Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 - The Yoga of Knowledge

In the Bhagavad Gita - Text and Commentary by Sri Sivananda (Sivananda Press Durban SA) Chapter 2 is The Yoga of Knowledge or Sankhya Yoga.

Sanjaya explains Arjuna's condition as being agitated by attachment and fear.

With Arjuna, being overcome by pity and and despondent, Lord Krishna rebukes him for his dejection, which was due to Moha or attachment, and exhorts him to fight. After failing to convince Sri Krishna through his seemingly wise thoughts, Arjuna realises his helplessness and surrenders himself completely to the Lord, seeking His guidance to get over the conflict of his mind.

Lord Krishna takes pity on him and proceeds to enlighten him by various means. He explains to Arjuna the imperishable nature of the Atman, for which there is no past, present or future. The Atman never dies, therefore Arjuna should not grieve. Krishna further explains that Atma or the Self transcends the five elements (earth, fire, water, air and ether); cannot be cut, burned or dried. The nature of Atma (the Self) is unchanging and eternal.

Arjuna is informed that pleasure and pain, hot and cold is felt by everyone because of the contact of the senses. The senses carries the sensations through the nerves to the mind and that one should be able to withdraw the senses from the objects. Krishna asserts that only one who has the capacity to be balanced in pleasure and pain alike is fit for immortality. Arjuna is told that if he does not fight and flees the battle, he will condemned as being coward ( action unworthy of a warrior).

After Arjuna is taught about the immortal nature of the Atman, he is then informed about the performance of action without the attachment to the fruit (like gain or loss, defeat or victory.) His actions should be perform with a balanced mind. Krishna advises Arjuna to fight, free from desire for acquisition of kingdom or preservation of it.

Arjuna wants to know the characteristics of the man with a stable mind. This person, Krishna says, will have no desires at all. This person is content, having realised the Self. Lord Krishna describes such a person as not being affected by adversity and will have no fear or anger. He takes things as they come. The stable minded man has perfect control of the senses, as the senses draw the mind outwards. The Yogi, having achieved a stable mind, remains steadfast even though all sense-objects come to him. He is unmoved and lives a life of eternal peace.

Finally, Krishna concludes that the eternal Brahmic state frees one from delusion forever. Even at the end of life, when one departs from this body, one does not lose consciousness of one's identity with Brahman.

See related video clip (the first part of Chapter 2):

No Meaning Without Purpose YS IV - 24

Yoga Sutra - IV- 24 - TAD ASAMKHYEYA VASANABHIS CITTAM API PARARTHAM SAMHATYA KARITVAT - Though having countless desires, the mind-stuff exists for the sake of another [the Purusha] because it can act only in association with It.

Swami Satchidananda translated this sutra without commentary.

"How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood says the following:

Every combination of individuals or forces in this world has to have a purpose for its action or existence; otherwise it would be just a meaningless, functionless collection of objects, brought together haphazardly. And this purpose must be external to itself. A congress or parliament would be just a collection of noisy individuals in a room, if it did not have a purpose of legislating for a community. A house is just a pile of materials, until an owner comes to inhabit and enjoy it. So with the mind-- that yelling parliament of conflicting interests and desires. It is nothing but a madhouse, until it is "called to order." It can only become purposive the external will of the Atman.

See preceding posts.

The Purusha/Atman is Luminous YS IV - 20

Yoga Sutra - IV - 20 - EKA SAMAYE COBHAYANAVADHARANAM - The mind-stuff cannot perceive both the subject and object simultaneously [which proves it is not self-luminous].

Swami Satchidananda - "The mind-stuff perceives objects outside. At other times, if is is clean enough, it can turn within and reflect the Purusha also. So, it can be either subject or object. As subject, it see other things. As an object, it is seen by the Purusha. But the Purusha can never be both. It is always the subject."

"How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood:

As we saw at the very beginning of this book (I, 2), the mind is not the seer, but the instrument of the Atman, which is eternally conscious. The mind is only intermittently conscious of objects, and its perceptions of them vary according to its own fluctuations. The mind is changing all the time, and so is the object of perception. The Atman alone, by remaining unchanged, provides a standard by which all perception can be measured.

We are given a partial quote from Swami Vivekananda that "Motion can only be perceived when there is something else which is not moving..."

We are given the statement - The mind is just as much an object of perception as any object it perceives in the external world. The mind is not self-luminous; that is to say, it is not a light-giver, like the sun, but a light-reflector, like the moon. The light-giver, the "sun," is the Atman, and the mind only shines and perceives by the reflected light of the Atman. The mind cannot perceive both itself and an external object simultaneously.

The Atman is Not Sattva Guna YS III - 35, 36

Yoga Sutra III- 35- HRDAYE CITTA SAMVIT - By samyama on the heart, the knowledge of the mind-stuff is obtained.

Yoga Sutra III - 36 - SATTVA PURUSAYOR ATYANTASAMKIRNAYOH PRATYAYAVISESO BHOGAH PARARTHAT SVARTHASAMYAMAT PURUSA JNANAM - The intellect and the Purusha (or Atman) are totally different, the intellect existing for the sake of the Purusha, while the Purusha exists for its own sake. Not distinguishing this is the cause of all experiences; and by samyama on the distinction, knowledge of the Purusha is gained.

Swami Satchidananda translated the above sutras without commentary.

For the above sutras there is only a commentary on Yoga Sutra III- 36 from "How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. - "In the ordinary state of consciousness, the highest enjoyment we can know is the joy inspired by the guna of sattwa. This seems to us, in our ignorance, to be identical with the joy of the pure Atman; but it is not. Sattwa, even in its purest state, is still a guna; and sattwic joy still contains a measure of egotism. What we have to understand is that the gunas are only agents of the Atman, and that sattwic joy is only a pale reflection of the joy of the Atman, which is without egotism and entirely independent of the gunas. By making this samyama and discriminating between Atman and sattwa, the yogi passes beyond earthly enjoyment into the joy of the Atman itself."

See related posts:

• The Four Stages of the Gunas YS II - 19
• The Seen - Nature of the Gunas YS II - 18

Independence of the Seer YS II - 25

Yoga Sutra II- 25 - TAD ABHAVAT SAMYOGABHAVO HANAM TAT DRSEH KAIVALYAM - Without this ignorance, no such union occurs. This is the independence of the Seer.

Swami Satchidananda says "More simply, once the junction created by ignorance is removed, the Seer rests in his own true nature. The Purusha is always like that; although temporarily it appears to be bound by Prakriti." In other words, the Self appears to be bound by nature. "We should not only understand this theoretically" but also understand this in all our experiences, our actions, our ups and downs. We should keep asking ourselves, "Who am I?" "Who is happy?" "Who is unhappy?" When we keep this in mind, ask the questions and be vigilant, we will see that we are the knower and who we really are is not diminished by the outer circumstances.


In the continuation of the summary, Swami Satchidananda says "The Vedantins say, "Aham sakshihi." This means "I am the eternal witness." Just knowing this will help us out on many situations in life. If we are upset over something, we can ask who is upset? Even with pain we can have this attitude like if our finger gets burned, who is burned? This process becomes a meditative focus that helps us to see "Who" is at the effect in these situations.

Swami Satchidananda humorously gives an example of telling us he used to treat scorpion stings, which are very painful. He said the quickest way relieve someone from the pain was to put a few drops of salt solution in their eyes. Even though it had nothing to do with the sting, it diverted the attention away from the sting to the eye. And by the time the stinging eye was relieved, the scorpion sting was forgotten. "The attention is instantly transferred. So everything is relative." Once our minds, or attention is shifted, whatever was focused on before is forgotten. "A man is according to his mind", therefore, bondage and liberation is our own minds. It is only when we transcend the mind that we are free from all these troubles. The commentary ends where even if we reach that transcendence of mind and becoming free that instead of being idle, we can help others who are still bound.


In "How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood says that they are bewildered by what Patanjali is saying in this sutra. To them, Patanjali appears to be accepting and even approving of this ignorance. "Surely, ignorance is undesirable? Surely, it would have been much better if we had never become alienated from the Atman, never ceased to be aware of our real nature?" They further comment that this bewilderment they are experiencing is another product of this same ignorance. "Rooted in maya, we cannot hope to understand maya or judge the "justice" or 'injustice" of its bondage by our little relative, ethical standards."

They continue on commenting that all they can see for certain is that great saints who became liberated did not look back on their struggles lamenting with bitterness and regret. Instead of looking at maya with horror, they looked at it as fascinating and as an amusing play. The final conclusion is that instead of wasting time on reasoning and philosophizing, it is better to keep our eyes on those that have gone before us reaching the end of the journey. They are "beckoning us on to follow them." Their triumph is our reassurance that ultimately all is for the best.

See related posts:

• The Seer or Purusha YS II - 20
• The Witness - YS II - 21
• Maya - Illusion YS II - 22
• Samyoga - Union YS II - 23
• Because of Ignorance - YS II - 24