IMPORTANT VERSES OF CHAPTER 2

7. My heart is overpowered by the taint of sorrow; my mind is confused as to duty. I ask you: tell me decisively what is good for me. I am your disciple. Instruct me; who has now taken refuge in you.

8. I do not see that it would remove this sorrow that burns up my senses even if I should attain prosperous and unrivalled dominion on earth or lordship over the gods.

9. Arjuna said to Krishna: "I will not fight," and became silent.

10. To him who was despondent in the midst of the two armies, Krishna, as if smiling, spoke these words.

11. You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak like the wise men; who do not sorrow over the dead or the living.

12. Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

13. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.

14. O son of Kunti, the contact between the senses and their objects, which give rise to the feelings of heat and cols, pleasure and pain etc. are impermanent, therefore one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

15. Arjuna, the wise man to whom pain and pleasure are alike and who is not tormented by these contacts becomes eligible for immortality.

19. Both of them are ignorant, he who considers the soul to be capable of killing and he who takes it as killed; for verily the soul neither kills, nor is killed.

22. Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so also the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters others that are new.

23. Weapons can cut it not, fire can burn it not, water can wet it not, and wind can dry it not. This soul is eternal, all pervading, constant and everlasting.

47. Thy right is to work only, but never with its fruits; let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let this attachment be to inaction. 48. Perform action, O Arjuna, being steadfast in yoga, abandoning attachment and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of mind is called yoga.

50. Endowed with wisdom (evenness of mind), one casts off in his life both good and evil deeds; therefore, devote yourself to yoga; yoga is skill in action.

55. When a man completely casts off, O Arjuna, all the desires of the mind are satisfied in the Self by the Self, then is he said to be one of steady wisdom.

66. He who has not controlled his mind and senses, can have no determinate intellect, nor contemplation. Without contemplation, he can have no peace; and how can there be happiness for one lacking peace of mind.

Questions:

Q1. Why should one not grieve for the dead? Nor grieve for the living?
Q2. Why should we be balanced in pain and pleasure?
Q3. What is selfless service?
Q4. How can one act responsibly, if one is not concerned about the fruit of an action?
Q5. "Yoga is skill in action" (verse 50). What does this mean?