Chapter 2 - Verse 69

To all beings the Supreme Reality is night. Night is by nature tamasic, and, as such, causes confusion of things. The Reality is accessible only to a man of steady knowledge. Just as what is day to others becomes night to night-wanderers, so, to all beings who are ignorant and who correspond to the night-wanderers, the Supreme Reality is dark, is like night; for it is not accessible to those whose minds are not in It. With reference to that Supreme Reality, the self-restrained Yogin who has subdued the senses, and who has shaken off the sleep of Avidyā (nescience), is fully awake. When all beings are said to be awake, i.e., when all beings, who in reality sleep in the night of ignorance, imbued with the distinct notions of perceiver and things perceived, are as it were mere dreamers in sleep at night,—that state is night in the eye of the sage who knows the Supreme Reality; for, it is nescience itself.

Works are not meant of the Sage.

Wherefore works are enjoined on the ignorant, not on the wise. Wisdom (Vidya) arising, nescience (Avidyā) disappears as does the darkness of the night at sunrise. Before the dawn of wisdom, nescience presents itself in various forms—as actions, means and results,—is regarded as authoritative, and becomes the source of all action. When it is regarded as of no authority, it cannot induce action. A man engages in action regarding it as his duty—regarding that action is enjoined by such an authority as the Veda, but not looking upon all this duality as mere illusion, as though it were night. When he has learnt to look upon all this dual world as a mere illusion, as though it were night, when he has realised the Self, his duty consists not in the performance of action, but in the renunciation of all action. Our Lord will accordingly show (v. 17 et seq.) that such a man’s duty consists in devotion to wisdom, in jnana-nishtha.

(Objection):—In the absence of an injunction (Pravar-taka pramana = vidhi) one cannot have recourse to that course either.

(Answer):—This objection does not apply; for the knowledge of Atman means the knowledge of one’s own Self. There is indeed no need of an injunction impelling one to devote oneself to one’s Atman, for the very reason that Atman is one’s own very Self. And all organs of knowledge (pramanas) are so called because they ultimately lead to a knowledge of the Self. When the knowledge of the true nature of the Self has been attained, neither organs of knowledge nor objects of knowledge present themselves to consciousness any longer. For, the final authority, (viz., the Veda), teaches that the Self is in reality no percipient of objects, and while so denying, (i.e., as a result of that teaching), the Veda itself ceases to be an authority, just as the dream-perception (ceases to be an authority) in the waking state. In ordinary experience, too, we do not find any organ of knowledge necessitating further operation (on the part of the knower) when once the thing to be percived by that organ has been perceived.

(7) Subjugation of desire and personal self.

The Lord proceeds to teach, by an illustration, that that devotee only who is wise, who has abandoned desires, and whose wisdom is steady, can attain moksha, but not he who, without renouncing, cherishes a desire for objects of pleasure.