Chapter LVIII - Arjuna's satisfaction at the sermon

Argument:—The knowledge of truth dispels the doubts, and leads to display his valorous deeds in warfare.

Arjuna said:—

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Lord! it is by thy kindness, that I am freed from my delusion, and have come to the reminiscence of myself. I am now placed above all doubts, and will act as you have said.

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The Lord replied: —when you find the feelings and faculties of your heart and mind, to be fully pacified by means of your knowledge; then understand your soul to have attained its tranquillity, and the property of goodness or purity of its nature. (Sattwa Swabhava).

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In this state, the soul becomes insensible of all mental thoughts, and full of intelligence in itself; and being freed from all inward and outward perceptions, it perceives in itself the one Brahma who is all and everywhere.

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No worldly being can observe this elevated state of the soul, as no body can see the bird that has fled from the earth into the upper sky.

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The pure soul which is devoid of desire, becomes full of intelligence and spiritual light; and it is not to be perceived by even the foresighted observer. (It is the soul's approximation to the Divine state).

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No body can perceive this transcendental and transparent state of the soul, without purifying his desires at first; it is a state as imperceptible to the impure, as the minutest particle of an atom, is unperceivable by the naked eye.

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Attainment of this state, drives away the knowledge of all sensible objects as of pots, plates, and others. What thing therefore is so desirable, as to be worth desiring before the Divine presence.

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As the frost and ice melt away before a volcanic mountain, so doth our ignorance fly afar, from the knowledge of the intellectual soul. (i.e. Intellectual knowledge drives away all ignorance before it).

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What are these mean desires of us, that blow away like the dust of the earth, and what are our possessions and enjoyments but snares to entangle our souls?

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So long doth our ignorance (avidya) flaunt herself in her various shapes, as we remain ignorant of the pure and modest nature of our inmost souls in ourselves. (Self-knowledge is shy and modest, while ignorance is full of vanity and boast).

11. [Sanskrit available]
All outward appearances fade away and faint (before the naked eye), and appear in their pellucid forms in the inmost soul, which grasps the whole in itself, as the vacuum contains the plenum in it.

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That which shows all forms in it, without having or showing any form of itself; is that transcendent substance which is beyond description, and transcends our comprehension of it.

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Now get rid of the poisonous and cholic pain of your desire of gain, as also of the permanence of your own existence;mutter to yourself the mantra of your resignation of desirables, and thus prosper in the world without fear for anything.

Vasishtha said:—

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After the Lord of the three worlds had spoken the words, Arjuna remained silent for a moment before him; and then like a bee sitting beside a blue lotus, uttered the following words to the sable bodied Krishna.

Arjuna said:—

15. [Sanskrit available]
Lord! Thy words have dispelled all grief from my heart, and the light of truth is rising in my mind; as when the sun rises to awaken the closed and sleeping lotus.

Vasishtha said:—

16. [Sanskrit available]
After saying so, Arjuna being cleared of all his doubts, laid hold on his Gandiva bow, and rose with Hari for his charioteer, in order to proceed to his warlike exploits.

17. [Sanskrit available]
He will transform the face of the earth to a sea of blood, gushing out of the bodies of combatants, their charioteers and horses and elephants that will be wounded by him; the flights of his arrows and thickening darts, will hide the disk of the sun in the sky, and darken the face of the earth with flying dust.