श्रीमद्भगवद्गीताShrimad Bhagavad Gita 📖 Read as a flipbook

Bhagavad Gita · Sankhya YogaChapter 2, Shloka 59 (2.59)

Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्

विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः
रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते
॥ 2.59 ॥

viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasavarjaṃ raso'pyasya paraṃ dṛṣṭvā nivartate

Translation

"For the embodied one who does not take in sense objects, the objects fall away, but the taste (attachment) for them does not. Even the taste of this seeker falls away on seeing the Supreme (reality)."

Interpretation

Two levels — objects and taste. Objects can be removed from the outside — by fasting, by solitude, even by illness. But the rasa — the inner taste, the pull — remains. Shankaracharya says — sense objects can fall away even for a sick person or a fool (mūrkhasyāpi); this does not make one a sthita-prajña.

When does the taste go? Paraṃ dṛṣṭvā — on seeing the Supreme.

  • Shankaracharya: paraṃ paramārtha-tattvaṃ brahma dṛṣṭvā — knowing the supreme reality, Brahman, as "I am That"; then nirbījaṃ viṣaya-vijñānam — the knowledge of objects becomes seedless. He says clearly: na asati samyag-darśane rasasya ucchedaḥ — without right vision, the taste is not uprooted.
  • Ramanuja: ātma-svarūpaṃ viṣayebhyaḥ paraṃ sukhataraṃ dṛṣṭvā — seeing the nature of the self as more delightful than sense objects, the attachment turns away.

Ramanuja's "sukhataram" — more delightful — deserves attention: when a greater joy is found, a smaller attraction fades. The "contentment in the self" of 2.55 returns here.

AI-assisted draft translation — under review.

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