Sāṅkhya Yoga
The Yoga of Knowledge
Sanjaya said: To him who was thus overwhelmed with pity, whose eyes were filled with tears and who was despondent, Madhusudana (Krishna) spoke these words.
The Supreme Lord said: From where has this weakness come upon you at this critical hour? It is unbecoming of a noble person, does not lead to heaven, and brings disgrace, O Arjuna.
Do not yield to unmanliness, O Partha. It does not befit you. Cast off this petty weakness of heart and arise, O scorcher of foes.
Arjuna said: How can I fight with arrows in battle against Bhishma and Drona, who are worthy of my worship, O Madhusudana?
It would be better to live in this world by begging than to slay these great-souled teachers. If I kill them, all my enjoyments of wealth and desires will be stained with blood.
We do not know which is better for us - to conquer them or to be conquered by them. The sons of Dhritarashtra, whom if we killed we would not wish to live, stand before us.
My nature is afflicted by the weakness of pity. My mind is confused about duty. I ask you: tell me decisively what is best for me. I am your disciple. Instruct me, who has surrendered to you.
I do not see what could remove this grief that is drying up my senses, even if I were to obtain an unrivaled and prosperous kingdom on earth, or even sovereignty over the gods.
Sanjaya said: Having spoken thus to Hrishikesha (Krishna), Gudakesha (Arjuna), the scorcher of foes, said to Govinda, 'I shall not fight,' and became silent.
O descendant of Bharata, to him who was grieving between the two armies, Hrishikesha, as if smiling, spoke these words.
The Supreme Lord said: You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.
There was never a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.
Just as the embodied soul continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age in this body, so too does it pass into another body at death. The wise person is not deluded by this.
The contacts of the senses with their objects, O son of Kunti, give rise to cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go and are impermanent. Endure them bravely, O Bharata.
That person whom these do not disturb, O best among men, who is equal in pleasure and pain and is steady - that one is fit for immortality.
The unreal has no existence, and the real never ceases to be. The truth about both has been seen by the seers of reality.
Know that to be indestructible by which all this is pervaded. No one can cause the destruction of this imperishable reality.
These bodies of the eternal, indestructible, and immeasurable embodied soul are said to have an end. Therefore, fight, O Bharata.
One who thinks that the Self kills and one who thinks it is killed - both are ignorant. The Self neither kills nor is killed.
The Self is never born, nor does it ever die. Having come into being, it will never cease to be. It is unborn, eternal, permanent, and primeval. It is not slain when the body is slain.
One who knows the Self to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and immutable - how can that person kill anyone or cause anyone to be killed, O Partha?
Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on new ones, so does the embodied soul cast off worn-out bodies and enter new ones.
Weapons cannot cut the Self, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it, and wind cannot dry it.
This Self is unbreakable, incombustible, cannot be wetted or dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, unchanging, immovable, and primeval.
This Self is said to be unmanifest, inconceivable, and unchangeable. Therefore, knowing this, you should not grieve.
But even if you think the Self is perpetually born and perpetually dies, even then, O mighty-armed one, you should not grieve.
For one who is born, death is certain; and for one who has died, birth is certain. Therefore, you should not grieve over what is unavoidable.
All beings are unmanifest before birth, manifest between birth and death, and unmanifest again after death. What cause is there for lamentation?
Some look upon the Self as a wonder, some speak of it as a wonder, some hear of it as a wonder, and yet others, even after hearing, do not understand it at all.
The Self dwelling in the body of every being is eternally indestructible, O Bharata. Therefore, you should not grieve for any creature.
Considering your own duty as a warrior, you should not waver. For a kshatriya, there is nothing more auspicious than a righteous war.
Happy are the warriors, O Partha, who find such a war coming unsought to them, opening the gates of heaven.
But if you do not fight this righteous war, then having abandoned your own duty and reputation, you will incur sin.
People will speak of your everlasting dishonor, and for one who has been honored, dishonor is worse than death.
The great warriors will think you have withdrawn from battle out of fear, and those who held you in high esteem will consider you insignificant.
Your enemies will speak many unspeakable words, slandering your prowess. What could be more painful than that?
If slain, you will attain heaven; if victorious, you will enjoy the earth. Therefore, arise, O son of Kunti, resolved to fight.
Treating alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, engage in battle. Thus you shall not incur sin.
This wisdom has been taught to you from the standpoint of Sankhya. Now hear it from the standpoint of Yoga, endowed with which understanding, O Partha, you shall cast off the bondage of action.
In this path there is no loss of effort, nor is there any adverse result. Even a little practice of this dharma protects one from great fear.
In this path, the resolute understanding is single-pointed, O joy of the Kurus. But the thoughts of the irresolute are many-branched and endless.
The undiscerning ones who delight in the flowery words of the Vedas, O Partha, say that there is nothing else.
Full of desires, with heaven as their goal, they prescribe various rituals for the attainment of pleasure and power, which lead to rebirth as the fruit of actions.
For those who are deeply attached to pleasure and power, whose minds are carried away by such talk, the resolute determination for meditation does not arise.
The Vedas deal with the three gunas. Be free from the three gunas, O Arjuna. Be free from dualities, ever established in sattva, free from acquisition and preservation, and self-possessed.
As much use as there is in a well when water floods everywhere, so much use is there in all the Vedas for a knower of Brahman.
Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits. Do not be motivated by the fruits of action, nor let your attachment be to inaction.
Perform actions established in yoga, abandoning attachment, O Dhananjaya. Be equal in success and failure, for equanimity is called yoga.
Action performed with selfish motive is far inferior to action performed with equanimity of mind, O Dhananjaya. Seek refuge in wisdom. Wretched are those who are motivated by results.
One endowed with wisdom transcends both good and bad deeds in this very life. Therefore, devote yourself to yoga. Yoga is skill in action.
The wise, endowed with equanimity of mind, renouncing the fruits born of action, are freed from the bondage of birth and reach the state beyond all suffering.
When your intellect crosses beyond the mire of delusion, then you will attain indifference to what has been heard and what is yet to be heard.
When your intellect, which is now confused by various scriptural interpretations, becomes steady and immovable in meditation, then you will attain yoga.
Arjuna said: What is the description of one of steady wisdom who is established in meditation, O Keshava? How does one of steady mind speak, sit, and walk?
The Supreme Lord said: When one completely abandons all desires of the mind, O Partha, and is satisfied in the Self by the Self alone, then one is said to be of steady wisdom.
One whose mind is undisturbed by sorrow, who has no craving for pleasure, and who is free from passion, fear, and anger - such a sage is called one of steady wisdom.
One who is unattached everywhere, who neither rejoices on obtaining good nor is disturbed by evil - that person's wisdom is firmly established.
When one withdraws the senses from sense objects on all sides, as a tortoise draws its limbs into its shell, that person's wisdom is firmly established.
The sense objects turn away from one who abstains from feeding them, but the taste for them remains. Even this taste ceases for one who has seen the Supreme.
The turbulent senses, O son of Kunti, forcibly carry away the mind of even a discerning person who strives for self-control.
Having restrained all the senses, one should sit in meditation, devoted to Me. For one whose senses are under control, wisdom is firmly established.
When a person contemplates sense objects, attachment to them arises. From attachment arises desire, and from desire arises anger.
From anger arises delusion; from delusion, confusion of memory; from confusion of memory, destruction of intelligence; and from destruction of intelligence, one perishes.
But one who moves among sense objects with senses free from attachment and aversion, under self-control, attains serenity of mind.
In that serenity, all sorrows are destroyed. For the intellect of one whose mind is serene soon becomes firmly established.
There is no wisdom for the undisciplined, nor is there meditation for the undisciplined. For one without meditation there is no peace, and without peace, how can there be happiness?
When the mind follows the roaming senses, it carries away one's wisdom, as the wind carries away a boat on the water.
Therefore, O mighty-armed one, one whose senses are completely restrained from their objects - that person's wisdom is firmly established.
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled. What is the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.
Just as the ocean remains unmoved though waters flow into it from all sides, so the person into whom all desires enter without causing disturbance attains peace - not the one who craves desires.
One who abandons all desires and moves about free from longing, without possessiveness and without ego - that person attains peace.
This is the state of Brahman, O Partha. Having attained it, one is never deluded. Being established in this state even at the hour of death, one attains liberation in Brahman.