I have translated the verses from the original with valuable assistance from the Malayalam translation by Swami Chidananda Saraswathy (Guruvayur Devaswom publication).

The Bhagavad Gita has no authority. Belief is not an issue here. Insight is – not into the meanings of any scriptural dogma in which belief is insisted – but into the immediate phenomena that we are made of. The Gita takes us to confront what is nearest to us – our thoughts, choice, desire, sorrow and so on.

I was never non-existent – neither were you nor all these kings. Nor would we all cease to exist in future. (2.12)

Existence is primary and elementary. Time is a notion created by change and memory. Existence therefore cannot have a limit in time.

For the embodied, attaining another body is in the same nature as its passage in this body through childhood, youth and old age. On this matter, the brave are not deluded. (2.13)

The contact of the senses with the sense objects bring heat and cold, pain and pleasure that come and go and are impermanent. Just observe them. (2.14)

Often this (titikshasva) is translated as ‘endure them’. I think this is more accurately translated as ‘observe’ or ‘be aware passively’. Endurance implies suffering. In observation, there is no suffering.

He who has the courage to be untroubled by the consequences of sense perception (heat, cold, pain, pleasure) and is even minded in pleasure and pain is fit for immortality (2.15)

He who treats the pleasures and sorrows – success and failure – of this world with indifference is in yoga. He lives not in time and mortality does not bother him.

The nature (bhaava:) of non-existence (what it is like not to exist) (asata:) has never been known. The absence (abhaava:) of existence (sata:) has also never been known. Seers have insight into both these conditions. (2.16)

Nobody has ever known what it is not to exist. By existence is meant the subjective experience of ‘being’. Non-existence has not been experienced by any conscious being. If the existence of non-existence should be proven, someone has to be made conscious of it. This is impossible because consciousness cannot be dissociated from existence – they are the same. Knowing, consciousness and existence are facets of a unitary, indivisible phenomenon.

Also, there has been no knowledge under any circumstance of existence not being there. The subjective experience of existence has never ended for any conscious being. Existence cannot cease – for ceasing to be, there must be knowing. And knowing cannot be dissociated from existence.

Time is a cognitive construct and therefore the notions of beginning and ending are a product of consciousness. Without consciousness there can be no time, no beginning, no end. As the ending of time cannot be manifested, consciousness extends to fill the whole of known Time. In this way consciousness can be said to be immortal. I or you will never know death. Therefore we are immortal. Yes, we die to other people. Others die to us too. But for ourselves our immortality is an incontrovertible fact. Our life fills psychological eternity.

What all this (that are manifested) is made up of is indestructible. No one can destroy this. (2.17)

Consciousness that makes up the manifested reality is immortal. This is a different expression of verse 2.16.

The soul is indestructible, immeasurable and eternal. Bodies are perishable. Therefore fight, Oh Bhaarata! (2.18)

He who thinks this as the slayer or the slain does not know. This neither slays nor is slain. (2.19)

This neither is born nor does this die. This is birthless, eternal, permanent and ancient. This does not killed when the body is killed. (2.20)

He who knows this as indestructible, eternal, unborn and unwaning cannot kill or cause to kill (2.21)

Just as a man discards worn out clothes and accepts new ones, the embodied one discards worn out bodies and attains newer ones (2.22)

This does no weapon cut, fire burn, water dissolve or wind dry (2.23)

Incapable of being cut, burnt, dissolved or dried, this is permanent, immanent, constant, still and perennial (2.24)

This is said to be indefinable, imponderable and invulnerable to emotion. Having understood this way, this does not deserve to be condoled (2.25)

On the other hand, even if you reckon this to be constantly being born and dying, there is no need to grieve. (2.27)

For, the born are certain to die. Also, the dead are certain to be born again. Therefore do not lament over what is irremediable. (2.28)

That consciousness is primary and causeless is the most fundamental and essential postulate in the Gita – and indeed in the whole of Indian thought. Consciousness is the primary phenomenon and everything else – matter, energy, memory, thought – is manifest as vibrations in consciousness.

From a physiological standpoint, we find that the sense organs are transducers of engery-forms such as light and sound into neural energy. In transduction, the pattern or configuration is preserved. Sensory pathways end in the cerebral cortex – occipital cortex in the case of vision and temporal cortex in the case of hearing. What happens in these ‘end-of –the-road areas of the cerebral cortex’? Nothing extraordinary except that when these cortical neurons ‘light up’ in a consistent pattern, we see objects and hear music. Of course, this is an oversimplification. Sensory perception is based on a complex orchestra involving different parts of the nervous system, with impulses traveling to and fro through afferent and efferent pathways. But it is certain that stimulation and participation of the cortical neurons in the orchestra are essential for subjective experience. What’s so special about the cortical neurons that enable ‘experience’ when they are stimulated? Is it that the cortical neurons transduce the neural energy into a form that affects the medium of consciousness, while the lower order sensory neurons that reside in the sense organs or en route in the neural pathways do not?

At the risk of oversimplification, it may be argued that experience is analogous to a picture being manifested on a screen. Pictures and music can be manifested only in media. What is the medium of experience? The medium of a painting is not the paint but the canvas. The medium of an audio cassette is the magnetic tape, which is distinct from the configuration of the magnetic elements on the tape. The medium of a movie is the white cinema screen and not the light that is projected. Similarly the medium of experience is not the nervous tissue that transduce external stimuli, but the consciousness screen on which the sensory cortical neurons project on to.

Consciousness does not exist in the matrix of space-time. Indeed space-time is fabricated by thought while thought is just a vibration in the medium of consciousness. Consciousness therefore cannot be apprehended by the senses – it is not measurable or describable. It is indestructible by the phenomena of matter and energy. Matter and energy are vibrations of consciousness having specific patterns. Depending on the patterns of vibration, different forms of energy and matter are manifested in consciousness.

Some see this (atman or consciousness) as a wonder. Another speaks of it as a wonder or listens to it as a wonder. In spite of all these, none among them knows what it is. (2.29)

The following seems to describe the hypothesis presented by the Gita that forms a heuristic basis of the practice of yoga.

Consciousness is not an object open to perception, expression or description. Anyone who attempts to do so is on an erroneous path. Is consciousness knowable? Consciousness can be aware of itself – but without any attributes of space, time or sense perception. Through silence, through quiet observation, consciousness is apprehended by itself. The state of consciousness being self-aware is meditation. For this to happen, consciousness has to be sensitive to thought activity in its minute form. When thought stills, sensations become acute and breathing deep and relaxed. Observe your thoughts. Thoughts describe past experiences, but they happen in the present and leaves imprints on our present moment awareness. Be aware of them.

The alternative to the state of meditation is when thoughts take off in a chain reaction. One thought triggers another, and another in rapid fire succession. Each thought has an accompaniment in terms of activation of the limbic-autonomic nervous system – the neurological organ of emotion. The rapid fire sequence of thoughts soon lead to a state of autonomic arousal – increased adrenaline and other neurotransmitters, changes in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and amplitude, dilatation of blood vessels, sweating, changes in bowel function. This process of continuous thought activation and secondary autonomic arousal makes up our existence in samsara (the mundane world).

Meditation therefore starts with observing thoughts. Thoughts are so delicately nimble and agile and great alertness is needed to observe them as they arise and pass through our minds.

Thoughts create objects of imagination and attention is focused on these objects. When attention is focused on the thoughts themselves, there is a sudden relaxation of the autonomic nervous system and the breath becomes deep and relaxed.

Bharata! This embodied one that is in all bodies is unslayable. Therefore there is no requirement for you to grieve over any creature. (2.30)

Even if you look at this from the standpoint of your duty, retreat is not an option. For the kshatriya, there is no greater honour than a righteous war. (2.31)

Blissful are the Kshatriyas who have the the opportunity to a war such as this that has confronted them by chance and that open the gate to heaven. (2.32)

Therefore, if you don’t wage this righteous war, you will forsake your own duty and honour and will incur sin. (2.33)

People will talk about your dishonour and for the respectable, dishonour is worse than death. (2.34)

The great warriors will consider you as having retreated from war out of fear. You, who have earned their respect, will become insignificant in their eyes. (2.35)

Your enemies will insult your competence and will speak unspeakable words. What could be more painful than that? (2.36)

Slain, you will attain heaven. Victorious, you will be able to enjoy the kingdom. Therefore, rise, Kaunteya, determined to fight! (2.37)

Here Krishna counsels from a human, egoistic (Rajasic) standpoint. He knows Arjuna is concerned about his image. War and conquest are Rajasic actions and the feudal society owes itself to these. Krishna here argues that death is not the end of the world and it is a trivial event in this endless journey of the atman through successive generations of life. Death of the individual ends nothing, but is only a milestone in the journey of the embodied one (atman). The fiercely aggressive mindset of the kings who wish to conquer and subjugate others is the Rajasic behaviour and it is natural. Aggressive ‘dog-eat-dog’ behaviour is prevalent throughout the biological world. This aids survival in the initial stages of evolution, but not beyond a certain point. What survives in the end is not Rajasic behaviour, but co-operative Saatvic behaviour that co-ordinates and supports the organism. The Pandavas represent the transition from the Rajasic to the Satvic mode. The Pandavas are fighters, but they follow the rules of Dharma (Law that sustains society and the living world as a whole), so they fight for defence and to defeat the aggressive egoism of their cousins. Their aim is not to submit to egoism (Rajas). They fight the Kauravas not to defeat and destroy them, but to defend dharma. The Pandavas’ success is not their individual success, but that of the society and the world.

Krishna points out to Arjuna that his duty is to fight this war that he has not sought, but forced upon him by his fiercely aggressive and egoistic (Rajasic) cousins. Bheeshma and Drona, although keenly aware of who is right, has decided to fight for the Kaurvas fully knowing that they will be defeated. This battle is a step in the evolution of human society from the feudal aggressiveness to a cohesive harmonious society that will be humanity’s future. For this to happen, war cannot be avoided. War should be in defence of the Law of Harmony of Life (Dharma).

Arjuna is paralyzed by ‘nerves’ and the fear of death and is rationalizing the situation invoking ‘noble’ worries about killing his teachers and kin. Krishna knows it is not possible to convince him by a pure discourse in philosophy to which he will not be receptive in his state of mind. Rather, he needs to be shown that even from the Rajasic state of mind that he is in, the option of retreat will not help him to salvage his pride and ego. On the other hand, retreat will result in a fatal blow to his pride and honour as a brave soldier in the eyes of the society. So the retreat, far from being a noble Satvic gesture, is actually an escape of cowardice that will be utterly catastrophic even from the Rajasic standpoint.

Thus Krishna, seeing that Arjuna is slipping from a state of egoistic crisis to Tamasic stupor and confusion that he tries to camouflage as Satvic righteousness, tries to expose his position as untenable and disastrous from even a Rajasic standpoint.

Even minded in comfort and sorrow, gain and loss, victory and defeat, get ready for battle. In this way sin will not be incurred. (2.38)

When you do anything (including battle) with equanimity, without craving for results, attachment is not produced. Attachment leads to tension and sorrow. Tension is when you struggle to maintain the attachment. Sorrow is when the forces of nature make you lose the object of attachment. Adam craved for the apple when his life was complete and there was no need for anything more. The craving produced the void and this void was the sorrow. Craving was the sin that gave birth to sorrow.

What I have elucidated to you so far is insight into the nature of consciousness. Now listen to the insights that make you renounce the bondage of action (karma). (2.39)

Krishna first dealt with the nature of consciousness – how it is different from the patterns within consciousness. Paint is different from the canvas. Music is different from the air which is the medium that supports the sound of music. The paper and the ink are different from the poetry that appears on paper in ink. The human form is the medium of dance and it is different from the choreography of dance. In the same way, consciousness is different from perceptions and thoughts. The pattern manifests in the medium, but the medium is unaffected by what happens to the pattern. In the same way, thoughts, memories and perceptions that are part of neural programming in the brain are destroyed at death, but the consciousness that is the medium is not affected at all.

Now he is about to impart insights that free the listener from the attachment caused by action.

In this, there is no danger of not completing what has been started and no obstacle. Even a little of this approach delivers one from great fear. (2.40)

The art of action (karma yoga) does not involve time. Hence there is no danger of not completing this when started. The art of action is to do things for the moment, for the sake of only doing it, not for any return. The art of action is to set a goal and act aiming towards the goal, but not with a desire to attain the goal. There is a clear-cut difference between acting towards a goal and being attached to (desiring) the goal. Aiming is different from craving. It is possible to aim accurately without any desire at all. This means that there is no disappointment or sorrow if what one does fails to attain its goal. Once the action is over, the goal is no longer relevant for the artist of action. For the artist of action, the perception of the goal serves the present-moment act of aiming. Aiming is part of action. Every action has its aim. For the artist, the goal is useful only insofar as it enables aiming. The goal is not for consumption or pleasurable enjoyment. The object and the aim are intrinsic to action. An action sets a goal that may be in the future, but the future goal translates as the aim in the present moment. Aiming is part of the present moment action.

The art of action instantaneously kills the psychological dimension of time. There is no accumulation of achievement in the practice of this art. Action that is skilled and that is precisely aimed makes up this art. Even a little of this art delivers one from the great fear that dwells in our psychological past and future.

Those who are following the vedic prescriptions with their multiple aims of heaven, riches, pleasures and the fruits of action will never arrive at that one-pointed intelligence that is the outcome of a resolute mind. (2.42- 44)

It is important to be clear in your thinking.

Instead of pursuing multiple objects of desire for satisfaction, Krishna indicates that it is more rational to gain a clear understanding of desire itself. Clear thinking will reveal that happiness comes out of extinguishing desire – the joy of fulfilling a desire is because the desire is no longer there. Eliminating desire does not mean renouncing the object of desire. If one does that when the desire is still active, it can only aggravate sorrow. Sorrow is the pain of unfulfilled desire.

The many pointed (materialistic) approach to happiness is through the fulfillment of multiple desires. The one-pointed and intelligent approach to happiness is, on the other hand, is to understand the process of desire at its very source so that it does not take off.

The Vedas deal with the three gunas. Be steadfast in awareness freed from the three gunas, the opposites and materialistic pursuits. (2.45)

The Vedas have as much use for the seer of the Brahman, as a small pond has in the presence of a lake that collects water from all around. (2.46)

The Vedas deal with propitiating gods for the fulfillment of various materialistic desires. The Vedas are worldly sciences. The modern Vedas are the various technological sciences such as engineering, medicine, business management and so on. The aim is to solve problems and fulfill various desires – innate as well as those acquired with civilization. Atma vidya is different. Atma vidya goes one step deeper and probes the source of happiness itself

– this is the elimination of the process of desire. Once the skill of happiness is mastered, there is no need for the mastery of the specific domains of fulfillment.

What is most irrational about human behaviour?

It is our tendency to yearn for constant growth despite all the evidence around us that tells us that decline in our powers with time is our inevitable destiny. The higher the relative position that you achieve, the steeper will be the fall as you approach senescence and death. Still we are so absorbed in the pursuit of success throughout our lives. Work and success are natural events of life. But one should not lose sight of the ephemeral nature of success.

You have control only over your action, never over its fruits. Do not act for the sake of the fruits. Nor should you desist from action. (2.47)

Action is its own joy. The art of action is to act with your whole being. The joy of action is not in the recovery of its fruits. The joy of ploughing the land and sowing seeds is not in the harvest that follows, but in the work of ploughing and sowing itself.

Whatever you do, do well. Take good aim and shoot.

Nothing that you do or do not do is going to be very critical in this world. The world will go on regardless of what you do or do not do. Yet take good aim and execute your job with artistry and accuracy. Your dharma is to exercise your abilities, intelligence and creativity. Blind obedience, being a passive cog in the wheel is equivalent to inaction. Nature has endowed you with a brain that is essentially no different from the brains of any other creative human being who ever lived in the past. Take stock of your resources, your brain’s abilities and cultivate the world around you. Organize, co-ordinate and create around you.

There is no need to act half heartedly, when you can act full heartedly and with artistic exuberance. Being passive and overly compliant only reflects fear – and there is no one and nothing to fear. You are the consciousness that gives birth to the whole of this manifested world. Therefore act creatively and wholeheartedly, but don’t let ahankara take over. Your creative action, that is without desire, is done by Satvaguna of Prakriti. If you do karma with egoistic desire for achievement, possession and arrival, again that is Rajoguna in action. If you do karma with a craving to drown in stimulation, that is tamoguna in action. There is no you here that acts. To think that you are acting is delusional.

Do your job shedding all attachment with equanimity towards gain and loss. Equanimity is yoga. (2.48)

Worldly action (action for the sake of gaining objects) is so trivial compared to ‘intelligent action’ or buddhiyoga (with equanimity, steadfast in pure consciousness (and not in any objects that arise from its modification)). Therefore seek refuge in intelligent action. Pathetic are those who work for the fruits of action. (2.49)

Equanimity (samadarsana, seeing everything as equal) is yoga. Seeing everything equal doesn’t mean that one cannot distinguish between things in terms of their size, shape, colour and other attributes. Samatvam means there is no preference or desire. If you desire one object over other objects, then samatvam or equanimity goes out of the window. Equanimity (syn. Samatvam, samabhavana, samadarshana, choiceless awareness) is attachment to nothing – or attachment to the nothingness that resides in everything. Everything manifests out of nothingness. There cannot be something without the substrate of nothingness. Nothingness cannot be perceived. Nothingness and impermanence are the same.

The impermanence of an object is the understanding that whatever one has perceived as attributes of the object is reducible to nothingness at some stage or other. Impermanence implies that there is nothing permanent. The only thing that is permanent is impermanence itself (the constant flux).

Impermanence is an attribute of the world. Nothingness is only a concept and is not an attribute of the world. Nothingness implies that there is a state of nothingness or the ‘unmanifested state’ for every object in this world. We see the world as a segment of space-time. We don’t see the dimension of time in its fullness. If we do, we will perceive the unmanifest nature or nothingness of all objects that ever existed.

The intelligent discard good and bad actions. Therefore work for yoga. Yoga is skill in action. (2.50)

Action without attachment and in constant awareness of impermanence of everything is yoga. The absence of attachment will ensure that there is total attention to whatever is now. The awareness of impermanence will enable total attention to the present moment. Such total attention to the ‘here and now’ with awareness of the impermanence of every momentary manifestation will make one very skilled in whatever that one does. Yoga is this skillful action.

The intelligent, relinquishing the fruits of their action, become enlightened and liberated from the bondages associated with birth, attain happiness. (2.51)

Liberated from all attachment, firmly ensconced in the awareness of the impermanence of all that is manifested, the yogi lives in happiness, not bound by the compulsion to work for the fulfillment of desires and the commitment to keep what one has acquired.

When your mind confused by intellectual chatter is motionless and firmly ensconced in consciousness, you would attain yoga. (2.53)

He Arjuna, he who has relinquished all desires and who is fully contented in unmodified and pure existence is called a man of secure understanding (2.55)

The sage who is unperturbed in adversity and dispassionate in comfort and who has been able to ward off desire, fear and anger is called a man of secure understanding. (2.56)

His understanding is secure who is dispassionate towards all and who neither exults in good fortune nor bemoan adversity. (2.57)

He who withdraws his sense organs from the meaning of sense modalities — like a tortoise withdrawing its limbs — is of secure understanding (2.58)

The man of secure understanding withdraws his sense organs from the meaning of sensory modalties (indriyaartthaebhya:) and not from the sensory modalities themselves. He continues to see, hear, feel, smell and taste, but does not react to the sensations with meaning. Meaning is not contained in the sensations that one receives, but consists in the reaction of the brain to the sensation. We see or hear something. The meaning is not instrinsic to what we see or hear, but is attributed to what we see or hear by our response to them. Thus we respond to the sensations with images from memory and with words and these responses carry with them affective associations. The words wrap up the stream of sensations into packages and these packages are the objects. The objects trigger conditioned affective associations of like and dislike. It is these likes and dislikes that imbue meaning to our sensory experiences. The man of secure understanding withdraws his thoughts and thus his sensory experiences will be uncontaminated with meaning.

What the man of secure understanding withdraws is his thoughts that lend meaning to the sensations and not the sense organs. The man of secure understanding continues to receive all sensations through all the sense portals, but does not react with any images or words from memory. What the man of secure understanding experiences is therefore the real, pristine, fresh sensations and not a conditioned samsara full of worldly meanings and interpretations.

Kaunteya, even the mind of the learned seer is agitated powerfully by the senses. (2.60)

Keeping in control all the senses, remain connected (yukta:) to the Self (matpara:). His understanding is secure whose senses are in control. (2.61)

Controlling the senses do not mean shutting down the senses or disconnecting the senses from its natural stimuli – light, sound, touch, smell and taste. Ingenious methods such as blindfolding, ear-plugging and suspending oneself in zero gravity (so as to eliminate tactile stimulation) is not the way of yoga. Controlling the senses does not mean suppressing senses at all. What it means is to stop reacting to the sensations. Indeed it is the responses of thought in the form of memory images and subliminal chatter that divide the stream of experience into meaningful objects that form the basis of reasoning as well as fantasy.

The yogi withdraws his reaction – and not his senses

The yogi remains fully alert and receptive to stimuli that are conveyed by his senses, but does not respond. There is total reception but no broadcast. In this way the phenomenal stream of consciousness is not broken up into meaningful objects. The meaningfulness of the world created by the interjection of thought on the phenomenal stream is illusory (maya).

The man who thinks of objects, develops attachment to them. From attachment arises desire and from desire arises anger. (2.62)

From anger arises delusion that leads to confusion. Confusion results in loss of intelligence that in turn leads to defeat. (2.63)

Objectification is caused by the chatter of the brain – or the response of the memory areas of the temporal cortex to the sensory stream received in the sensory cortex of the parieto-occipital cerebrum. In the yogi’s brain, the temporal cortex ceases to respond to what the parieto-occipital cortex receives. Memory and emotion are closely linked phenomenologically as well as neurologically – both are situated in the temporal lobe. The response of memory in the form of recognition by juxtaposing the sensory input with stored images and the constant chatter of naming activity gives rise to persistence of objects. Attachment arises as the limbic system is stimulated in association with perpetuated objects. Desire takes over and the nervous system tries to chase the source of the sensations that make up the objects of attachment (like). Desire, frustration, anger, confusion, stupefaction and defeat follow in sequence.

He who is free of desire and anger and who travels through the world without noise attains tranquility. (2.64)

When the mind is (silent and) tranquil, all sorrows cease. The intellect of such a mind is secure. (2.65)

He whose mind pursues sense objects has his intelligence swept away by those sense objects as a boat is swept away by wind. (2.67)

The loss of intelligence happens when one confuses happiness as originating in objects, situations, conditions, relationships or any of the particular fragments made up by thought. Happiness is not contained in thought, but is intrinsic to consciousness. Happiness of success is only due to the pausing of desire at the point of arrival at success – when there is no more need to pursue, to chase – when objects do not matter and one can afford to relax and be aware of what is happening around. Adulation is the society’s granting allowance that there is no need to act – as ‘we recognize that you have arrived, and we, the judges of society, do not ask any more of you this moment.”

However, this is what the impermanent stream of consciousness tells you all the time. ‘You have arrived completely and you are allowed to be for ever and you don’t have to do anything’. This is what the stream of consciousness, the atman, God tells you. The stream of consciousness or Atman or God – that permanent impermanence, the eternal flux of joy accepts you unconditionally and tells you that it is all right to stop everything – no you don’t have to do anything. Love is when you say – you don’t have to do anything.

Therefore he, whose senses are withdrawn from their meanings (indriyaartthaebhya:), has secure understanding. (2.68)

The man of secure understanding does not withdraw all his sense organs from their respective sensations. What he withdraws is his thought-responses to the sensations, that provide meaning to the latter. In other words, his mind becomes silent and without chatter – in a state of meditation.

The flow of sensation that is received through the sense portals is continuous and ever changing. There is the quality of total flux and impermanence to the flow of sensation. What fragments this continual flow into objects is the subliminal verbal and imaginatory activity of the memory parts of the brain in response to it. And it is these objects, which give meaning to the stream of sensation. The world (samsara) is made up of these objects created by the recognition and naming activity of thought. Samsara is thought and it is thought that makes up this world.

The sensory stream that flows through the five sense portals is responded to by the incessant flow of thought in the form of recognition and naming. Recognition and naming trigger the emotions of like and dislike. It is these emotions of like and dislike that make the world ‘meaningful’ in a worldly sense.

So long as there is this incessant flow of thought in response to the sensory stream, the mind is caught in the turbulent activity that involves the temporal (subserving memory) and limbic (subserving emotions) lobes of the brain that consist of fragmenting the sensory stream into the complicated mosaic – manifested in space and time – of meaningful objects, making up this world (samsara).

The man of secure understanding is one whose brain (temporal-limbic lobes) does not chatter in response to the sensory stream and therefore does not weave a world of objects (samsara) using thought constructs, labels and judgements (likes and dislikes). Samsara is this world and the process by which samsara is created is maya. Samsara is a complex world in which the objects are inextricably intertwined with their names and the judging emotions of like and dislike.

The withdrawal is meditation. The withdrawal is not turning away from the world. But it involves seeing the world without the conditioned response of recognition and naming

The seer is awake to what is night to all beings. And what is the awake state to beings is night to the seer. (2.69)

The awareness of the stream of consciousness without the chatter of recognition and naming is a state of meditation that seems like night or darkness to beings who are living in the world of thought-objects. The world of objects in which social beings dwell created by the thought-activity of recognition and naming is full of worldly meanings, but is meaningless for the seer who savours the stillness of consciousness.

He attains peace, whose desires are absorbed into consciousness just as rivers are absorbed into the silent fullness of the ocean. Not he who is full of desires. (2.70)

The neural energy of desire is absorbed into the stillness of awareness of consciousness. The same neural energy that is expended in the thought-mediated perpetuation of worldly objects of desire and their active pursuit by the organs of activity is channeled towards consciousness that is impermanent, devoid of objects, recognitions and names. Like the ocean, consciousness does not have any particularities within it. There is boundless tranquility and happiness in this awareness.

He, who has eschewed all craving and moves without desire or the sense of me and mine, attains peace. (2.71)

He who has overcome the delusion that objects are permanent and that it is irrational to pursue and acquire objects and who understands that the height of happiness that success gives is nothing but the happiness that is intrinsic to the unmodified flux of consciousness (sat-chit-ananda), will no longer chase objects and will remain in the awareness of consciousness – that is, atman.

Paarttha! This is what it is to be secure in consciousness. Once this is attained, there is no more delusion. He, who remains in this state at the time of death, merges with unmodified consciousness. (2.72)

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