February13 – Bhagavadgita Chapter 2; Verses 2.51 (Day 44) Sankhya Yoga

 February 13 – Day 44

Verse 2.51

कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः ।

जन्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्ताः पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम् ॥ २-५१॥ 

karma-jaṁ buddhi-yuktā hi phalaṁ tyaktvā manīṣhiṇaḥ
janmabandha vinirmuktāḥ padaṁ gachchhantyanāmayam (2.51) 

க¹ர்மஜம் பு¹த்³தி⁴யுக்¹தா¹ ஹி ப²லம் த்¹யக்¹த்¹வா மனீஷிண: |
ஜன்மப³ந்த⁴விநிர்முக்¹தா¹: ப¹த⁴ம் க³ச்¹ச²ந்த்¹யநாமயம் ||51|| 

51. The wise, possessed of knowledge, having abandoned the fruits of their actions, and being freed from the fetters of birth, go to the place which is beyond all evil. 

Commentary: Clinging to the fruits of actions is the cause of rebirth. Man has to take a body to enjoy them. If actions are done for the sake of God in fulfilment of His purpose, without desire for the fruits, one is released from the bonds of birth and death and attains to blissful state or the immortal abode.

Sages who possess evenness of mind abandon the fruits of their actions and thus escape from good and bad actions.

Buddhi referred to in the three verses 49, 50, and 51 may be the wisdom of the Sankhyas, i.e. the knowledge of the Self or Atma-Jnana which dawns when the mind is purified by Karma Yoga. 

Commentary by Swami Venkatesananda (verse 51): In this and the last few verses has been compressed food for years of contemplation. Yoga is balanced state of mind; yoga is skill in action; yoga is renunciation of the fruits of action; yoga is uniting the buddhi with God. A one-sided approach lands a pseudo-yogi in a ditch. To justify his failure in the daily battle of life, he invents a fictitious line of demarcation between mundane life and divine life! Kṛṣṇa’s promise is not of a distant paradise to be reached through vales of tears, but freedom from grief here and now.

The yogi must be discriminative and wise. He must be calm and clever. He must be desireless and dexterous. He must be selfless and sensible. He must be a practical idealist! He must be a blend of the best of both the worlds! For it is the omniscient, omnipotent God whose will works through him; and even as every cell in our body shares the life of the whole body, the little finite man lives in tune with the infinite, happy and blissful here, now and forever.

The fetters were forged by ignorance. Buddhi yoga loosens them. The free yogi soars into the region of eternal light. Evil, pain, grief, delusion and all the negative fancies of his world-dreaming life disappear. To the enlightened, there is no evil; to even the smallest candle there is no darkness. The enlightened one is totally free from evil in himself; and he does not see evil in others – the ‘others’ are his own self! He is no longer bound by birth, even if he, to fulfil the Lord’s mission, is reborn here. He is never tainted by sin nor is he harassed by rain; they do not exist for him. He is a step higher than the yogi mentioned under verse sixteen.

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