Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2: Sankhya Yoga, Karmanye Vadhikaraste Explained

Chapter 2 is often called the essence of the whole Gita. Krishna speaks for the first time here and lays the foundation of every major theme: the self, duty, karma yoga and steady wisdom. The remaining sixteen chapters unfold these ideas.

Verses 1 to 10: Arjuna surrenders

Krishna tells the weeping Arjuna: "Where has this weakness come from at such a moment? It does not befit a noble man. Do not yield to unmanliness, Partha. Shake off this petty weakness of heart and stand up."

Arjuna replies: "How can I shoot arrows at Bhishma and Drona, who deserve my worship? Better to live on alms than to enjoy pleasures stained with my teachers' blood. We do not even know whether it is better that we win or they." Then he makes the first prayer of the Gita:

Karpanya dosha upahata svabhavah prichchhami tvam dharma sammudha chetah
yach chhreyah syan nishchitam bruhi tan me shishyas te 'ham shadhi mam tvam prapannam (2.7)

Meaning: "My nature is overcome by weakness and my mind is confused about my duty. Tell me for certain what is best for me. I am your disciple and have taken refuge in you; teach me."

Saying "I will not fight", Arjuna falls silent, and Krishna, smiling, begins.

Verses 11 to 30: the self is eternal

"You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. There was never a time when I, you or these kings did not exist, nor will there be a time when we cease to be (2.12). As the embodied self passes through childhood, youth and old age in this body, so it passes into another body; the steady are not confused by this (2.13)."

Heat and cold, pleasure and pain come and go through contact of the senses with their objects; they are temporary, so bear them (2.14). The unreal has no existence and the real never ceases to be (2.16). That which pervades all this is indestructible.

Na jayate mriyate va kadachin nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
ajo nityah shashvato 'yam purano na hanyate hanyamane sharire (2.20)

Meaning: The self is never born and never dies. It did not come into being and will not come into being again. Unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient, it is not killed when the body is killed.

Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya navani grihnati naro 'parani
tatha sharirani vihaya jirnany anyani samyati navani dehi (2.22)

Meaning: As a person discards worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, the self discards worn-out bodies and enters new ones.

Nainam chhindanti shastrani nainam dahati pavakah
na chainam kledayanty apo na shoshayati marutah (2.23)

Meaning: Weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it and wind cannot dry it.

Even if you think the self is constantly born and dies, you should not grieve, for death is certain for the born and birth for the dead (2.27). Beings are unmanifest before birth and after death, manifest only in between; why lament? Some see the self as a wonder, some speak of it as a wonder, and some, even hearing of it, do not understand it. The self in every body can never be slain.

Verses 31 to 38: one's own duty

"Considering your own dharma you should not waver; for a warrior there is nothing better than a righteous war. Such a war is an open door to heaven. If you refuse it you lose your dharma and honour and incur sin. People will speak of your disgrace for ever, and for an honoured man disgrace is worse than death. Killed, you gain heaven; victorious, you enjoy the earth. So rise, resolved to fight. Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat alike, and fight; then you will incur no sin (2.38)."

Verses 39 to 53: the wisdom of karma yoga

"You have heard the view of Sankhya; now hear that of yoga, by which you will be freed from the bondage of action. On this path no effort is lost and there is no adverse result; even a little of it protects from great fear (2.40). Here the resolute mind is one-pointed; the irresolute mind branches endlessly."

Those who delight in the flowery words of the Vedas, performing rites for pleasure and power, cannot fix their minds in samadhi. "Rise above the three gunas, Arjuna, free of opposites, ever established in purity, self-possessed."

Karmany evadhikaras te ma phaleshu kadachana
ma karmaphala hetur bhur ma te sango 'stv akarmani (2.47)

Meaning: You have a right to your actions alone, never to their fruits. Do not let the fruit be your motive, and do not be attached to inaction.

In plain words: give the work your full attention; do not spoil it by worrying over the result; and do not give up the work because the result is not in your hands.

Yogasthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva dhananjaya
siddhy asiddhyoh samo bhutva samatvam yoga uchyate (2.48)

Meaning: Established in yoga, do your work, Dhananjaya, giving up attachment and staying even in success and failure. This evenness is called yoga.

Action done for its fruit is far inferior to the yoga of wisdom; those who work only for results are pitiable. The even-minded go beyond both merit and sin, so devote yourself to yoga: "yogah karmasu kaushalam", yoga is skill in action (2.50). When your intellect crosses the mire of delusion and stands unshaken by conflicting views, fixed in the Divine, you will attain yoga.

Verses 54 to 72: the person of steady wisdom

Arjuna asks: "What are the marks of one whose wisdom is steady? How does such a person speak, sit and walk?"

Krishna replies: "When a person gives up all desires of the mind and is content in the self by the self, they are called steady in wisdom (2.55). One who is not shaken by sorrow, does not crave pleasure, and is free of attachment, fear and anger is a sage of steady mind (2.56). As a tortoise draws in its limbs, one who withdraws the senses from their objects is steady (2.58)."

The senses are so strong that they carry off even the mind of a wise person who strives. So control them and fix the mind on me. Krishna shows the ladder of the mind's fall:

Dhyayato vishayan pumsah sangas teshupajayate
sangat sanjayate kamah kamat krodho 'bhijayate (2.62)
krodhad bhavati sammohah sammohat smriti vibhramah
smriti bhramshad buddhi nasho buddhi nashat pranashyati (2.63)

Meaning: Dwelling on objects of the senses breeds attachment; attachment breeds desire; desire, thwarted, breeds anger; anger breeds delusion; delusion confuses memory; loss of memory destroys judgement; and with judgement lost, a person is ruined.

One who moves among objects with senses under control, free of attraction and aversion, attains serenity, and in serenity all sorrow ends. The undisciplined have neither wisdom nor contemplation; without contemplation there is no peace, and without peace how can there be happiness (2.66)? As wind carries a boat off course, a mind that follows the wandering senses carries away judgement.

What is night for all beings, the self-controlled is awake to; what others are awake to is night for the sage (2.69). As the ocean stays within its bounds though rivers keep pouring in, so one into whom all desires enter attains peace, not one who chases desires (2.70). One who gives up all desires and lives free of possessiveness, ego and craving attains peace (2.71). This is the Brahmic state; reaching it one is never deluded, and abiding in it even at the end, one attains the bliss of Brahman (2.72).

What this chapter teaches

• You are not the body but the self. The body changes; you do not. This understanding eases fear and grief.
• Do your duty wholeheartedly and leave the result to God. Anxiety over results lowers the quality of work.
• Evenness in success and failure is yoga.
• Anger does not arrive suddenly; it starts with dwelling on objects. Stop the fall at the first step.