THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER TWO
SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER 54
Text in Transliteration:
arjuna uvaacha
sthitaprajnasya kaa byaasaa samaadhishthasya kesava
sthitadheeh kim prabhaasheta kim aaseeta vrajeta kim
Text in English:
Arjuna said:
What, O Kesava, is the mark of the man of steadfast wisdom,
steeped in Samadhi? How does the man firm in wisdom speak, how sit, how walk?
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
All the three
terms, sthitaprajna, samadhistha and sthitadhi connote the same. The knower of
Brahman becomes Brahman. When such a one is in ‘samadhi’ what becomes of his
mind? When he projects the mind on external things, how does he behave?
The concluding eighteen stanzas in this chapter are devoted
to the definition of a “Brahma-jnani.” Those who want to improve their
handwriting choose to copy the model letters and alphabets. And this method is
invariably adopted in all fields. In picking up the language, painting and
singing the perfect ones are imitated; there is no other way of acquiring
knowledge and art. “Brahma-janam” is no exception to this. While the illumined
one established in perfection is being defined, the method and the means to
attain that state are also contained in that definition. The goal and the paths
thereof are simultaneously presented. A diligent enquiry into them and an
ardent practice are wanted to achieve the ideal.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
In the Hindu scheme of life, there is the last stage of
samnyaasa where the ritual is abandoned and social obligations surrendered. The
first stage is that of student discipleship, the second that of the
householder, the third that of retreat and the fourth and the last is that of
total renunciation. Those who abandon the household life and adopt the homeless
one are the renouncers. This state may be entered upon at any time, though
normally it comes after the passage through the other three stages. The
samnyasins literally die to the world and even funeral rites are performed when
they leave their homes and become parivrajakas or homeless wanderers. These
developed souls, by their very example, affect the society to which they no
longer belong. They form the conscience of society. Their utterance is free and
their vision untrammelled. Though they have their roots in the Hindu religious
organization, they grow above it and by their freedom of mind and universality
of outlook are a challenge to the corrupting power and cynical compromise of
the authoritarians. Their supersocial life is a witness to the validity of
ultimate values from which other social values derive. They are the sages, and
Arjuna asks for some discernible sings, some distinguishing marks of such
developed souls.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Arjuna wants to know from Lord Krishna the characteristic
marks of one who is established in the self in Samadhi; how he speaks, how he
sits, how he moves about.
The characteristic marks of the sage of steady wisdom and
the means of attaining that steady knowledge of the self are described in the verses
from 55 to 72 of this chapter.
Steady wisdom is settled knowledge of one’s identity with
Brahman attained by direct realisation.
Comments by the blogger:
Sitting, speaking and walking are the most ordinary
day-to-day activities of even mundane world’s worldly people. A grocer and a
banker spends his lifetime mostly in sitting. The lawyers are notorious for
non-stop talking. One should talk whether one knows anything about it, like
this blogger blogging about the Gita! If you say something about Gita, I can’t
sit still nor can I maintain silence of the decent people. Nor can I talk like
a decent and cultured person. I would be talking quite shamelessly as though I
were the ultimate authority or a man possessed. Such is the spirit I seem to
have for the Gita though erroneously. For I am no pandit. Sri Kanji Kamakoti
Chandrasekarendra Sarasvathy or popularly known to all as “the Maha Periyavaa”
did not write a commentary on Srimad Bhagavat Gita. Whereas I am blogging! Such
is the shallowness and temerity of the idiots who rush where angels fear to
tread in!
That apart, even in ordinary life, we see people who sit,
chat and walk in an admirable manner. The greatest talker is he who knows when
to keep silent. The greatest person who rests his body, if he is restful and
not restless in his inner self, can inform and inspire just by the deportment
of sitting calm-collectedly. He would not be shifty. And while walking, the
careless walk of the Maha Periyava comes to the mind.
Even in ordinary life, we see satvic people who speak only a
little and that too only when it matters most. The deportment of sitting and
standing look in some people as though they were the lines of a lyric!
Here, Arjuna, who has been taught both samkhyam and yogam
has now almost shed his despondency and evinces keen interest even in knowing
the deportments of the sthitprajna or the one who has become that!
Sri Krishna is the ideal teacher, if Arjuna is the ideal
student, and answers these simple questions in 18 stanzas. And he teaches
through the next 16 chapters, too!
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