Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6 - Dhyana Yoga - Sloka 46

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.


Yoga is unparalleled 46-47
1 Gita Sloka  every day - Chapter 6 - Dhyana Yoga - Sloka 46

Tapas vibyah adhikhah yogi gyanibhyaha api mantah adhikah I
Karmibhyah cha adhikah yogi tasmat yogi bhava arjuna II sloka 46
तपस विभ्यः अधिखः योगी ज्ञानिभ्यः अपि मन्तः अधिकः ।
कर्मिभ्यः च अधिकः योगी तस्मात योगी भव अर्जुन ।। श्लोक ४६


The yogi is deemed superior to ascetics, superior to men of knowledge even; he is also superior to ritualists. Therefore be you a yogi, O Arjuna

It is incumbent on man to choose an ideal in life lest he should drift and deviate into an empty existence. The higher the ideal the harder it is to achieve. Still, an attainable great ideal has to be fixed. The highest and best of all ideals is to become a yogi. And he is a yogi who is consciously and deliberately moving towards divinity which is the plan and purpose of creation. As a man advances in yoga his mind gets purified and thus becomes all powerful.

An ascetic is one who undergoes a voluntary mortification to obtain celestial powers and enjoyments here and herefater.  The ritualist also has this aim in mind. But instead of self mortification he chooses to appease and propritiate the favours of the  celestials to this end. So he performs the elaborate rituals mentioned in the vedas, putting complete faith in them. But the yogi's case is simple, natural, direct and to the point. In and through desirelessness he comes close to the supreme goal - param gatim 

If however, a patch of cloud of desire happens to pass through the firmament of his heart, that desire gets immediately fulfilled because of the purity of his heart. This way the yogi is superior to the ascetics & ritualits. The men of knowledge  mentioned here are those that seek enlightenment through the scriptures. But the truths revealed in the sacred books are directly shining in the pure heart of the yogi. He need not draw inspiration from books. He is therefore superior to men of knowledge. In becoming a yogi, man achieves everything.

What is the good of mere book learning? The  learned may at best be adept in aptly and accurately quoting from the scriptures. One's lifelong repeating them verbatim effects no change to life and improvement brought on it. Scriptural knowledge is of no avail to the one attached to earthly life.

A worldly man may be as informed in religion as a spiritual man; or he may even excel in learning and intelligence. He may even be endowed  with the rigidity of a yogi's life and the detachment of a sanyasin In the midst of these merits his life may dwindle into nothing if he utilises them all not for the glory of the Lord but for self- glorification, name, fame and wealth. 

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa