and from desire anger is produced; from anger results want of discrimination; from want of discrimination, confusion of the memory; from confusion of the memory, loss of reason; and in consequence of loss of reason. he is utterly ruined. But the self-restrained man who moves among objects with senses under the control of his own self, and free from affection and aversion, obtains tranquillity. When there is tranquillity, all his miseries are destroyed, for the mind of him whose heart is tranquil soon becomes steady. He who is not self-restrained has no steadiness of mind; nor has he who is not self-restrained perseverance in the pursuit of self-knowledge; there is no tranquillity for him who does not persevere in the pursuit of self-knowledge; and whence can there be happiness for one who is not tranquil? For the heart which follows the rambling senses leads away his judgment, as the wind leads a boat astray upon the waters. Therefore, O you of mighty arms! his mind is steady whose senses are restrained on all sides from objects of sense. The self-restrained man is awake, when it is night for all beings; and when all beings are awake, that is the night of the right-seeing sage. He into whom all objects of desire enter, as waters enter the ocean, which, (though) replenished, (still) keeps its position unmoved,-he only obtains tranquillity; not he who desires (those) objects of desire. The man who, casting off all desires, lives free from attachments, who is free from egoism, and from (the feeling that this or that is) mine, obtains tranquillity. This, O son of Prithâ! is the Brahmic state; attaining to this, one is never deluded; and remaining in it in (one's) last moments, one attains (brahma-nirvâna) the Brahmic bliss.
2.p7.n1
I. e. pleased, without regard to external objects, by self-contemplation alone.
2.p7.n2
Cf. Sutta Nipâta, p. 3.
2.p7.n3
The word subhâsubha in this sense also occurs in the Dhammapada, stanza 78, and in the Maitrî-upanishad, p. 34.
2.p7.n4
See on this, Wilson's Essays on Sanskrit Literature, vol. iii, p. 130.
2.p7.n5
I. e. when the desire is frustrated.
2.p7.n6
I. e. between right and wrong. Confusion of memory = forgetfulness of Sâstras and rules prescribed in them.
2.p7.n7
Cf. Sutta Nipâta, p. 45.
2.p7.n8
Cf. Maitrî-upanishad, p. 134, where the commentator explains it to mean freedom from desires.
2.p7.n9
For a somewhat similar use of the word bhâvanâ in this sense, comp. Dhammapada, stanza 301.
2.p7.n10
Spiritual matters are dark as night to the common run of men, while they are wide awake in all worldly pursuits. With the sage the case is exactly the reverse.
Linked texts (1)
- Bhagavadgītā — Vyāsa, Sanskrit