Post on second adhyaya-2.

                   ॐ

                 एषाऽतेभिहिता सांख्ये बुद्धिर्योगे त्विमां शृणु ।

           बुद्ध्या युक्तो यया पार्थ कर्मबंधं प्रहास्यसि ॥ 2-39 ॥

            In the previous post we saw that thousands of years ago Lord Krishna invented and promulgated Buddhi yoga in the spiritual science through Bhagwad Geeta as his special contribution. Prior to that, the concept of Buddhi yoga was not in vogue in the manner in which it was presented by him. As may be seen from shloka given above, for the first time Lord told Arjuna that so far I explained the philosophy to you as per Sankhya system. Now, the same aspect I will explain in practical way of Buddhi yoga. As advised by me, if you engage your buddhi (i.e. intellect or discriminative faculty) in yoga you will become free from bondages of all the karmas. 

                   दूरेण ह्यवरं कर्म बुद्धियोगाद्धनंजय ।

                  बुद्धौ शरणमन्विछ कृपणाः फलहेतवः ॥ 2-49 ॥

            In 49^th shloka of second Adhyaya as above, Lord says that mere performance of karmas is much inferior to Buddhiyoga. Those who are anxious to get fruits of their karmas are also to be pitied as petty minded poor. Hence O Dhananjaya, take shelter in Buddhi and start practicing Buddhiyoga.

           सुखमात्यन्तिकं यत् तद् बुध्दीग्राह्यमतीद्रिंयम्।

          वेत्ति यत्र न चैवायं स्थितश्चलति तत्त्वतः ॥ 6-21 ॥

Then in the 21st shloka of sixth adhyaya, Lord tells Arjuna that only through Buddhi an individual can experience and enjoy infinite happiness and bliss in a subtle manner. Such bliss is ateendriya means not perceivable by any of the senses. After  After establishing in this bliss, a yogi does not move away from the essence of his being. 

               तेषां सततयुक्तानां भजतां प्रीतिपूर्वकम् ।

               ददामि बुद्धियोगं तं येन मामुपयान्ति ते ॥ 10-10 ॥

Thereafter, in shloka 10 of 10^th adhyaya quoted above, Lord declared that Buddhi yoga is granted by him as a reward to those yogis, who are constantly converged in his love, devotion and worship. Such devotees sincerely practice that Buddhi yoga, which ultimately leads them to unite with the form and being of the Lord.   

                         चेतसा सर्वकर्माणि मयि संन्यस्य मत्परः ।  

            बुद्धियोगमुपाश्रित्य मच्चित्तः सततं भव ॥ 18-57 ॥

Towards end of Geeta, in 57th shloka of eighteenth adhyaya, Lord advised Arjuna that by mentally resorting to Buddhi yoga, you should always fix your mind on me, dedicate all your karmas to me; regard me as your final goal and be devoted to me for ever.  

               मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु ।

               मामेवैष्यसि सत्यं ते प्रतिजाने प्रियोऽसि मे ॥ ६५॥

Further In 65^th shloka of 18^th adhyaya, Lord tells Arjuna…”offer your devotion and sacrifice to me and bow down to me. By doing this, you will undoubtedly reach me. This is truly my promise to you, because you are most dear to me”.     

               If we contemplate on this self-explanatory preaching of Bhagwad Geeta, we can understand the importance of Buddhi yoga. However, almost all commentaries on Bhagwad Geeta give more importance to other types of yogas namely Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga, Dnyana yoga and Raja yoga. The reason could be that all these yogas are practiced by the devotees at their own levels with guidance of their Gurus; whereas, Buddhi yoga is a special gift to be awarded by the Lord to a devotee. One thing should still be noted in this regard that such endowment by the Lord can also not happen unless the devotee has appropriately applied his buddhi in practicing at least one of these four yogas. Here, the Ovi being considered by us namely--

                       अर्जुना समत्व चित्ताचें । तेचिं सार जाण योगाचें ।

             जेथ मना आणि बुद्धीचें । ऐक्य आथी ॥ 2-273 ॥

--becomes very relevant. It underlines need of union of the mind and intellect of a yogi that results in equanimity of mind whether the circumstances are favourable or unfavourable.

I have tried to show in nutshell, importance of Buddhiyoga in this and earlier post. More about it can be discussed in course of time. In fact an independant thesis can be written on this subject, which can be done in course of time. In my next post I propose to discuss one important ovi from third adhyaya of Dnyaneshwari.