Krishna will describe something deeper for the first time. He will refer in BG a destination higher than destination of Swarga, the destination of liberation.
BG 2.51
SYNONYMS
karma–jam — due to fruitive activities; buddhi–yuktah — being engaged in devotional service; hi — certainly; phalam — results; tyaktva — giving up; manishinah — great sages or devotees; janma–bandha — from the bondage of birth and death; vinirmuktah — liberated; padam — position; gacchanti — they reach; anamayam — without miseries.
TRANSLATION
By thus engaging in devotional service to the Lord, great sages or devotees free themselves from the results of work in the material world. In this way they become free from the cycle of birth and death and attain the state beyond all miseries [by going back to Godhead].
Karma-jam buddhi-yukta hi, dovetailing one’s Karma when one works with Buddhi, and what one does with this Buddhi? Phalam tyaktva manishinah, one gives up one’s attachment to the fruits. Such a person, Krishna says, is manishinah, one who has conquered the mind. What is the meaning of conquering the mind? Actually, the mind always looks for superficiality; it doesn’t see the deeper reality. The mind cannot think deeply, so in that case, there is a superficial level of thinking and living. But one who has conquered the mind can see the deep truths. When a person becomes manishinah, when we are not attracted by external results but when one is attracted by deeper spiritual reality, then janma-bandha-vinirmuktah, we become freed from the cycle of birth and death, and padam gacchanty anamayam, then we attain the eternal result. What is that result? The place which is free from misery. Maya is misery; anamayam is free from misery. So till now, Krishna has not talked about himself; he doesn’t explicitly say that it is His spiritual world. He simply says that is the abode that is free from misery, padam gacchanty anamayam. So when we will practice spiritual life in this way by staying detached from the fruits and by fixing the mind on spiritual reality, then one will attain the destination which is free from all misery.
Now, after describing this, Krishna will again come to the point, how this attainment of anamayam is beyond even the Vedas. It is a reality which is actually richer and deeper than the reality which is talked about in the Vedas.
Now, Srila Prabhupada talks about the padam gacchanty anamayam, which is actually Krishna’s abode. For this, he quotes from Srimad Bhagavatam, stating that the devotees attain Krishna’s abode very easily:
The Bhāgavatam (10.14.58) says:
samāṣritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām
“For one who has accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Mukunda, or the giver of mukti, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s footprint. Paraṁ padam, or the place where there are no material miseries, or Vaikuṇṭha, is his goal, not the place where there is danger in every step of life.”
Samāṣritā ye, those who have taken shelter of pada-pallava-plavaṁ, the boat of the lotus feet of Krishna: Mahat-padaṁ, the shelter of cosmic manifestation;Puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ, whose glories are auspicious, that Lord Murare; Bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ, that vast ocean of material existence becomes as small as the water in a calf’s hoofprint. It means that which is impossible to cross becomes easily accessible for those who have taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, they attain the supreme destination Paraṁ padaṁ. And such devotees don’t stay in material world. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām, the place where there is danger at every step. Here, Srila Prabhupada is using this to talk about anamayam. One doesn’t stay in this material world, returns back to the spiritual world.
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