BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:39

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:39

 

esa te 'bhihita sankhye

buddhir yoge tv imam srnu

buddhya yukto yaya partha

karma-bandham prahasyasi

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

esa--all this; te--unto you; abhihita--described; sankhye--by

analytical study; buddhih--intelligence; yoge--in work without

fruitive result; tu--but; imam--this; srnu- just hear; buddhya--by

intelligence; yuktah--dovetailed; yaya--by which; partha--O son of

Prtha; karma-bandham--bondage of reaction; prahasyasi--you can be

released from.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Thus far I have described this knowledge to you through analytical

study. Now listen as I explain it in terms of working without fruitive

results. O son of Prtha, when you act in such knowledge you can free

yourself from the bondage of works.

 

PURPORT

 

According to the Nirukti, or the Vedic dictionary, sankhya means that

which describes things in detail, and sankhya refers to that

philosophy which describes the real nature of the soul. And yoga

involves controlling the senses. Arjuna's proposal not to fight was

based on sense gratification. Forgetting his prime duty, he wanted to

cease fighting, because he thought that by not killing his relatives

and kinsmen he would be happier than by enjoying the kingdom after

conquering his cousins and brothers, the sons of Dhrtarastra. In both

ways, the basic principles were for sense gratification. Happiness

derived from conquering them and happiness derived by seeing kinsmen

alive are both on the basis of personal sense gratification, even at a

sacrifice of wisdom and duty. Krsna, therefore, wanted to explain to

Arjuna that by killing the body of his grandfather he would not be

killing the soul proper, and He explained that all individual persons,

including the Lord Himself, are eternal individuals; they were

individuals in the past, they are individuals in the present, and they

will continue to remain individuals in the future, because all of us

are individual souls eternally. We simply change our bodily dress in

different manners, but actually we keep our individuality even after

liberation from the bondage of material dress. An analytical study of

the soul and the body has been very graphically explained by Lord

Krsna. And this descriptive knowledge of the soul and the body from

different angles of vision has been described here as Sankhya, in

terms of the Nirukti dictionary. This Sankhya has nothing to do with

Sankhya philosophy of the atheist Kapila. Long before the imposter

Kapila's Sankhya, the Sankhya philosophy was expounded in the

Srimad-Bhagavatam by the true Lord Kapila, the incarnation of Lord

Krsna, who explained it to His mother, Devahuti. It is clearly

explained by Him that the purusa, or the Supreme Lord, is active and

that He creates by looking over the prakrti. This is accepted in the

Vedas and in the Gita. The description in the Vedas indicates that the

Lord glanced over the prakrti, or nature, and impregnated it with

atomic individual souls. All these individuals are working in the

material world for sense gratification, and under the spell of

material energy they are thinking of being enjoyers. This mentality is

dragged to the last point of liberation when the living entity wants

to become one with the Lord. This is the last snare of maya, or sense

gratificatory illusion, and it is only after many, many births of such

sense gratificatory activities that a great soul surrenders unto

Vasudeva, Lord Krsna, thereby fulfilling the search after the ultimate

truth.

 

Arjuna has already accepted Krsna as his spiritual master by

surrendering himself unto Him: sisyas te 'ham sadhi mam tvam

prapannam. Consequently, Krsna will now tell him about the working

process in buddhi-yoga, or karma-yoga, or in other words, the practice

of devotional service only for the sense gratification of the Lord.

This buddhi-yoga is clearly explained in Chapter Ten, verse ten, as

being direct communion with the Lord, who is sitting as Paramatma in

everyone's heart. But such communion does not take place without

devotional service. One who is therefore situated in devotional or

transcendental loving service to the Lord, or, in other words, in

Krsna consciousness, attains to this stage of buddhi-yoga by the

special grace of the Lord. The Lord says, therefore, that only to

those who are always engaged in devotional service out of

transcendental love does He award the pure knowledge of devotion in

love. In that way the devotee can reach Him easily in the

ever-blissful kingdom of God.

 

Thus the buddhi-yoga mentioned in this verse is the devotional service

of the Lord, and the word Sankhya mentioned herein has nothing to do

with the atheistic sankhya-yoga enunciated by the imposter Kapila. One

should not, therefore, misunderstand that the sankhya-yoga mentioned

herein has any connection with the atheistic Sankhya. Nor did that

philosophy have any influence during that time; nor would Lord Krsna

care to mention such godless philosophical speculations. Real Sankhya

philosophy is described by Lord Kapila in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, but

even that Sankhya has nothing to do with the current topics. Here,

Sankhya means analytical description of the body and the soul. Lord

Krsna made an analytical description of the soul just to bring Arjuna

to the point of buddhi-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. Therefore, Lord Krsna's

Sankhya and Lord Kapila's Sankhya, as described in the Bhagavatam, are

one and the same. They are all bhakti-yoga. Lord Krsna Said,

therefore, that only the less intelligent class of men make a

distinction between sankhya-yoga and bhakti-yoga (sankhya-yogau prthag

balah pravadanti na panditah).

 

Of course, atheistic sankhya-yoga has nothing to do with bhakti-yoga,

yet the unintelligent claim that the atheistic sankhya-yoga is

referred to in the Bhagavad-gita.

 

One should therefore understand that buddhi-yoga means to work in

Krsna consciousness, in the full bliss and knowledge of devotional

service. One who works for the satisfaction of the Lord only, however

difficult such work may be, is working under the principles of

buddhi-yoga and finds himself always in transcendental bliss. By such

transcendental engagement, one achieves all transcendental

understanding automatically, by the grace of the Lord, and thus his

liberation is complete in itself, without his making extraneous

endeavors to acquire knowledge. There is much difference between work

in Krsna consciousness and work for fruitive results, especially in

the matter of sense gratification for achieving results in terms of

family or material happiness. Buddhi-yoga is therefore the

transcendental quality of the work that we perform.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.