Bhagavat Gita - 10

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Bhagavat Gita - 10

 

A Man of Steady Wisdom (Chapter 2 verses 54-72)

 

Arjuna thereupon asks Krishna how he could recognise a man who has attained

to the state of " steadiness of intelligence " . Krishna replies: " Such a person,

having abandoned all desires from his heart, is ever satisfied with the bliss

that is in his higher self. Nothing external attracts him. He is unperturbed

in misery and happiness alike. He is free from all attachments, fear and anger.

He has such control over his senses that he can withdraw them inward in the

presence of the objects that excite them, as a tortoise withdraws its limbs

into its shell. The hold of the senses on an ordinay man is very powerful.

As a ship on the high seas is at the mercy of the winds, so is the

intelligence of man at the mercy of the sense objects. One who thinks

longingly of sense objects develops attachment for them. Attachements, in

turn, grow into strong desires and infatuation. Infatuation effaces man's

sense of distinction between the proper and the improper, and he becomes

a slave of his animal instincts - in fact loses his rationality. So the control

of the senses is a pathway to spiritual advancement, and the lack of it, to

spiritual ruin. And he who is the absolute master of the senses - into whom

the stimuli from sense objects can enter without causing any perturbation,

as the rivers into the brimming ocean - he attains to peace. That is what

is meant by being established in Brahman consciousness. Attaining to it man

is never born again. "

 

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Based on " Srimad Bhagavat Gita - The Scripture of Mankind "

a translation by Rev Swami Tapasyanandaji, published by

Sri Ramakrishna Math - Chennai. http://www.sriramakrishnamath.org/

 

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