Gita 02.68 – Be a soul-deliverer, not a soul-killer

Audio Link: https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/gita-02-68-be-a-soul-deliverer-not-a-soul-killer/

tasmād yasya mahā-bāho
nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas
tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā (Bg 2.68)

Word-for-word:
tasmāt — therefore; yasya — whose; mahā-bāho — O mighty-armed one; nigṛhītāni — so curbed down; sarvaśaḥ — all around; indriyāṇi — the senses; indriya-arthebhyaḥ — from sense objects; tasya — his; prajñā — intelligence; pratiṣṭhitā — fixed.

Translation:
Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.

Explanation:
In this verse, Kṛṣṇa gives one level of conclusion to His answer by delineating a course of action. He responds to Arjuna’s question vrajeta kim—how does a self-realized person walk? That is, how does such a person engage the senses, move around in this world using the senses, yet remain free from entanglement?

The previous verse (2.67) stated that even one of the roaming senses, when the mind follows it, can carry away the intelligence—
indriyāṇāṁ hi caratāṁ yan mano ’nuvidhīyate tad asya harati prajñāṁ vāyur nāvam ivāmbhasi
(Just as a boat is swept away by the wind on water, the intelligence of a person is carried away when the mind follows even one sense that is engaged with its object.)

This verse (2.68) follows logically: because any one of the senses can carry away the mind and, consequently, the intelligence, therefore all the senses must be controlled.
tasmād yasya mahā-bāho: O Mahābāho—O mighty-armed Arjuna—you are extremely powerful. Therefore, exhibit your strength in the proper way:
nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ: by completely controlling all the senses. ‘Nigraha’ means regulation or control.
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas: This compound—indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas—appears multiple times in the Bhagavad-gītā. It refers to the contact of the senses and their corresponding sense objects.
tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā: Such a person is firmly situated in intelligence.

Now, this may seem like a very rigid or authoritarian kind of control. But in reality, it is what enables authentic self-expression. The senses are peripheral to the self—they are parts of the body, and the body itself is peripheral to the soul. The soul has had many bodies in the past, and it will have many more in the future.

Therefore, the body and its senses are peripheral to the soul. When we control the senses, it essentially means that we do not allow them to determine the direction our life takes. Instead, we position ourselves—the soul—as the true determiner of our life’s course.

Now, ‘life’ may seem like a big word in this context. One might argue, “Oh, but the senses only seek a little pleasure here, a little pleasure there. That’s not going to determine my whole life.” True, it’s not that we have to starve all the senses. If pleasures are within the principles of dharma, we can cater to them in a regulated manner. After all, we have bodily needs, and those needs must be fulfilled.

However, the important point is to not let the body’s needs overshadow or replace the soul’s needs. When we speak of bodily needs, we refer to basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter. Beyond that, there’s also a natural desire to live respectably—and that is perfectly fine.

That said, when the body’s need turns into greed—when it becomes so pervasive in our consciousness that it leaves no room for considering the spiritual side of life—then it becomes spiritually catastrophic.

Again, ‘catastrophic’ may seem like a strong word, but the scriptures themselves use such terminology. The Īśopaniṣad, for instance, uses the word ātmāha—killer of the soul. Ye ke cātma-hano janāḥ (Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 3). Whoever that person may be—no matter how materially famous or powerful—he is considered a killer of the soul.
asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasā vṛtāḥ
tāṁs te pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātma-hano janāḥ
(They attain the worlds known as asurya-lokas—covered in darkness and ignorance—after death. These realms are meant for the asuras, and that is where those who kill the soul go.)
Now, who exactly are the ātmahanaḥ? The Īśopaniṣad assumes the reader already understands this: they are those who neglect or reject the soul’s purpose and live solely for material gratification.

Actually, if you think about it, if the soul is killed, then it cannot go anywhere. To say the soul is killed would mean that its existence has ended. Hence, ‘ātma-hāna’ cannot be taken literally in this context. If “killing” meant the end of existence, then something whose existence has ended cannot go anywhere.

We could say that when the body is killed, the soul leaves the body and moves elsewhere. But if the soul itself is killed, then who is there to go anywhere?

So, the point is, the word ‘ātma-hāna’ is used in a metaphorical sense to refer to the killing of the spiritual propensity. The word ‘killing’ is used because, just as we understand that physical killing is a grievous crime, similarly, if someone murders another, many countries impose capital punishment—such as hanging or execution—in return. Killing is considered such a serious crime that the punishment reflects its gravity.

Hence, by using the metaphor of ātma-hāna—killing—the gravity of deadening the soul’s spiritual propensities through indiscriminate sense gratification is communicated. The soul always retains the capacity and inclination to search for spiritual truths. However, depending on the bodily covering it inhabits, that capacity and inclination may or may not be expressed.

When the soul is in human form, there is an opportunity to express its innate spiritual curiosity—brahma-jijñāsā. However, if the soul habituates itself to sense gratification, that spiritual propensity becomes covered. Although the body may be human, if the activities are driven by base desires, they resemble animalistic behaviors. As a result, the consciousness becomes reduced to an animal-like state, and one loses the ability to perceive spiritual truth.

This is how a person becomes like a soul killer—meaning, they kill the opportunity for spiritual life that the soul once had. We are talking about ātma-hāna here because the previous verse’s metaphor of a wind carrying away a boat is also related to the concept of the soul killer.

It is said that the human body is like a boat, and one who does not use this boat to cross over the ocean of material existence is like a soul killer—pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā (SB 11.20.17)—one who does not cross over the ocean of material existence is considered the killer of the soul.

Thus, controlling the senses enables us to become not the killer of the soul, but the deliverer of the soul.

We understand that ultimately Kṛṣṇa is the deliverer, but Kṛṣṇa delivers when we call out to Him and choose to accept His attempts to rescue us. In that sense, we must deliver ourselves. The Bhagavad-gītā also uses the phrase ‘uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ’ (Bg 6.5)—the self should elevate the self. The word ‘uddhara’ is not just used in terms of elevation, but actually in terms of delivery. The word ‘uddhara’ means delivery. For example, we say uddhara-guru—the delivering guru.

Hence, by thoroughly controlling the senses, we will become not the killers of the soul, but the deliverers of the soul. The more we relish spiritual happiness by yukta-āsīta mat-paraḥ (Bg 2.61b)—fixing our consciousness on Me—the more we align ourselves with the true purpose of the soul.

To the extent that we fix our consciousness on Kṛṣṇa, to that extent we will find ourselves freed from the miseries of material existence, and in turn, will actually relish spiritual happiness. Although rigorous sense control may seem demanding—and it will be, if it is divorced from a spiritual purpose—when there is a spiritual purpose and a spiritual process in place, sense control becomes the means to experience deeper, richer, and greater spiritual fulfillment.

Thus, sense control is not demanding, but fulfilling. In order to control the senses, we must fix the mind on Kṛṣṇa. It is not the act of sense control that is fulfilling, but the impetus for absorption in Kṛṣṇa that it provides. That absorption in Kṛṣṇa is truly fulfilling—deeply fulfilling.

Thank you.