II - Saangya Yogam

1/II. Sanjaya said "Sri Krishna then addressed the following words to Arjuna, who was as mentioned before overwhelmed with pity, whose eyes were filled with tears and agitated, and who was full of sorrow"

2/II. Sri Bhagavan said " Arjuna, how has this infatuation overtaken you at this odd hour? It is shunned by noble souls; neither will it bring heaven, nor fame, to you"

3/II. "Yield not to unmanliness, Arjuna; ill does it become you. Shaking off this paltry faint-heartedness stand up, O scorcher of enemies"

4/II. Arjuna said: How, Krishna, shall I fight Bhisma and Drona with arrows on the battlefield? They are worthy of deepest reverence, O destroyer of foes.

5/II. It is better to live on alms in this world without slaying these noble noble elders, because even after killing them we shall after all enjoy only blood-stained pleasures in the form of wealth and sense-enjoyments.

6/II. We do not even know which is preferable for us - to fight or not to fight; nor do we know whether we shall win or whether they will conquer us. Those very sons of Dhrtarastra, killing whom we do not even wish to live, stand in the enemy ranks.

7/II. With my very being tainted by the vice of faint-heartedness and my mind puzzled with regard to duty, I am asking you. Tell me that which is decidedly good; I am Your desciple. Pray instruct me, who have put myself into Your hands.

8/II. Foreven on obtaining undisputed sovereignty and an affluent kingdom on this earth and lordship over the gods, I do not see any means that can drive away the grief which is drying up my senses.

9/II. Sanjaya said: O king, having thus spoken to Sri Krishna, Arjuna again said to Him, " I will not fight ", and became silent.

10/II. Then, O Dhrtarastra, Sri Krishna, as if smiling, addressed the following words to sorrowing Arjuna, in the midst of the two armies.

11/II. Sri Bhagavan said: Arjuna, you grieve over those who should not be grieved for, and yet speak like the learned; wise men do not sorrow over the dead or the living.

12/II. In fact, there was never a time when I was not, or when you or these kings were not. Nor is it a fact that hereafter we shall all cease to be.

13/II. Just as boyhood, youth and old age are attributed to the soul through this body, even so it attains another body. The wise man does not
get deluded about this.

14/II. O son of Kunti, the contacts between the senses and their objects, which give rise to the feeling of heat and cold, pleasure and pain etc., are transitory and fleeting; therefore, Arjuna, ignore them.

15/II. Arjuna, the wise man to whom pain and pleasure are alike, and who is not tormented by these contacts, becomes eligible for immortality.

16/II. The unreal has no existence, and the real never ceases to be, the reality of both has thus been perceived by the seers of truth.

17/II. Know that alone to be imperishable, which pervades this universe; for no one has power to destroy this indestructible substance.

18/II. All these bodies pertaining to the imperishable, indefinable and eternal soul are spoken of as perishable; therfore, Arjuna, fight.

19/II. They are both ignorant, he who knows the soul to be capable to killing and he who takes it as killed; for verily the soul neither kills, nor is killed.

20/II. The soul is never born nor dies; nor does it become only after being born. For it is unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient; even though the body is slain, the soul is not.

21/II. Arjuna, the man who knows this soul to be imperishable, eternal and free from birth and decay,- how and whom will he cause to be killed, how and whom will he kill?

22/II. As a man shedding worn-out garments, takes other new ones, likewise the embodied soul, casting off worn-out bodies, enters into others which are new.

23/II. Weapons cannot cut it, nor can fire burn it; water cannot wet it nor can wind dry it.

24/II. For this soul is incapable of being cut; it is proof against fire, impervious to water and undriable as well. This soul is eternal, omnipresent, immovable, constant and everlasting.

25/II. This soul is unmanifest; it is unthinkable; and it is spoken of as immutable. Therefore, knowing this as such, you should not grieve.

26/II. And, Arjuna, if you should suppose this soul to be subject to constant birth and death, even than you should not grieve like this.

27/II. For in that case death is certain for the born, and rebirth is inevitable for the dead. You should not, therefore, grieve over the inevitable.

28/II. Arjuna, before birth beings are not manifest to our human senses; at death they return to the unmanifest again. They are manifest only in the interim between birth and death. What occasion, then, for lamentation?

29/II. Hardly, anyone perceives this soul as marvellous, scarce another likewise speaks thereof as marvellous, and scarce another hears of it as marvellous; while there are some who know it not even on hearing of it.

30/II. Arjuna, this soul dwelling in the bodies of all can never be slain; therefore, you should not mourn for anyone.

31/II. Besides: considering your own duty too you should not waver; for there is nothing more welcome for a man of the warrior class than a righteous war.

32/II. Arjuna, happy are the Ksatriyas who get such an unsolicited opportunity for war; which opens the door to heaven.

33/II. Now, if you refuse to fight this righteous war, then, shirking your duty and losing your reputation, you will incur sin.

34/II. Nay, people will also pour undying infamy on you; and infamy brought on a man enjoying popular esteem is worse than death.

35/II. And the warrior-chiefs who thought highly of you, will now despise you, thinking that it was fear which drove you from battle.

36/II. And your enemies, disparaging your might, will speak many unbecoming words; what
can be more distressing than this?

37/II. Die, and you will win heaven; conquer, and you enjoy sovereignty of the earth; therefore, stand up, Arjuna, determined to fight.

38/II. Treating alike victory and defeat, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, get ready for the fight, then; fighting thus you will not incur sin.

39/II. Arjuna, this attitude of mind has been presented to you from the point of view of Jnanayoga; now hear the same as presented from the standpoint of Karmayoga (the Yoga of selfless action). Equipped with this attitude of mind, you will be able to throw off completely the shackles of Karma.

40/II. In this path ( of disinterested action ) there is no loss of effort, not is there fear of contrary result. Even a little practice of this descipline saves one from the terrible fear of birth and death.

41/II. Arjuna, in this Yoga (of disinterested action) the intellect is determinate and directed singly towards one ideal; whereas the intellect of the undecided ( ignorant men moved by desires) wandes in all derections, after innumerable aims.

42,43,44/II. Arjuna, those who are full of worldly desires and devoted to the letter of the Vedas, who look upon heaven, as the supreme goal and argue that there is nothing beyond heaven are unwise. They utter flowery speech recommending many ritual of various kinds for the attainment of pleasure and power with rebirth as their fruit. Those minds are carried away by such words, and who are deeply attached to pleasure and worldly power, cannot attain the determinate intellect concentrated on God.

45/II. Arjuna, the Vedas thus deal with evolutes of the three Gunas (modes of Prakriti); viz., worldly enjoyments and the means of attaining such enjoyments; be thou indefferent to these enjoyments and their means, rising above pairs of opposites like pleasur and pain etc., established in the Eternal Existence (God), absolutely unconcerned about the supply of wants and the preservation of what has been already attained, and self-controlled.

46/II. A Brahmana, who has obtained enlightenment, has the same use for all the Vedas as one who stands at the brink of a sheet of water overflowing on all sides has for a small reservoir of water.

47/II. Your right is to work only, but never to the fruit thereof. Be not instrumental in making your actions bear fruit, nor let your attachment be to inaction.

48/II. Arjuna, perform your duties established in Yoga, renouncing attachment, and even-tempered in success and failure; envenness of temper is called Yoga.

49/II. Action (with a selfish motive) is far inferior to this Yoga in the form of equanimity. Do you seek refuge in this equipoise of mind, Arjuna; for poor and wretched are those who are instrumental in making their actions bear fruit.

50/II. Endowed with equanimity, one sheds in this life both good and evil. Therefore, strive for the practice of this Yoga of equanimity. Skill in action lies in (the practice of this) Yoga.

51/II. For wise men possessing an equiposied mind, renouncing the fruit of actions and freed from the shackles of birth, attain the blissful supreme state.

52/II. When your mind will have fully crossed the more of delusion, you will then grow indifferent to the enjoyments of this world and the next that have been heard of as well as to those that are yet to be heard of.

53/II. When your intellect, confused by hearing conflicting statements, will rest, steady and undistracted ( in meditation) on God, you will then attain Yoga (for lasting union with God).

54/II. Arjuna said: Krsna, what is the definition (mark) of a God-realized soul, stable to mind and established in Samadhi (perfect tranquillity of mind) ? How does the man of stable mind speak, how does he sit, how does he walk ?

55/II. Sri Bhagavan said: Arjuna, when one thoroughly dismisses all cravings of the mind, and is satisfied in the self through ( the joy of ) the self, then he is called stable of mind.

56/II. The sage, whose mind remains unperturbed amid sorrows, whose thirst for pleasure has altogether disappeared, and who is free from passion, fear and anger, is called stale of mind.

57/II. He who is unattached to everything, and meeting with good and evil, neither rejoices nor recoils, his mind is stable.

58/II. When like a tortoise, which draws in its limbs from all directions, he withdraws his senses from the sense-objects, his mind is (should be considerd as) stable.

59/II. Sense-objects turn away from him, who does not enjoy them with his senses; but the taste for them persists. This relish also disappears in the case of the man of stable mind when he sees the Supreme.

60/II. Turbulent by nature, the senses even of a wise man, who is practising self-control, forcibly carry away his mind, Arjuna.

61/II. Therfore, having controlled them all and collecting his mind one should sitr for meditation, devoting oneself heart and soul to Me. For he, whose senses are mastered is known to have a stable mind.

62/II. The man dwelling on sense-objects develops attachment for them; from attachment springs up desire, and from desire (unfulfilled) ensues anger.

63/II. From anger arises infatuation; from infatuation, confusion of memory; from confusion of memory, loss of reason; and from loss of reason one goes to complete ruin.

64/II. But the self-controlled practicant, while enjoying the various sense-objects through his senses, which are disciplined and free from likes and dislikes, attains placidity of mind.

65/II. With the attainment of such placidity of mind, all his sorrows come to an end; and the intellect of such a person of tranquil mind, soon withdrawing itself from all sides, becomes firmly established in God.

66/II. He who has not controlled his mind and senses can have no reason; nor can such an undisciplined man think of God. the unthinking man can have no peace; and how can there be happiness for one lacking peace of mind.?

67/II. As the wind carries away a boat upon the waters, even so of the senses moving among sense-objects, the one to which the mind is joined takes away his discrimination.

68/II. Therefore, Arjuna, he whose senses are completely restrained from their objects, is said to have a stable mind.

69/II. That which is night to all beings, in that state (of Divine Knowledge and supreme Bliss) the God-realized Yogi keeps awake. And that (the ever-changing, transient worldly happiness) in which all beings keep awake is night to the seer.

70/II. As the waters of different rivers enter the ocean, which though full on all sides remains undisturbed, likewise he is whom all enjoyments
merge themselves attains peace; not he who hankers after such enjoyments

71/II. He who has given up all desires, and moves free from attachment, egoism and thirst for enjoyment attains peace.

72/II. Arjuna, such is the state of the God-realized soul; having reached this state, he overcomes delusion. And established in this state, even at the last moment, he attains Brahmic Bliss.