Bhagavad gita according to gandhi chapter 2

THE BHAGAVD GITAACCORDING TO

GANDHI

T K G NAMBOODHIRITHIRUVALLA, KERALA

Presentation adapted fromThe Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi, Orient

Paperbacks,2011

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

T K G Namboodhiri

CHAPTER 2

SAMKHYA YOGA


GANDHI

Chapter 2.1Sri Krishna tells Arjuna, who was dejected & willing to forgo everything, to shake off faintness of heart and rise to fight. Many readers get confused & believe that Gita propagates battleI have always felt that it would have been much better if the Sage Vyasa has not taken this illustration of fighting for inculcating spiritual knowledge. Though the Sage did not believe that fighting was wrong, the epic Mahabharata was not written with the aim of describing a battle. The description of the battle serves only as a pretext. In the Mahabharata virtues and vices are personified and great moral truths conveyed through those figures.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Chapter 2.2In the Gita, the author cleverly makes use of the battle to teach great truths. If the reader is not on his guard, he may be misled. The reader will not succeed till he has made himself fit by observing the yamaniyamas & other rules of discipline. To understand Gita without having equipped oneself in such a manner would be like taking up a study of botany without ever having seen plants.Arjuna who is called Gudakesa, the ever vigilant, falls into the error of ,making a distinction between kinsmen & outsiders. The Gita says that it is not right. We have no right to point an accusing finger at others. We should point out the lapses of our own people first. It permits no distinction between one’s relations & others.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Chapter 2.3Sri Krishna starts His advise to Arjuna from Verse 2.11. He starts with the distinction between the Atman and the body, for that is the first step to spiritual knowledge.Earlier, Arjuna had pleaded that killing of kinsmen was wrong & thus should be avoided, not that it was wrong to kill at all. There he was asked to forget the distinction of kinsmen & outsiders. The question whether or not it is right to kill does not arise, because Hindu scriptures say that Non-Violence is the Supreme Dharma. Ahimsa is an ideal impossible to realize to perfection in action. Violence in one form or other is unavoidable. Evil is inherent in action. If one’s kinsmen deserved to be killed, they ought to be killed; & one must not hesitate even if the entire world were likely to be destroyed in consequence.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Chapter 2.4The Gita does not only teach the path of action, or of knowledge, or of devotion. One will not shed the sense of “I” & “mine” till one has attained knowledge. One can attain Self-realization only if one sheds his attachment to the ego. A man’s devotion to God is to be judged from the extent to which he gives up his stiffness & bends low in humility. Only then will he be, not an imposter, but a truly illuminated man, a man of genuine knowledge.We can follow truth only in the measure that we shed our attachment to the ego. The Gita has been composed to teach this one truth.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.13As every human being passes through childhood, youth, and so on to old age, so also does he or she meet death. The word Dehantaraprapti here means fear of death, not that of a new life. We feel afraid only so long as we take the rope to be a serpent. Likewise, if we know the natural stages of growth of the body, we shall not grieve over death. In order to help Arjuna to overcome his agitation, Sri Krishna explains to him the difference between the atman & the body.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.14 & 2.15Contacts of the senses with their objects bring cold & heat, pleasure & pain; they come & go and are transient. Endure them. The wise man who is not disturbed or agitated by these, who is unmoved by pleasure & pain, he alone is fit for immortality.Any being who is not subject to the impressions of senses will never experience fear. One spends more energy when one is angry, & one whose energy is thus wasted cannot attain immortality. A person who can be totally absorbed in every task on hand, who lives in such a state of self-absorption will attain immortality. The meaning of the Gita on the common-sense level is that once we have plunged into a battle, we should go on fighting. One ought not to give up the task one has undertaken. The Gita does not decide for us. But if, whenever faced with a moral problem, you give up attachment to the ego & then decide what you should do, you will come to no harm. This is the substance of the arguments in the entire Gita.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.16What is non-Being is never known to have been, and what is Being is never known not to have been. Of both these the secret has been seen by the seers of the Truth.That which never was, cannot exist, and that which exists, cannot cease to exist. Even the Sun is transient, coming into existence and vanishing. Everything which has a name & a form ceases one day to exist in that particular mode, though it does not cease to be a creation of God. The men of knowledge have discovered what exists & what does not exist. Name & form are brittle as glass. We only know one simple thing: God is, nothing else is.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.17 & 2.18Know That to be imperishable whereby all this is pervaded. No one can destroy that immutable Being.Know that this Bodiless One, which can lift many Govardhan mountains on its little finger cannot be spent (avyaya) (the imperishable Soul).These bodies of the embodied one who is eternal, imperishable & immeasurable are finite. The Soul is infinite. It is Aprameya – for which there can be no evidence. Since all bodies are perishable, can one kill anybody? Bhagavad Gita does not give this license to kill. Here, since Arjuna, being a Kshatriya whose duty is to kill enemies, is asked to kill without any ignorant attachment.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.19 to 2.21He who thinks of This (Atman) as slayer & he who believes This to be slain, are both ignorant. This neither slays nor is ever slain. The Atman never kills nor is ever killed.This is never born nor ever dies, nor having been will ever not be any more; unborn, eternal, everlasting, ancient. This is not slain when the body is slain. This Atman was never born & will never die; it is not as though it never was and may not be again. The Atman is unborn, eternal & ancient.He who knows This to be imperishable, eternal, unborn, & immutable- whom and how can that man slay or cause to be slain?The Gita was written not for the learned, but for all the people to read & understand. It was written for the Sudras, the bhangis, and for women. Hence the author has used a variety of epithets for a subject, though all of them means the same thing, in order that we may grasp what he wants us to understand.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerses 2.22 to 2.25

As a man casts off worn-out garments & takes others that are new, even so the embodied one casts off worn-out bodies & passes on to others new. If the eyes cannot see, the ears cannot hear and the palate cannot relish food, would a person wish to live on bedridden, or die? He dies to be born in another fresh body.This no weapons wound, This no fire burns, This no water wet, This no wind doth dry. Weapons cannot cleave It. If we strike the air with a weapon, can we hurt it? The Atman is subtler even than air. Fire cannot burn It, nor can water wet It; how can air, then, dry It?Beyond all cutting, burning, wetting & drying is This- eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable, everlasting.Perceivable neither by the senses nor by the mind. This is called unchangeable; therefore, knowing This as such, thou should not grieve.Such is the Atman, says Shri Krishna, and you should not, therefore, grieve over anyone’s death. Thus Shri Krishna takes Arjuna slowly from darkness to light.T K G Namboodhiri



And if thou deemest This to be always coming to birth & always dying, even then, O Mahabahu, thou shouldst not grieve. For certain is the death of the born, and certain is the birth of the dead; therefore, what is unavoidable thou shouldst not regret. The state of all beings before birth is unmanifest; their middle state is manifest; their state after death is again unmanifest. What occasion is there for lament, O Bharata?He who dies is certain to be born again. All beings were unmanifest before birth and will again become unmanifest after death. Birth & death are God’s concern. He alone knows their mystery. For bestowing & taking away life, God does not require any lengthy time. As a magician creates the illusion of a tree & destroys it, so God sports in endless ways & does not let us know the beginning & end of his play. Why grieve over it?

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.29 & 2.30One looks upon This as a marvel; another speaks of This as such; another hears thereof as a marvel; yet having heard of This none truly knows This. This embodied one in the body of every being is ever beyond all harm, O Bharata; thou shouldst not, therefore, grieve for anyone.Some wise men see the atman as a thing of wonder & some describe it so. Others hear it so described but cannot understand what it is. There can be no end to describing God’s greatness, so mysterious is His part. This atman which dwells in everyone’s body can never be killed. The body’s death is like breaking of a piece of glass. The cycle of birth & death goes on for ever & ever T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.31 & 2.34

After discussing the problem from the spiritual point of view Shri Krishna considers it from the mundane point of view. He tells Arjuna what his duty in the practical world requires.Again, seeing thine own duty thou shouldst not shrink from it; for there is no higher good for a Kshatriya than a righteous war. The world will forever recount the story of thy disgrace; and for a man of honour, disgrace is worse than death.A Kshatriya has no duty higher than that of fighting in a righteous war. The Mahabharata war was righteous because it was thrust upon Arjuna by Duryodhana. A bhangi should do his work of cleaning latrines sincerely. If he runs away from his work, he would lose his good name. Similarly, for Arjuna running away from a war would make people talk ill of him for ever. For a man who has a good reputation in society, its loss is worse than death.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.38Sri Krishna sums up this part of the argument with this verse.Hold alike pleasure & pain, gain & loss, victory & defeat, & grid up thy loins for the fight; so doing thou shalt not incur sin.This spiritual advice is addressed to all of us. If a person remains unconcerned with defeat or victory, knowing that they are a part of life, he commits no sin in fighting. Even the best thing has an element of evil in it. Nothing in the world is wholly good or wholly evil. Where there is action there is some evil. If we cultivate an attitude of indifference & learn to check anger, we shall one day succeed in freeing ourselves from these pairs of opposites.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.39Thus have I set before thee the attitude of Knowledge; hear now the attitude of Action; resorting to this attitude thou shalt cast off the bondage of action.

Shri Krishna uses the Word Samkhya for the discussions held till now. It may mean a number of things for the learned, but for us, it just means that what we had was a theoretical explanation of the difference between the atman & the body. Now I shall explain it with reference to Yoga, or practice. i.e.. How to translate your knowledge into action. If you understand this, you will escape from the bondage of action. At every moment we have to decide whether a particular action will serve the atman or the body.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.40 Here no effort undertaken is lost, no disaster befalls. Even a little of this righteous course delivers one from great fear.No sin is incurred by those who follow the path of action. A beginning made is not wasted. Even a little effort along this path saves one from great danger. Once a beginning is made, nothing will stand in our way. This is the path of truth. There is no harm, no fear of destruction in following it.This is a very important verse. It contains the profound idea that nothing done is ever lost, there is no sin, only safety.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.41The attitude, in this matter, springing, as it does, from fixed resolve but one, O Kurunandana; but for those who have no fixed resolve the attitudes are many-branched and unending.O Arjuna, the resolute intellect here is one-track. One must hold one’s intellect so firm that there is no wavering. The actions of a man whose intellect is not fixed on one aim, who is not single minded in his devotion, will branch out in many directions. As the mind leaps, monkey-fashion, from branch to branch, so does the intellect. The mind of a person of uncertain purpose grows weak day by day & becomes unsettled. Such a person loses his soul, his dharma, & capacity for good work. Such a person loses both this world & the other.

T K G Namboodhiri



These verses describe a man whose intellect is not resolute.The ignorant, revelling in the letters of the Vedas, declare that there is naught else; carnally-minded, holding heaven to be their goal, they utter swelling words which promise birth as the fruit of action & which dwell on the many & varied rites to be performed for the sake of pleasure & power. Intent as they are on pleasure & power, their swelling words rob them of their wits, & they have no settled attitude which can be centred on the supreme goalIn these verses, Sage Vyasa has run down the Vedas as he has done nowhere else. We have gone on believing that everything in them is divinely inspired, thus making us mere pedants. The Karma Kanda part of the Vedas persuade people to perform innumerable rituals to secure enjoyment & win greatness. Individuals who are ever thinking of heavenly enjoyments, filled with endless desires, who assert that there is nothing beyond heaven, push us deeper & deeper into quagmire. The fancies & thoughts which often trouble our minds are evidences of an intellect branching out in many directions. They induce us fanciful prayers to imaginary gods & run us away from prayer to the God of all gods.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.45The Vedas have as their domain the three Gunas; eschew them, O Arjuna. Free thyself from the pairs of opposites, abide in eternal truth, scorn to gain or guard anything, remain the master of the soul.Arjuna is asked to be above the pairs of opposites, to be indifferent to happiness & sufferings. He should keep his mind always steadfast. He should give up all thought of acquiring, holding and defending possessions. He should cultivate detachment & live & act thinking that he is not the body, not an entity with a name & a form.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.46To the extent that a well is of use when there is a flood of water on all sides, to the same extent are all the Vedas of use to an enlightened Brahman.What may be found in a well will also be found in a big lake. Brahman will know everything else. The three Gunas are dealt within the Vedas; he who rises above them attains the knowledge of Brahman. The person occupying the throne will not aspire for a subordinate position. Similar is the case of one with the knowledge of Brahman. He will not be interested in the Vedas.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.47Action alone is the province, never the fruits thereof; let not thy motive be the fruit of action, nor shouldst thou desire to avoid action.This is the sovereign Yoga Shri Krishna wished to teach Arjuna. Your right is to work, & not to expect the fruit. God has put us under this restriction. We may work if we wish, but the reward of work is entirely for Him to give. A wise man consciously wishes to be the slave of God & not the world’s. Let not your actions be motivated by fruits of your actions; do not be attached to action; or be over-eager to do anything. Think that everything is done by Him. You should not feel tempted to be Akarmani, i.e. be actionless or feel drawn to take up work outside your duty.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.48 & 2.49Act thou, O Dhananjaya, without attachment, steadfast in Yoga, even-minded in success & failure. Even mindedness is Yoga.For action is far inferior to unattached action; seek refuge in the attitude of detachment. Pitiable are those who make fruit their motive.Shri Krishna tells Arjuna to work without attachment, being established firmly in Yoga. Yoga means renouncing the fruit of action. We should do no work with attachment. Detachment from work, whether good or bad, makes our means pure. One should be even minded in success & failure. One should dedicate to God all that one does, & surrender oneself completely to Him. Work done without the yoga of intellect is extremely harmful. One should, therefore, seek refuge in the resolute intellect. Anyone who works for reward is a person deserving our pity.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.50Here in this world a man gifted with an attitude of detachment escapes the fruit of both good & evil deeds. Gird thyself up for yoga, therefore. Yoga is skill in action.A person who is firmly yoked to his resolute intellect, who is totally merged in it, & who is a yogi, such a one renounces the (fruit of) work both good & bad, i.e. is disinterested towards either. Shri Krishna asks Arjuna to be a yogi. Yoga is nothing but skill in work.

T K G Namboodhiri



For sages, gifted with the attitude of detachment, who renounce the fruit of action, are released from the bondage of birth & attain to the state which is free from all ills.When thy understanding will have passed through the slough of delusion, then wilt thou be indifferent alike to what thou hast heard & wilt hear.When thy understanding, distracted by much hearing, will rest steadfast & unmoved in concentration, then wilt thou attain Yoga.Yogis renounce the fruits of work, & are freed from the bonds of birth. When one’s intellect has crossed the muddy ground of delusion, one becomes disinterested & indifferent all outside inputs. When the intellect is totally absorbed in the contemplation of God, one will attain Yoga. Then one is filled with ecstatic love & therefore, can be completely indifferent to this world.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.54Now Arjuna asks how we may know the man established in Samadhi from his speech & outward behaviour.The food which the Gita offers is different from what one’s mother gives. Before Mother Gita, the earthly mother stands no comparison. He who has the Gita always engraved in his heart & keeps it there till the moment of death, will attain moksha. We should recite these verses daily so that we may understand their meaning & be guided by them.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.55When a man puts away all the cravings that arise in the mind & finds comfort for himself only from atman, then is he called the man of secure understanding.He who banishes all desires arising in his mind may be described as a sthita-prajna - one who is situated in perfect knowledge, who is steadfast in action. Even the desire to see God must eventually vanish. In such a state, the self abides in serene content in itself. The Brahman has all its joy through the Brahman in the company of the Brahman. We should learn to be content in ourselves. The means & the end should become one. The man who lives contented in the self through the self will have no desires. But one can live in such a state only if the desire to become better, to grow spiritually, awakens in one.

T K G Namboodhiri



Whose mind is untroubled in sorrows & longeth not for joys, who is free from passion, fear & wrath- he is called the ascetic of secure understanding.Who owns attachment nowhere, who feels neither joy nor resentment whether good or bad comes his way – that man’s understanding is secure.And when, like the tortoise drawing in its limbs from every side, this man draws in his senses from their objects, his understanding is secure.In these verses, Shri Krishna gives a description of the man of steady understanding. The man who does not feel depressed by suffering & is indifferent to joys, is no more subject to attachment, fear & anger, is one with steadfast intellect. The man who has withdrawn interest from all objects, given up desire for them, who is unconcerned & indifferent in good or ill chance, & who is neither pleased nor annoyed by anything- his intellect is steadfast. A person who holds in his senses & prevents them from going out to their objects, as the tortoise draws in his limbs, has a steadfast intellect.T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerse 2.59

When a man starves his senses, the objects of these senses disappear from him, but not the yearning for them; the yearning too departs when he beholds the Supreme.

When a person denies his body the food it craves for, he will cease to be troubled by his senses. The senses of a well-fed man always keep awake. Scriptures say that a man whose senses are not under his control, it will be best for him to fast. This is the meaning of the first half of the verse.The appetites subside, but our pleasure in the objects of senses remains. During a fast, impure desires will probably subside, but one gets impatient for the fast to end. If we see God our instinctive desire for objects of senses will also subside. We should, slowly & gradually learn to feel God’s presence in the depth of our hearts.The purport of this Verse is that we should fast for self-purification. While fasting we should wish with all our strength for freedom from desire. In addition, we should yearn to see God, then only our fasting bear fruit. To see Him one should completely conquer one’s appetites, & even the instinctive pleasure one feels in objects of sense must subside.If we understand the truth that we eat only to give the body its hire, then we are fit to understand the Gita.T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.60 & 2.61For, in spite of the wise man’s endeavour, O Kaunteya, the unruly senses distract his mind perforce.Holding all these in check, the yogi should sit intent on Me; for he whose senses are under control is secure of understanding.

However much an intelligent man may strive, the senses are restless, they shake his self-control & forcibly draw his mind towards their objects; they draw even a Jnani after them. The senses are like uncontrollable horses. If the rider is not vigilant & the reins are not all right, there is no knowing where they will carry him.The man of steady wisdom, having controlled all his senses, will rest wholly absorbed in Me. Anyone who strives in this manner & succeeds in holding his senses under control, is a Yogi.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHION FASTING & LIBERATION (MOKSHA)

In order that our pleasure in the objects of senses may subside completely, fasting, bhakti, prayer & vigils are necessary. But the pleasure in objects will not disappear till we have realized God. Can it disappear completely while the body is there? I have come to the conclusion that no one can be called a Mukta (liberated) while he is still alive; one may become fit for moksha. Thus the cravings of the senses die away only when we cease to exist in the body. The Dweller (atman) in the body cannot be free while He dwells in it.It is doing violence to the words to say that a man has attained deliverance even while he lives in the body. If our egoistic attachment to ourselves has completely disappeared, the body cannot survive. Some attachment is bound to persist while our bodies are capable of motion. The slightest movement of the body involves some violence; as long as we commit even a little violence, moksha is not possible. We can only conceive the state of moksha; We can attain deliverance only when leave the body. Terrible or not, this is the truth.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerses 2.62 & 2.63

In a man brooding on objects of the senses, attachment to them springs up; attachment begets craving & craving begets wrath.Wrath breeds stupefaction, stupefaction leads to loss of memory, loss of memory ruins the reason, & the ruin of reason spells utter destruction.

If we constantly think about having a certain object, the mind will become strongly attached to the thought of its possession. This in turn will grow into a passionate desire to possess it, so the object takes still greater hold of our mind. Attachment produces impatience & passion gives rise to anger. When we fail to get the object of our desire, we become angry. Anger clouds a man’s vision, so that he loses his judgement & forgets what he is. He then loses his power of discrimination. Such a person is as good as dead.One should therefore crush the craving of sense the moment it arises. The first thing to do is to get over the habit of dwelling on objects of sense-pleasure in our imagination. For that, one should constantly think of God; should live as if one were in a state of Samadhi.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.64But the disciplined soul, moving among sense-objects with the senses weaned from likes & dislikes & brought under the control of atman, attains peace of mind.He who lives with his senses no longer subject to attachments & aversions and perfectly under his control becomes fit for God’s grace. His ears, nose, eyes, & so on go on performing their functions naturally without conscious willing on his part. A man is established in Samadhi when his atman abides in serene content in itself. His senses must be under his perfect control. We are the slaves of our senses. From this slavery we must win swaraj for the atman. The atman dwelling in the body must live as the master & God of the body. The person ruled by his atman will have the gift of inner senses & will not need the outer ones.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.65 & 2.66Peace of mind means the end of all ills; for the understanding of him whose mind is at peace stands secure.The undisciplined man has neither understanding nor devotion; for, for him who has no devotion there is no peace, & for him who has no peace whence happiness?When God’s grace descends on us, bringing us peace, all our suffering ends. The intellect of a man whose mind has become calm & whose only thought is of God, stands secure & is protected against error.The man who has not become one in God, lacks the faculty of intellect altogether. One who is unsteady has an intellect which is many - branched; of what good is such an intellect? He who lacks devotion & does not meditate on God, how can he attain peace? How can he be happy?

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

BHAGAVAD GITA & SWARAJOn April 6, 1926 Gandhi began his daily discourse on Bhagavad Gita. He described it as marking for India the day of religious awakening in an allusion to the campaign of civil disobedience, the beginning of satyagraha. Gandhi saw a link between the study of the Bhagavad Gita & the struggle for swaraj. He described the impulse for swaraj as ‘to bring about spiritual awakening in us…. To go from untruth to truth, from darkness to light’ through the cultivation of the self & reigning in the senses. Gandhi told the people that non-violence & truth are symbolised in the spinning wheel (Charkha). He was sure that the country will get swaraj through the spinning wheel. He urged people to cultivate firmness of mind & do not let the senses distract the mind, & thus become fit for satyagraha. T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.67For when his ( an undisciplined person’s) mind runs after any of the roaming senses, it sweeps away his understanding, as the wind (pushes) a vessel upon the waters.

A pleasure-loving man wastes his time in aimless wandering. If one of his pleasure-loving senses is so undisciplined that it seeks gratification anywhere & anyhow, & totally enslaves his mind, it will drag his intellect behind it as the wind drives a ship before it in the sea & wrecks it on a rock or runs it aground. Thus the man whose senses are completely out of his control, & his mind totally enslaved by them, will, as a consequence of attachment, be ruined gradually.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verses 2.68 & 2.69Therefore, O Mahabahu, he, whose senses are reined in on all sides from their objects is the man of secure understanding.When it is night for all other beings, the disciplined soul is awake; when all other beings are awake, it is night for the seeing ascetic.

The man whose senses are under his control & kept away from their objects is a man established in Samadhi.In one verse, Sri Krishna gives the mark of a Sthithaprajna. He is awake when it is night for other human beings, & when other human beings & all creatures seem to be awake, it is night for the ascetic who sees.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.69 & Satyagrahi

What is contained in Verse 2.69 should be ideal for Satyagraha Ashram. Let us pray that we may see light when all around us is darkness. If we are brave, the whole world will be brave; as in our body, so in the universe. We can bear the burden of the world if we do it as tapascharya. We shall then see light where others see nothing but darkness. The world will tell us that senses cannot be controlled, truth does not prevail in the world. We should reply that senses can be controlled & truth does prevail. The world & the man established in Samadhi are like the East & the West. The world’s night is our day & the world’s day is our night. There is thus non-cooperation between the two. This should be our attitude if we understand the Gita rightly. If we can achieve self-realization through fasting & spinning, then self-realization necessarily implies swaraj. The yogi has an inner vision which is different from the world’s. The body should function entirely under the control of the atman.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerses 2.70 & 2.71

He in whom all longings subside, even as the waters subside in the ocean which, though ever being filled by them, never overflows- that man finds peace; not he who cherishes longing.The man who sheds all longing & moves without concern, free from the sense of ‘I’ & ‘mine’- he attains peace.

The sea, though being ever added to, remains confined within its bounds; it stands where it has always stood despite countless rivers emptying their waters into it. The man in whom evil impulses & desires subside in the same manner, is a yogi. A yogi is like the sea & not like a rivulet or brook which soon overflows & soon dries up. Like the sea he is ever full. Every evil subsides & disappears in the sea of a yogi’s mind.Peace may be experienced by a man who has given up all cravings & lives untroubled by desires. He attains it by shedding the consciousness of ‘I’ & ‘mine’. He alone is a true yogi who never feels ‘I am doing this’.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

Verse 2.72This is the state, O Partha, of the man who rests in Brahman; having attained to it, he is not deluded. He who abides in this state even at the hour of death passes into oneness with Brahman.In this verse, Sri Krishna sums up the argument by saying that, having attained the Brahmi state ( the state in which one realizes the Brahman), a man never falls again into delusion. A person who is in this state, at least at the moment of his death, attains Brahma-nirvana. Even the one who has lived a wicked life throughout one’s life, but turns to a good life before death, becomes eligible for Brahma-nirvana. We may know that a man has attained moksha only if he died in the Brahmi state.

T K G Namboodhiri

Spiritual

Bhagavad gita according to gandhi chapter 2