Chapter 2Verse 44 of 72

Bhagavad Gita 2.44

भोगैश्वर्यप्रसक्तानां तयापहृतचेतसाम् । व्यवसायात्मिका बुद्धिः समाधौ न विधीयते ॥

bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṃ tayāpahṛta-cetasām | vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ samādhau na vidhīyate ||

Translation

For those who are attached to enjoyment and lordship, whose minds are carried away by that talk, the resolute understanding is not established in samadhi.

The link to 2.41. The mind whose center is appetite cannot stabilize. Apahṛta-cetasām, those whose thinking has been stolen. By what? By the very flowery talk of 2.42-43. Samādhau na vidhīyate. It does not get fixed in samadhi. The verse names the practical consequence: you cannot sit still on a foundation of wanting more. The instrument required for the deeper work needs a quiet platform; the appetite-frame does not provide one. This is not a moral judgment. It is an engineering one.

Reflection

When did appetite-talk last carry your mind away from the stillness you sat down to find?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Two

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