The steady mind

This understanding has been declared to you in terms of Sankhya; now hear it in terms of yoga. Joined to this understanding, son of Pritha, you'll break free from the bondage of karma.

On this path there's no lost effort, and no adverse result. Even a little of this dharma protects one from great fear.

Here, descendant of Kuru, there is a single one-pointed understanding; the understandings of the undecided are many-branched and endless.

The undiscerning, delighting in the flowery words that the Vedas proclaim, son of Pritha, saying there is nothing beyond this—their nature is desire, heaven is their highest aim, and they speak this speech that yields rebirth as the fruit of action, dense with specific rites aimed toward pleasure and power. For those attached to pleasure and power, whose minds are carried away by such words, no firm, one-pointed understanding is established in deep absorption.

The Vedas deal with the domain of the three guṇas. Be free of the three guṇas, Arjuna, free of the pairs of opposites, ever grounded in truth, free from concern for gain and safekeeping, established in the self.

To the brahmin who has known the self, all the Vedas are of as much use as a well is when water floods everywhere.

Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits. Don't let the fruits of action be your motive, and don't be attached to inaction either.

Established in yoga, Dhananjaya, perform actions, abandoning attachment, staying even-minded in success and failure. This evenness of mind is called yoga.

Action is indeed far inferior to the yoga of understanding, Dhananjaya. Seek refuge in this understanding—pitiable are those who act for the sake of results.

Joined to this understanding, one casts off, even in this life, both good deeds and bad. So devote yourself to this yoga—yoga is skill in action.

The wise, joined to this understanding, abandon the fruit born of action, and freed from the bondage of birth, go to that state free from affliction.

When your understanding crosses beyond the thicket of delusion, then you'll become indifferent to what has been heard and what is yet to be heard.

When your understanding, currently distracted by conflicting scriptural claims, stands unmoving and fixed in deep absorption, then you'll attain yoga.

What is the mark, Keshava, of a person whose wisdom is steady and who is established in samādhi? How does such a person speak, sit, and walk?

When a person casts away entirely all the desires present in the mind, son of Pritha, satisfied in the self by the self alone, then that one is called steady in wisdom.

One whose mind isn't shaken amid suffering, who doesn't crave pleasures, free from attachment, fear, and anger—that sage is called steady in wisdom.

One who is unattached on every side, who neither rejoices on encountering good nor recoils from evil—that one's wisdom stands firm.

And when, like a tortoise drawing in its limbs from every side, this person withdraws the senses from their objects, that one's wisdom stands firm.

Objects fall away from the embodied self who abstains from them, though the taste for them remains; but even that taste falls away once he has seen the Supreme.

The turbulent senses, son of Kunti, forcibly carry away the mind even of a wise person striving for mastery.

Having restrained them all, he should sit disciplined, focused on me as the highest goal. Whoever has the senses under control—that one's wisdom stands firm.

Dwelling on sense objects, a person develops attachment to them. From attachment comes longing, and from longing, anger is born.

From anger comes delusion, and from delusion, confusion of memory. From confusion of memory comes the ruin of understanding, and from the ruin of understanding, he is destroyed.

But the self-controlled person, moving among sense objects with senses disciplined and free from attraction and aversion, attains clarity of mind.

In that clarity, all his sorrows come to an end—for the understanding of one whose mind is clear soon becomes firmly established.

There is no understanding for the undisciplined, and no meditative focus for the undisciplined. Without meditative focus there is no peace—and without peace, how can there be happiness?

For the mind that follows the wandering senses carries away one's discernment, just as wind carries away a boat on the water.

Therefore, mighty-armed one, the wisdom of one whose senses are entirely restrained from their objects stands firm.

What is night for all beings—in that the self-disciplined person is awake. What is waking time for all beings—that is night for the sage who sees.

As waters flow into the ocean, which is ever being filled yet remains unmoving and still, so too the one into whom all desires flow in just this way attains peace—not the one who craves after desires.

That person who lives free of longing, having abandoned all desires, without any sense of 'I' or 'mine'—that one attains peace.

This is the state of being established in Brahman, son of Pṛthā. Reaching it, no one is deluded again. Established in it even at the hour of death, one attains the freedom called brahma-nirvāṇa.