BHAGAVAD-GITA 18:51-53

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 18:51-53

 

buddhya visuddhaya yukto

dhrtyatmanam niyamya ca

sabdadin visayams tyaktva

raga-dvesau vyudasya ca

 

vivikta-sevi laghv-asi

yata-vak-kaya-manasah

dhyana-yoga-paro nityam

vairagyam samupasritah

 

ahankaram balam darpam

kamam krodham parigraham

vimucya nirmamah santo

brahma-bhuyaya kalpate

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

buddhya--with the intelligence; visuddhaya--fully purified;

yuktah--engaged; dhrtya--by determination; atmanam--the self;

niyamya--regulating; ca--also; sabda-adin--such as sound; visayan--the

sense objects; tyaktva--giving up; raga--attachment; dvesau--and

hatred; vyudasya--laying aside; ca--also; vivikta-sevi--living in a

secluded place; laghu-asi--eating a small quantity; yata--having

controlled; vak--speech; kaya--body; manasah--and mind;

dhyana-yoga-parah--absorbed in trance; nityam--twenty-four hours a

day; vairagyam--detachment; samupasritah--having taken shelter of;

ahankaram--false ego; balam--false strength; darpam--false pride;

kamam--lust; krodham--anger; parigraham--and acceptance of material

things; vimucya--being delivered from; nirmamah--without a sense of

proprietorship; santah--peaceful; brahma-bhuyaya--for

self-realization; kalpate--is qualified.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Being purified by his intelligence and controlling the mind with

determination, giving up the objects of sense gratification, being

freed from attachment and hatred, one who lives in a secluded place,

who eats little, who controls his body, mind and power of speech, who

is always in trance and who is detached, free from false ego, false

strength, false pride, lust, anger, and acceptance of material things,

free from false proprietorship, and peaceful--such a person is

certainly elevated to the position of self-realization.

 

PURPORT

 

When one is purified by intelligence, he keeps himself in the mode of

goodness. Thus one becomes the controller of the mind and is always in

trance. He is not attached to the objects of sense gratification, and

he is free from attachment and hatred in his activities. Such a

detached person naturally prefers to live in a secluded place, he does

not eat more than what he requires, and he controls the activities of

his body and mind. He has no false ego because he does not accept the

body as himself. Nor has he a desire to make the body fat and strong

by accepting so many material things. Because he has no bodily concept

of life, he is not falsely proud. He is satisfied with everything that

is offered to him by the grace of the Lord, and he is never angry in

the absence of sense gratification. Nor does he endeavor to acquire

sense objects. Thus when he is completely free from false ego, he

becomes nonattached to all material things, and that is the stage of

self-realization of Brahman. That stage is called the brahma-bhuta

stage. When one is free from the material conception of life, he

becomes peaceful and cannot be agitated. This is described in

Bhagavad-gita (2.70):

 

apuryamanam acala-pratistham

samudram apah pravisanti yadvat

tadvat kama yam pravisanti sarve

sa santimn apnoti na kama-kami

 

"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."

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.

[Guest guest]

On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Vijay Sadananda Pai wrote:

> BHAGAVAD-GITA 18:51-53

> Being purified by his intelligence and controlling the mind with

> determination, giving up the objects of sense gratification, being

> freed from attachment and hatred, one who lives in a secluded place,

> who eats little, who controls his body, mind and power of speech, who

> is always in trance and who is detached, free from false ego, false

> strength, false pride, lust, anger, and acceptance of material things,

> free from false proprietorship, and peaceful--such a person is

> certainly elevated to the position of self-realization.

 

These verses and the one which follows them are very important, and can shed

some light on the way the acaryas treat brahman (or don't, as the case may be).

As Krsna indicates in 18.54, the above situation is considered the preliminary

requirement for pure devotion. In that sense, it may even be taken as

granted--much as the shanta-rasa which characterizes brahma-bhuta realization

often goes unsaid too, when speaking of bhakti-rasa. However, because it isn't

devotional in and of itself, but has some pernicious appeal, acaryas who want to

encourage pure bhakti may also prefer to avoid dealing with it too much.

 

MDd