2:52: Once your intellect transcends this dense illusion you will achieve equanimity for all that has been and will be heard. 2:53: When you are no longer bewildered by the Vedic texts and when your intellect remains fixed in spiritual consciousness, then you will attain self-realization.
As described previously (at 2:46) one whose intellect is bathed in spiritual consciousness and who acts without attachment to results -- whose only goal is service to the Lord -- is a true brahmana. Such a person attains the goal of all sacred literature and all holy rites even without study.
2:54: Arjuna said: Please describe how one who is thus steadfast in wisdom, who is established in meditative trance, O Keshava, and whose intelligence is steady, speaks, sits and walks.
The phrase "meditative trance" here is samadhi-sthaya and suggests that one is firmly established in single pointed intention. That intention is devotion to yoga, to the path being described. In this chapter Arjuna is learning about Sankhya Yoga: the Yoga of the Intellect. The Lord explains that by keeping the intellect focused on truth one comes to understand the real and true from the false and illusory. Arjuna wants to know how he can perfect this yoga system, what should he do and how should he conduct his affairs to facilitate this.
2:55: The Blessed One said: When all types of desire and mental concoctions are cast off by the soul, O child of Partha, then is the soul said to be satisfied and steady in wisdom.
2:56: One whose mind is not agitated by misery and happiness, who has no desire and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, and who is steadfast in thought is called a muni [sage].
The diverse yoga systems develop various qualities and levels of realizations in those who undertake them. Part of what Sri Krsna is doing in the Gita is helping Arjuna understand the various systems with the intention of bringing him to the highest of them all. He now explains that those who perfect the Yoga of the Intellect become sages or munis. Such people of wisdom are balanced and unaffected by material conditions. They practice the yoga clear perception. The Lord is showing Arjuna how he can become a muni. As muni he will be able to determine his duty in the coming battle. Such wisdom is very important to cultivate.
2:57: One who is everywhere without attachment, who neither praises the positive nor despises the negative, such a person is fixed in the insight which leads to liberation.
2:58: When the senses are withdrawn from sense objects as a tortoise withdraws into his shell, one is fixed in the insight leading to liberation.
Conversely those who are tossed to and fro by material circumstances find the path to liberation most difficult. Intellectually understanding the fleeting nature of reality and certainty of death one who is intent on spiritual realization remains aloof from both positive and negative influences, being focused only on the Lord. The intention to submit fully to the Lord is a critical step along the Way.
2:59: By practicing abstinence the embodied living entity may turn away from the objects of the senses, but only by experiencing the Highest does the taste for sense enjoyment leave.
There are those who teach that by cutting off all desire one has attained the goal however renunciation alone is not enough. Renunciation can never satisfy the Soul. What is removed must be replaced by something better. Sri Krsna will soon explain what is the Highest goal and how Arjuna can attain it.
2:60: O child of Kunti, while striving with the senses even the learned are tortured and forcefully carried away by the mind.
2:61: Having restrained all these [senses], one who intently abides in Me, whose senses are kept completely under control, such a one is fixed in the insight leading to liberation.
Here Sri Krsna presents the goal of all yoga for Arjuna to consider:- Deceived by matter the materially encased living entities seek self satisfaction and thereby accumulate ever more imprisoning karmic reactions as He explained previously.
- The way to be freed from the cycle of action and reaction is renunciation. When the fruits of action are renounced the soul ceases to accumulate reactions.
- This is impossible to accomplish however because the ties of karma are strong and replaced by other attachments as they are dropped.
- The solution is to replace the lower material attachments with higher spiritual attachments. In this was, even as one renounces material attachments those who are wise will take up attachment to the Lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.
2:62: When pondering the objects of the senses, attachment to them develops, from that attachment desire is produced and from desire anger arises.
2:63: From anger comes delusion, from delusion loss of memory occurs, from the loss of memory the intelligence is ruined and when the intelligence is ruined one perishes.
Here this point is explained more concisely. As the living entity -- who is spirit (Nirguna Brahman) -- becomes attached to material nature (Saguna Brahman) attachment and desire or kamah develops. Material desire is never satisfied because the eternal can never be satisfied by what is temporary. Hence anger and dissatisfaction arises. As one become progressively dissatisfied with the temporary nature of the material constructs one becomes ever more deluded, imagining that the attainment of more constructs of the illusion is needed: If one only had more money, more fame, more power, more sex... then surely there would be satisfaction! And yet material satisfaction is fleeting at best. Seeking after illusive pleasures the living entity forgets spiritual reality and because trapped in material existence and suffering. When this happens spiritual consciousness perishes and the soul is enslaved to the senses. What is required for those wishing release from this self-imposed prison is a different, higher desire upon which to which to focus the Will. In this way transitory material desires and attachments are replaced by spiritual ones and the memory of ones true nature is gradually restored.
This is the purpose of yoga. Yoga yokes the materially bound living entity to the Supreme Lord. Only through such spiritual yoking is liberation possible.
2:64: Free from attraction and repulsion for the objects of the senses, self-controlled and self-governed, God's mercy is attained.
2:65: With that mercy all lamentations are destroyed and a peaceful mind is produced; with this the intelligence soon becomes established.
2:66: For those who are unyoked there is no intelligence. Among the unyoked there is neither direct perception nor non-perception. Devoid of peace, where is happiness?
2:67: The intelligence of one whose mind is engaged in the senses wanders about aimlessly like a wind driven boat on the water.
2:68: Therefore, O mighty armed one, one whose senses are restrained from sense objects has the intelligence fixed.
2:69: What is night for all living entities is the time of awakening for the self-controlled. The time of awakening for all living entities is likewise night for the all-knowing sage.
2:70: As the ocean is always being filled yet remains motionless, so too one attains peace unto whom all desires enter [but do not move], not one who craves desires.
2:71:Abandoning all material desires a person lives free from longings, ownership and false ego; thereby peace is attained.
2:72: Oh child of Partha, once this sacred state is achieved one is no longer bewildered. Being thus situated, even at the end of life the kingdom of God is attained.
Thus by intelligent presentation Sri Krsna has explained the basis of yoga and liberation. As the intellect confirms, the material world is temporary and therefore can not provide eternal satisfaction of the living entities. Rather attachment to matter enslaves the spirit soul and causes so much trouble.
While renunciation of material attachment is the way to be released, it is not enough but renunciation alone can not produce joy or satisfaction which is the eternal nature of the soul: sat chit ananda (eternity, knowledge and bliss).
Renunciation of material fruitive reaction and attachment to the Lord however brings both liberation and eternal joy.
Here ends Chapter Two. Of the Gitabhasya of Jagannatha Prakasa
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