BG 18.73

Arjuna said: My dear Kṛṣṇa, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions.

18.73. Arjuna said My delusion is destroyed; recollection is gained by me through your Grace, O Acyuta ! I stand firm, free of doubts; I shall excute your ?nd.

18.73 Arjuna replied: My Lord! O Immutable One! My delusion has fled. By Thy Grace, O Changeless One, the light has dawned. My doubts are gone, and I stand before Thee ready to do Thy will."

18.73 Nastah etc. By the passage '[My] delusion is destroyed etc', it is indicated that [after hearing the Lord's instruction], only an inclination to fight has risen in Arjuna, but the perfect realisation of the Brahman is not yet born in him. While indicating so, [the sage Vyasa] provides a scope for the would-be subject matter for the Anugita.

18.73 Arjuna said 'Delusion' or misapprehension is perverted knowledge. By Your grace it has been destroyed. 'Smrti' or memory is the knowledge of things as they really are. I have acired that. Misapprehension here is the misconception that the self is the Prakrti (body-mind) which is the non-self in reality. It consists in one not apprehending that all intelligent and non-intelligent entities, by reason of their forming the body of the Supreme Being, have Him as their Atman and are thus ensouled by Him. The misapprehension also consists in the lack of knowledge that actions, obligatory and occasional, do not cause bondage but actually form a means for the propitiation of the Supreme Being. All such misapprehensions are now destroyed. The various phases of knowledge that cleared the misunderstanding may be catalogued as follows: (1) The self is different from Prakrti and is therefore devoid of the alities of Prakrti. Its nature is that of the knower of Prakrti. (2) The self is a Sesa (sub-ordinate and servant) of the Supreme Person and is ruled by Him. The true knowledge about the Supreme Person is that He is what is signified by the expression Supreme Brahman. (3) He is the great ocean of all auspicious, excellent attributes such as knowledge, strength, glory, valour, power, brilliance etc., which are unbounded and natural. His essence consists solely of auspiciousness. He is antagonistic to all that is evil without exception. The origin, sustentation and dissolution of the entire universe are His sport. (4) You (Sri Krsna) are Vasudeva, the Supreme Person, known from the Vedanta, and who can be reached only by worship, which has taken the form of Bhakti. (5) Bhakti can be achieved by the control of the senses and the mind, the abandonment of prohibited acts and the performance of occasional and obligatory acts as solely intended for the goal of the satisfaction of the Supreme Person. Bhakti has to be developed day after day through the regular practice of the discriminatory knowledge of the higher and lower truths. All this has been attained by me (Arjuna). Therefore I stand steadfast, freed from the doubts and devoid of the depression rooted in perverted knowledge nourished by compassion and love for relatives. Now I shall fulfil Your words, concerned with fighting etc., which ought to be done by me. I shall fight as instructed by You. Such is the meaning. Sanjaya now relates to Dhrtarastra who had estioned him earlier as to what his sons and the Pandavas were doing in the battle:

18.73 O Acyuta, (my) mohah, born of ignorance and the cause of all evil in the form of mundane existence, and difficult to cross like an ocean;l nastah has been destroyed. And smrtih, memory, regarding the reality of the Self-on the acisition of which follows the loosening of all the bonds; labdha, has been regained, tvat-prasadat, through Your grace maya, by me, who am dependent on Your grace. By this estion about the destruction of delusion and the answer to it, it becomes conclusively revealed that the fruit derived from understanding the import of the entire Scripture is this much alone-which is the destruction of delusion arising from ignorance and the regaining of the memory about the Self. And similarly, in the Upanisadic text beginning with 'I grieve because I am not a knower of the Self' (Ch. 7.1.3), it is shown that all bonds become destroyed when the Self is realized. There are also the words of the Upanisadic verses, 'The knot of the heart gets untied' (Mu. 2.2.8); 'at that time (or to that Self) what delusion and what sorrow can there be for that seer of oneness?' (Is.7). Now then, sthitah, asmi, I stand under Your ?nd; gata-sandehah, with (my) doubts removed. Karisye, I shall follow; tava, Your; vacanam, instruction. By Your grace I have achieved the goal of life. The idea is, there is no duty, as such, for me. The teaching of the Scripture is concluded. There-after, now in order to show the connection (of this) with the (main) narrative-.

18.73 Arjuna said Destroyed is my delusion and I have, by your grace, O Krsna, gained knowledge (Smrti). Freed from doubts, I stand steadfast, I will fulfil Your world.

18.73 Arjuna said O Acyuta, (my) delusion has been destroyed and memory has been regained by me through Your grace. I stand with my doubt removed; I shall follow Your instruction.