Mūla — the verse
Gita Press numberingTranslation
Swami Gambhīrānanda · follows Śaṅkara-bhāṣyaEndowed with a pure intellect and controlling oneself with fortitude, one should reject the objects beginning from sound [sound, touch, form, color, taste, and smell - Tr.] and eliminate attachment and hatred.
हिन्दी अनुवाद — Swami Tejomayānanda
विशुद्ध बुद्धि से युक्त, धृति से आत्मसंयम कर, शब्दादि विषयों को त्याग कर और राग-द्वेष का परित्याग कर....৷৷৷৷।।
Pronunciation — Vaamshii
from VaamshiiWord by word
padārthaThemes
from The Thematic Companion to the Bhagavad GītāMeaning — Questions & Solutions
from Q&A with KnAYes — and K does so here, gathering the entire path into one sweeping passage. First (18.49): with intellect unattached everywhere, self conquered, desire gone, one reaches by renunciation the supreme perfection of actionlessness (naiṣkarmya-siddhi) — freedom within action. Then (18.50–53) he sketches the ascent to Brahman: endowed with a pure intellect, restraining the self with firmness, turning from sense-objects, casting off attraction and aversion; resorting to solitude, eating lightly, controlling speech, body and mind; ever in meditation and dispassion; abandoning egoism, force, arrogance, desire, anger and possessiveness, peaceful and free of “mine” — such a one is fit for becoming Brahman (brahma-bhūyāya kalpate). Then (18.54) the flowering: “brahma-bhūtaḥ — become Brahman, serene in the Self, he neither grieves nor craves; the same to all beings, he attains supreme devotion to Me (mad-bhaktiṃ labhate parām).” Then (18.55) the fruit of that devotion: “by devotion he knows Me truly, what and who I am; and having known Me in truth, he enters into Me forthwith.” Finally (18.56–57) the seal: doing all actions, ever taking refuge in Me, by My grace he reaches the eternal, imperishable abode; therefore surrender every action to Me in thought, and, fixed in buddhi-yoga, be ever mindful of Me. Read as a whole, this is the entire Gītā compressed into one ascent: karma (offered action) → jñāna (discrimination and the rise to Brahman) → bhakti (the supreme devotion that crowns knowledge) → entering Him by grace. Notice the astonishing sequence at 18.54: becoming Brahman does not end in a cold absolute but blossoms into love — the highest knowledge yields the highest devotion. Jñāna and bhakti, argued as one throughout the book (6.30, 7.18), here embrace at the summit.