Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 2
The Yoga of Knowledge
72 verses · Krishna reveals the eternal nature of the soul, introduces Karma Yoga, and teaches the art of acting without attachment to results.
Chapter 2
सांख्ययोग
Sāṅkhya Yoga
2.1
Sanjaya said: To him who was thus overcome with pity, whose eyes were filled with tears…
2.2
The Supreme Lord said: From where has this dejection come upon you at this critical hour
2.3
Do not yield to unmanliness, O Partha
2.4
Arjuna said: O Madhusudana, how can I fight with arrows in battle against Bhishma and…
2.5
It would be better to live in this world by begging than to slay these great souls who…
2.6
I do not know which is better — that we should conquer them or that they should conquer us
2.7
My nature is overcome by weakness and pity
2.8
I do not see what could dispel this grief that dries up my senses, even if I were to…
2.9
Sanjaya said: Having spoken thus to Hrishikesha, Gudakesha, the conqueror of sleep and…
2.10
O Bharata, to him who was grieving in the midst of both armies, Hrishikesha, as if…
2.11
The Supreme Lord said: You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak…
2.12
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the…
2.13
Just as the embodied soul continuously passes through childhood, youth, and old age in…
2.14
O son of Kunti, the contact of the senses with their objects gives rise to cold and heat,…
2.15
O best among men, the person whom these do not disturb, who remains equal in pain and…
2.16
The unreal has no existence; the real never ceases to be
2.17
Know that which pervades the entire body to be indestructible
2.18
Only the material body of the eternal, indestructible, and immeasurable soul is subject…
2.19
One who thinks the soul can kill and one who thinks it can be killed — both are ignorant
2.20
The soul is never born, nor does it ever die
2.21
O Partha, how can a person who knows the soul to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and…
2.22
Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on new ones, so does the embodied…
2.23
Weapons cannot cut the soul, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it, and wind cannot…
2.24
The soul is unbreakable and incombustible; it can neither be dampened nor dried
2.25
The soul is said to be invisible, inconceivable, and unchangeable
2.26
Even if you think the soul is perpetually born and perpetually dies, still, O…
2.27
For one who is born, death is certain; and for one who dies, birth is certain
2.28
All beings are unmanifest before birth, manifest between birth and death, and unmanifest…
2.29
Some look upon the soul as amazing, some describe it as amazing, some hear of it as…
2.30
O Bharata, the soul dwelling in the body of every being is eternal and can never be slain
2.31
Considering your duty as a warrior, you should not waver
2.32
O Partha, happy are the warriors who are called upon to fight in such a battle that comes…
2.33
But if you do not fight this righteous war, you will abandon your duty and honor, and…
2.34
People will speak of your everlasting dishonor, and for one who has been honored,…
2.35
The great warriors will think you have fled from battle out of fear, and those who held…
2.36
Your enemies will speak many words of slander, deriding your ability
2.37
If you are killed, you will attain heaven; if you are victorious, you will enjoy the earth
2.38
Treating pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat alike, engage in battle
2.39
This wisdom has been taught to you from the perspective of Sankhya
2.40
In this path, no effort is ever lost, and no harm is ever done
2.41
O Arjuna, the resolute intellect is one-pointed, but the intellects of the irresolute are…
2.42
The undiscerning ones who delight in the flowery words of the Vedas, O Partha, declare…
2.43
Full of desires, with heaven as their goal, they speak of many rituals that lead to…
2.44
For those whose minds are carried away by such teachings, who are attached to pleasure…
2.45
The Vedas deal with the three gunas
2.46
To the enlightened Brahmin, all the Vedas are of as much use as a small well when there…
2.47
You have a right to perform your duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your…
2.48
Perform your duties established in yoga, O Dhananjaya, abandoning all attachment
2.49
Action performed with selfish motives is far inferior to action performed with equanimity…
2.50
One who is united with wisdom casts off both good and evil deeds in this very life
2.51
The wise, united with wisdom, renouncing the fruits of action, are freed from the bondage…
2.52
When your intellect crosses beyond the mire of delusion, you will become indifferent to…
2.53
When your intellect, bewildered by conflicting scriptures, stands firm and steady in the…
2.54
Arjuna said: O Keshava, what are the characteristics of one who is steady in wisdom and…
2.55
The Supreme Lord said: O Partha, when one completely casts off all desires of the mind…
2.56
One whose mind is not disturbed by sorrow, who has no longing for pleasure, and who is…
2.57
One who is unattached everywhere, who neither rejoices nor hates upon encountering good…
2.58
When one withdraws the senses from sense objects, as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into…
2.59
Sense objects turn away from the abstinent person, but the taste for them remains
2.60
O son of Kunti, the turbulent senses forcibly carry away the mind of even a wise person…
2.61
Having restrained all the senses, one should sit in meditation, focused on Me
2.62
When a person dwells on sense objects, attachment to them arises
2.63
From anger arises delusion; from delusion, confusion of memory; from confusion of memory,…
2.64
But one who moves among sense objects with senses under control, free from attraction and…
Today's verse
2.65
In that tranquility, all sorrows are destroyed
2.66
For one who is not united with the Self, there is no wisdom, no meditation
2.67
When the mind follows the wandering senses, it carries away one's wisdom, as the wind…
2.68
Therefore, O mighty-armed one, one whose senses are completely restrained from sense…
2.69
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and what…
2.70
Just as the ocean remains undisturbed though waters constantly flow into it, so too the…
2.71
One who abandons all desires and acts free from longing, without any sense of 'mine' or…
2.72
O Partha, this is the divine state