ame.
People will then proclaim thy eternal infamy, and to one that is held in
respect, infamy is greater (as an evil) than death itself. All great
car-warriors will regard thee as abstaining from battle from fear, and
thou wilt be thought lightly by those that had (hitherto) esteemed thee
highly. Thy enemies, decrying thy prowess, will say many words which
should not be said. What can be more painful than that? Slain, thou wilt
attain to heaven; or victorious, thou wilt enjoy the Earth. Therefore,
arise, O son of Kunti, resolved for battle. Regarding pleasure and pain,
gain and loss, victory and defeat, as equal, do battle for battle's sake
and sin will not be thine.[141] This knowledge, that hath been
communicated to thee is (taught) in the Sankhya (system). Listen now to
that (inculcated) in Yoga (system). Possessed of that knowledge, thou, O
Partha, wilt cast off the bonds of action. In this (the Yoga system)
there is no waste of even the first attempt. There are no impediments.
Even a little of this (form of) piety delivers from great fear.[142] Here
in this path, O son of Kuru, there is only one state of mind, consisting
in firm devotion (to one object, viz., securing emancipation). The minds
of those, however, that are not firmly devoted (to this), are
many-branched (un-settled) and attached to endless pursuits. That flowery
talk which, they that are ignorant, they that delight in the words of the
Vedas, they, O Partha, that say that there is nothing else, they whose
minds are attached to worldly pleasures, they that regard (a) heaven (of
pleasures and enjoyments) as the highest object of acquisition,--utter
and promises birth as the fruit of action and concerns itself with
multifarious rites of specific characters for the attainment of pleasures
and power,--delude their hearts and the minds of these men who are
attached to pleasures and power cannot be directed to contemplation (of
the divine being) regarding it as the sole means of emancipation.[143]
The Vedas are concerned with three qualities, (viz., religion, profit,
and pleasure). Be thou, O Arjuna, free from them, unaffected by pairs of
contraries (such as pleasure and pain, heat and cold, etc.), ever
adhering to patience without anxiety for new acquisitions or protection
of those already acquired, and self-possessed, whatever objects are
served by a tank or well, may all be served by a vast sheet of water
extending all around; so whatever objects may be serv