Bg. 2.59 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः । रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते ॥ ५९ ॥

Verse text

viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ rasa-varjaṁ raso ’py asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate

Synonyms

viṣayāḥ — objects for sense enjoyment ; vinivartante — are practiced to be refrained from ; nirāhārasya — by negative restrictions ; dehinaḥ — for the embodied ; rasa-varjam — giving up the taste ; rasaḥ — sense of enjoyment ; api — although there is ; asya — his ; param — far superior things ; dṛṣṭvā — by experiencing ; nivartate — he ceases from.

Translation

Though the embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

59. One who refrains from eating also stops the sense objects from functioning, but the desire for enjoyment remains. Having seen the Paramātmā, one can stop the desire as well.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

59. One who refrains from eating also stops the sense objects from functioning, but the desire for sense objects remains. Having seen the ātmā, one can stop the desire as well.

Translation (Bhurijana Dasa)

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

Purport

Unless one is transcendentally situated, it is not possible to cease from sense enjoyment. The process of restriction from sense enjoyment by rules and regulations is something like restricting a diseased person from certain types of eatables. The patient, however, neither likes such restrictions nor loses his taste for eatables. Similarly, sense restriction by some spiritual process like aṣṭāṅga-yoga, in the matter of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, etc., is recommended for less intelligent persons who have no better knowledge. But one who has tasted the beauty of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, in the course of his advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, no longer has a taste for dead, material things. Therefore, restrictions are there for the less intelligent neophytes in the spiritual advancement of life, but such restrictions are only good until one actually has a taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one is actually Kṛṣṇa conscious, he automatically loses his taste for pale things.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

“But even the fool who is fasting because of sickness is able to stop the movement of his senses.” For one who stops eating (nirāhārasya), the objects of the senses disappear, but not the desire for objects (rasa-varjam). The desire (rasa) for objects does not disappear. For the person situated in prajṣā however, having seen the Paramātmā, the desire for objects does disappear. This is not a deviation from the qualities of the sthita-prajṣa. The ability to realize the soul directly is something that has to be attained through practice, not something that is naturally possible for everyone (such as the ignorant person fasting.)

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

“But we can see that the fool who is sick also restraints his senses. How can this be the outstanding quality of the sthita prajṣa?” “For a person (dehinah), even if he is a fool, who does not eat out of fear of sickness (nirāhārasya), the experiences of sense objects (viṣayā) are also annulled, but not the thirst or attraction (rasa varjam). That thirst for sense objects is not destroyed. However, for the sthita prajṣa (asya), who has realized the ātmā, superior to the sense objects, which is full of self-manifesting bliss (param dṛṣṭvā), even the thirst for sense objects (rasaḥ) is destroyed (nivartate). His quality is destruction of sense objects and the thirst, from which there is no deviation (unlike the sick man whose extinction of sense objects is not accompanied by extinction of thirst.)”

Surrender Unto Me

He is fixed in consciousness because he has a higher taste. He is not at all tortured, he is getting something better. [ 4b . Therefore, one should restrict one's senses from sense objects by focusing them on Krsna. One will otherwise fall down within the material pool. (60‑63) ] Here Krsna is going to explain why it is not good to go to the forest and try to be renounced and give up all activities thinking the he is, either going to obtain knowledge, or avoid acting in sin. This is what Arjuna was thinking.