1 Sanjaya said: To him thus with pity overcome, with smarting brimming eyes, despondent, Madhusûdana spake these words:
As a man, casting off worn 2:22
2:1-38
1 Sanjaya said: To him thus with pity overcome, with smarting brimming eyes, despondent, Madhusûdana spake these words:
2The Blessed Lord said:Whence hath this dejection befallen thee in this perilous strait, ignoble, heaven-closing, infamous, O Arjuna?
Krishna said,
Arjuna, why are you so dejected?
3Yield not to impotence, O Partha! it doth not befit thee. Shake off this paltry faint-heartedness! Stand up, Parantapa!
Don't yield to impotence and petty weakness of the heart.
4 Arjuna said: How, O Madhusûdana, shall I attack Bhîshma and Drona with arrows in battle, they who are worthy of reverence, O slayer of foes?
Arjuna said,
How can I fight against Bhîshma and Drona who are worthy of adoration?
5Better in this world to eat even the beggar's crust than to slay these most noble Gurus. Slaying these Gurus, our well-wishers, I should taste of blood-besprinkled feasts.
It's better to be poor than to kill noble gurus.
6Nor know I which for us be the better, that we conquer them or they conquer us—these, whom having slain we should not care to live, even these arrayed against us, the sons of Dhritarâshtra.
I don't know whether it would be better to win or lose.
7My heart is weighed down with the vice of faintness; my mind is confused as to duty. I ask thee which may be the better—that tell me decisively. I am thy disciple, suppliant to Thee; teach me.
My heart is heavy and my mind is confused about duty.
8For I see not that it would drive away this anguish that withers up my senses, if I should attain unrivalled monarchy on earth, or even the sovereignty of the Shining Ones.
No matter how prosperous I become, it will not remove my sorrow.
9 Gudâkesha, conqueror of his foes, having thus addressed Hrishîkesha and said to Govinda, "I will not fight!", became silent.
10Then Hrishîkesha, smiling, as it were, O Bhârata, spake these words to him, despondent, in the midst of the two armies:
11The Blessed Lord said: Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for, yet speakest words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.
Krishna said:
You grieve for those who shouldn't be grieved for.
The wise don't grieve for the living or the dead.
12Nor at any time verily was I not, nor thou, nor these princes of men, nor verily shall we ever cease to be, hereafter.
Because dead people still exist after they die.
13As the dweller in the body experienceth in the body childhood, youth, old age, so passeth he on to another body; the steadfast one grieveth not thereat.
People pass from one body to another after they die.
So death is nothing to grieve about.
14The contacts of matter, O son of Kuntî, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, they come and go, impermanent; endure them bravely, O Bhârata.
15The man whom these torment not, O chief of men, balanced in pain and pleasure, steadfast, he is fitted for immortality.
A person who is not tormented by death, and balances pain and pleasure lives forever.
16The unreal hath no being; the real never ceaseth to be; the truth about both hath been perceived by the seers of the essence of things.
Unreal things don't exist, and real things exist forever.
17Know That to be indestructible by whom all this is pervaded. Nor can any work the destruction of that imperishable One.
18These bodies of the embodied One, who is eternal, indestructible and immeasurable, are known as finite. Therefore fight, O Bhârata.
So go ahead and fight.
19He who regardeth this as a slayer, and he who thinketh he is slain, both of them are ignorant. He slayeth not, nor is he slain.
No one ever kills anyone, and no one is ever killed.
20He is not born, nor doth he die; nor having been, ceaseth he any more to be; unborn, perpetual, eternal and ancient, is not slain when the body is slaughtered.
No one is born and no one dies.
And no one dies when the body is slaughtered.
21Who knoweth him indestructible, perpetual, unborn, undiminishing, how can that man slay, O Pârtha, or cause to be slain?
22As a man, casting off worn-out garments, taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others that are new.
It's like replacing worn out clothes with new clothes.
Worn out bodies are replaced with new ones.
23Weapons cleave him not, nor fire burneth him, nor waters wet him, nor wind drieth him away.
It can't be cut, burned, moistened, or dried.
24Uncleavable he, incombustible he, and indeed neither to be wetted nor dried away; perpetual, all-pervasive, stable, immovable, ancient.
It is eternal, omnipresent, stationary, and changeless.
25Unmanifest, unthinkable, immutable, he is called; therefore knowing him as such, thou shouldst not grieve.
So don't grieve.
26Or if thou thinkest of him as being constantly born and constantly dying, even then, O mighty-armed, thou shouldst not grieve.
27For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead; therefore over the inevitable thou shouldst not grieve.
Everyone dies, but dead people are born again.
28Beings are unmanifest in their origin, manifest in their midmost state, O Bhârata, unmanifest likewise are they in dissolution. What room then for lamentation?
29As marvellous one regardeth him; as marvellous another speaketh thereof; as marvellous another heareth thereof; yet having heard none indeed understandeth.
30This dweller in the body of everyone is ever invulnerable, O Bhârata; therefore thou shouldst not grieve for any creature.
The self that exists in everyone's body can never be killed.
So don't grieve for any creature.
31Further, looking to thine own duty thou shouldst not tremble; for there is nothing more welcome to a Kshattriya than righteous war.
You should not waiver.
There is nothing better for a Kshattriya (someone in the warrior caste) than a righteous battle.
32Happy the Kshattriyas, O Pârtha, who obtain such a fight, offered unsought as an open door to heaven.
Kshattriyas who come across a battle like this should be happy.
It's an open gate to heaven for them.
33But if thou wilt not carry on this righteous warfare, then casting away thine own duty and thine honour, thou wilt incur sin.
If you don't fight in this righteous battle, you will forsake your duty and honor, and will be guilty of sin.
34Men will recount thy perpetual dishonour, and, to one highly esteemed, dishonour exceedeth death.
People will say bad things about you.
And for an honored person, infamy is worth than death.
35The great car-warriors will think thee fled from the battle from fear, and thou, that wast highly thought of by them, wilt be lightly held.
The great chariot-riders will think you were afraid to fight.
And you will be disgraced by those who once admired you.
36Many unseemly words will be spoken by thine enemies, slandering thy strength; what more painful than that?
Your enemies will say bad things about you.
What can be more painful than that?
37Slain, thou wilt obtain heaven; victorious, thou wilt enjoy the earth; therefore stand up, O son of Kuntî, resolute to fight.
If you are killed, you'll go to heaven; if you win, you'll enjoy the earth.
So get up and fight with determination.
38Taking as equal pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, gird thee for the battle; thus thou shalt not incur sin.
Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat with equality. Engage in battle. Buy so doing you will not sin.
2:39-72
39This teaching set forth to thee is in accordance with the Sâñkhya; hear it now according to the Yoga, imbued with which teaching, O Pârtha, thou shalt cast away the bonds of action.
You received this wisdom through yoga. [2]
This will make you free to act.
40In this there is no loss of effort, nor is there transgression. Even a little of this knowledge protects from great fear.
Here there is no wasted effort or harm.
Even a little of this knowledge will protect you from fear.
41The determinate Reason is but one-pointed, O joy of the Kurus; many-branched and endless are the thoughts of the irresolute.
For the resolute reason is single-minded.
But the thoughts of the irresolute have innumerable branches.
42Flowery speech is uttered by the foolish, rejoicing in the letter of the Vedas, O Pârtha, saying: "There is naught but this";
Ignore flowery talk about the Vedas which claim there is nothing else.
43With desire for self, with heaven for goal, they offer birth as the fruit of action, and prescribe many and various ceremonies for the attainment of pleasure and lordship.
Their minds are full of desires, have heaven as their goal, and require many ceremonies to attain pleasure and power.
44For them who cling to pleasure and lordship, whose minds are captivated by such teaching, is not designed this determinate Reason, on contemplation steadily bent.
Reason doesn't become established in the minds of those who cling to pleasure and power.
45The Vedas deal with the three attributes; be thou above these three attributes, O Arjuna; beyond the pairs of opposites, ever steadfast in purity, careless of possessions, full of the Self.
The Vedas deal with three attributes.
Be steadfast in purity, careless of possessions, and full of the self.
46All the Vedas are as useful to an enlightened Brâhmana as is a tank in a place covered all over with water.
All the Vedas are useful.
47Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached.
What is important is the action, not the fruits.
So never let the fruit of the action be your motive for an action.
48Perform action, O Dhananjaya, dwelling in union with the divine, renouncing attachments and balanced evenly in success and failure: equilibrium is called yoga.
Perform action without regard to success and failure.
Equilibrium is called yoga.
49Far lower than the Yoga of Discrimination is action, O Dhananjaya. Take thou refuge in the Pure Reason; pitiable are they who work for fruit.
Action with a self-motive is far inferior to yoga.
Those who work for fruit are pitiable.
50United to the Pure Reason one abandoneth here both good and evil deeds; therefore cleave thou to yoga; yoga is skill in action.
Those who are wise reject both good and evil.
Therefore, devote yourself yoga. Yoga is skill in action.
51The Sages, united to the Pure Reason, renounce the fruit which action yieldeth, and, liberated from the bonds of birth, they go to the blissful seat.
The sages, who are devoted to pure reason give up the fruits of their actions, and are freed from the bondage of birth.
52When thy mind shall escape from this tangle of delusion, then thou shalt rise to indifference as to what has been heard and shall be heard.
When your mind escapes the tangle of delusion, you will be indifferent to what has been heard and what will be heard.
53When thy mind, bewildered by the Scriptures, shall stand immovable, fixed in contemplation, then shalt thou attain unto yoga.
When your mind has become bewildered by the Scriptures, you will attain yoga that rises from contemplation.
54 Arjuna said: What the mark, of him who is stable of mind, steadfast in contemplation, O Keshava? How doth the stable-minded talk, how doth he sit, how walk?
Arjuna said,
What does a wise person who is steadfast in contemplation look like?
How do they speak, sit, and walk?
55The Blessed Lord said: When a man abandoneth, O Pârtha, all the desires of the heart, and is satisfied in the Self by the Self, then is he called stable in mind.
Krishna said,
If you fully renounce all desire and are satisfied with the self alone, then you will be stable in mind.
56He whose mind is free from anxiety amid pains, indifferent amid pleasures, loosed from passion, fear and anger, is called a sage of stable mind.
A sage with a stable mind is free from anxiety, pain, pleasure, passion, fear, and anger.
57He who on every side is without attachments, whatever hap of fair and foul, who neither likes nor dislikes, of such a one the understanding is well poised.
Such a person has no attachment to anything, and neither likes nor disikes good or bad outcomes.
58When, again, as a tortoise draws in on all sides its limbs, he withdraws his senses from the objects of sense, then is his understanding well poised.
Such people withdraw their senses like a tortoise withdraws its limbs.
59The objects of sense, but not the relish for them, turn away from an abstemious dweller in the body; and even relish turneth away from him after the Supreme is seen.
Objects of sense recede from an abstemious person.
Even taste falls away after the Supreme is seen.
60O son of Kuntî, the excited senses of even a wise man, though he be striving, impetuously carry away his mind.
The wise are distracted by the senses, even when they are trying diligently.
61Having restrained them all, he should sit harmonised, I his supreme goal; for, whose senses are mastered, of him the understanding is well poised.
To control them you must concentrate on me as supreme.
62Man, musing on the objects of sense, conceiveth an attachment to these; from attachment ariseth desire; from desire anger cometh forth;
Those who dwell on objects become attached to them.
Desire comes from attachment, and anger from desire.
63From anger proceedeth delusion; from delusion confused memory; from confused memory the destruction of Reason; from destruction of Reason he perishes.
From anger comes delusion; from delusion, loss of memory; from loss of memory, the loss of reaspm; from loss of reason comes death.
64But the disciplined self, moving among sense-objects with senses free from attraction and repulsion, mastered by the Self, goeth to peace.
But by perceiving objects without attraction or repulsion, the self-controlled person attains peace.
65In that Peace the extinction of all pains ariseth for him, for of him whose heart is peaceful the Reason soon attaineth equilibrium.
In that peace, there is no pain and reason attains equilibrium.
66There is no Pure Reason for the non-harmonized, nor for the non-harmonized is there concentration; for him without concentration there is no peace, and for the unpeaceful how can there be happiness?
The non-harmonized have not reason or concentration, and without concentration there is no peace.
How can there be happiness without peace?
67Such of the roving senses as the mind yieldeth to, that hurries away the understanding, just as the gale hurries away a ship upon the waters.
The mind follows the wandering senses, like a gale drives a ship on the water.
68Therefore, O mighty-armed, whose senses are all completely restrained from the objects of sense, of him the understanding is well poised.
Understanding occurs when senses are completely restrained.
69That which is the night of all beings, for the disciplined man is the time of waking; when other beings are waking, then is it night for the sage who seeth.
70He attaineth Peace, into whom all desires flow as rivers flow into the ocean, which is filled with water, but remaineth unmoved—not he who desireth desires.
You will be at peace when all desires flow like rivers flow into the ocean. The ocean is filled with water but remains unchanged. But this will not happen if you desire things.
71Whoso forsaketh all desires and goeth onwards free from yearnings, selfless and without egoism—he goeth to Peace.
You will attain peace by rejecting desires, and become selfless without egoism.
72This is the Eternal state, O son of Prithâ. Having attained thereto, none is bewildered. Who, even at the death-hour, is established therein, he goeth to the Nirvâna of the Eternal.
This is the eternal state. Once you attain it you will go to Nirvana.
A Kshattriya is a member of the warrior caste.
Okay, I don't know much about yoga, meditation, etc., but most of Krisha's advice to Arjuna in this section seems good to me.
