The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.
Translations of other slokas of the Gita are available on my blog http://haricharanam.blogspot.
The frame of mind that becomes a yogi is now detailed:
1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 2 - Samkhya Yoga - Sloka 50
Buddhi yuktah jahati iha ubhe sukruta dusukrute I
Tasmat yogaya yujyasva yogah karmasu koushalam II sloka 50
बुद्धि युक्तः जहाति इह उभे सुकृत दुष्कृते ।
तस्मात योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलं ।। श्लोक ५०
The one fixed in equanimity of mind frees oneself in this life from vice and virtue alike; therefore devote yourself to yoga; work done to perfection is verily yoga.
Karma is classified as good or bad based on the result it produces. Good karma is as much the cause as the bad one for the continuity of the wheel of birth and death.But the karma yogi is not affected by karma of any kind. This is due to his being fixed in equanimity - the state free from likes and dislikes, attachment & aversion. a surgeon cuts and operates on the body of the patient. The sick man surviving or succumbing to it, doesnot make the doctor virtuous or vicious. He does his duty very well for duty's sake. If the patient dies while being operated on, the doctor doesnot feel guilty of murder. He goes through the series of operations calmly because of his equanimity of mind. Detached performance of duty adds to the efficiency and the required equilibrium is maintained perfectly.
This principle applies to all activities in life. It is yoga to maintain equilibrium in the midst of all of them. Work is executed very efficiently in poise only. Attachment and aversion take away the efficiency from man. Bhishma fought for the wicked to the best of his ability, but because of his complete detachment, he was not tainted by his action. As the Mahabharata has it, a woman served her husband dispassionately rose in yoga superior to an ascetic who gained by austerity, the psychic power to burn an intruding bird to ashes. A butcher also, in his turn became a greater yogi than this ascetic by discharging his seemingly ugly duty without attachment or aversion.
Equanimity of mind comes to one free from likes and dislikes, attachment and aversion. He is a yogi. No new karma accrues to him. The momentum of the old karma wanes away. He gains in perfecting the mind.
A sage seated in the Himalayan cave allows his mind to wander on unwanted things. a cobbler in a corner at the cross roads of several busy roads in the city, is absorbed in mending a shoe as an act of service. Of these two, the cobbler is a better yogi than the sage.
Swami Vivekananda
A question may arise as to which among the duties that fall to man's lot may be considered preferable? The answer follows in the next sloka.
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