Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 in English IAST: Sāṅkhya Yoga

oṃ tatsaditi śrīmadbhagavadgītāsūpaniṣatsu brahmavidyāyāṃ yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasaṃvāde sāṅkhyayogo nāma dvitīyo’dhyāyaḥ ||

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About Sankhya Yoga

At the end of the first chapter Arjuna had put down his bow and sunk into his chariot. The second chapter opens from that collapse. But a turn comes in the seventh verse. Until then Arjuna had been arguing with a friend. Now he says he is a disciple and asks to be taught. The teaching of the Gita begins only after that surrender.

This chapter is often called the Gita in miniature. Almost everything that the remaining sixteen chapters expand upon is seeded here: the eternity of the self, the giving up of any claim on the fruit of one’s work, and the marks of a settled mind.

How the chapter moves

• Verses 1 to 10: Krishna’s first words are a rebuke. Arjuna states his dilemma and ends by surrendering as a disciple.
• Verses 11 to 30: The self is neither born nor does it die. Bodies change; the one who wears them does not.
• Verses 31 to 38: The kshatriya’s own duty, the weight of disgrace, and the counsel to hold victory and defeat alike.
• Verses 39 to 53: Buddhi yoga is introduced. Verse 47, on having a claim to the work and none to its fruit, belongs here.
• Verses 54 to 72: Arjuna asks who a person of steady wisdom is, and Krishna answers at length.

What does Sankhya mean here?

Most commentators say that Sankhya here does not mean Kapila’s Sankhya philosophy. Shankara takes it as discriminating knowledge about the self. In verse 39 Krishna himself splits the chapter in two: this was the view of Sankhya, now hear the view of yoga.

So the chapter holds two roads. The first is the road of understanding: only the body dies, so grief has no ground. The second is the road of work: do what must be done and leave the accounting of results alone. The Gita’s position is that both arrive at the same place.

Sources: several.

ಪಾಠದಲ್ಲಿ ತಪ್ಪೋ ಬೇರೆ ಪಾಠಾಂತರವೋ ಕಂಡಿತೇ? ನಮಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸಿ.
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