Bhagavad Gita · 18.51 · Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender·51 of 78
बुद्ध्या विशुद्धया युक्तो धृत्याऽऽत्मानं नियम्य च।शब्दादीन् विषयांस्त्यक्त्वा रागद्वेषौ व्युदस्य च ॥
buddhyā viśhuddhayā yukto dhṛityātmānaṁ niyamya cha
śhabdādīn viṣhayāns tyaktvā rāga-dveṣhau vyudasya cha
Sanskrit recitation
Toward inner perfection · 18.49–18.55 · Teaching
Translation
Endowed with a pure intellect, controlling the self through firmness, relinquishing sound and other objects and abandoning attraction and hatred.
Meaning
The lower self should be controlled with firmness by the Self of pure intellect. The turbulent senses and the mind should be subdued with the help of the pure intellect or reason. Pure reason is a great power. Whenever the senses raise their heads and hiss, they should be hammered by the powerful rod of pure intellect or reason. Reason is the faculty of determination.Pure intellect The intellect that is free from lust, anger, greed, pride, doubt, misconception, etc. It is like a clear mirror. A pure intellect is Brahman Itself. It can be easily merged in Brahman. When the pure intellect is merged in Brahman, the reflected intelligence, Chidabhasa or Jiva, is also absorbed in Brahman. The Jiva becomes identical with Brahman, just as the ether in the pot becomes one with the universal ether when the pot is broken.The self The aggregate of the body and the senses.The aspirant withdraws the senses from their respective objects again and again through the repeated practice of Pratyahara (abstraction) and Dama (selfrestraint). Gradually the senses are fixed in the Self. Their outgoing tendencies are totally curbed. The aspirant attains supreme control of the senses by constant meditation, by the practice of dispassion he coners Raga (attachment), and through the practice of pure love or cosmic love or divine Preme he coners hatred.He abandons all luxuries
After Swami Sivananda
Toward inner perfection· 18.49–18.55→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 18.49He whose intellect is unattached everywhere, who has subdued his self, from whom desire has fled, he attains the supreme state of freedom from action through renunciation.
- 18.50Learn from Me, O Arjuna, in brief how one who has attained perfection reaches Brahman—the Eternal, that supreme state of knowledge.
18.51Endowed with a pure intellect, controlling the self through firmness, relinquishing sound and other objects and abandoning attraction and hatred.
- 18.52Dwelling in solitude, eating sparingly, with speech, body, and mind subdued, always engaged in meditation and concentration, and resorting to dispassion.
- 18.53Having abandoned egoism, strength, arrogance, desire, anger, and covetousness, and being free from the notion of 'mine' and peaceful, he is fit for becoming Brahman.
- 18.54Becoming Brahman, serene in the Self, he neither grieves nor desires; he is the same to all beings, and obtains supreme devotion to Me.
- 18.55By devotion, he knows Me in truth, who and what I am; then, having known Me in truth, he immediately enters into the Supreme.
Word-by-word→
- cha
- and
- niyamya
- restraining
- buddhyā
- intellect
- tyaktvā
- abandoning
- vyudasya
- casting aside
- yuktaḥ
- endowed with
- ātmānam
- the intellect
- dhṛityā
- by determination
- viśhuddhayā
- purified
- rāga-dveṣhau
- attachment and aversion
- śhabda-ādīn viṣhayān
- sound and other objects of the senses
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