Gita 02.48 – Yoga requires material indifference to provide spiritual transcendence

Bg 2.48
yoga-sthah kuru karmani
sangam tyaktva dhanañ-jaya
siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhutva
samatvam yoga ucyate

Translation:
Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga.

Purport:
Krsna tells Arjuna that he should act in yoga. And what is that yoga? Yoga means to concentrate the mind upon the Supreme by controlling the ever-disturbing senses. And who is the Supreme? The Supreme is the Lord. And because He Himself is telling Arjuna to fight, Arjuna has nothing to do with the results of the fight. Gain or victory are Krsna’s concern; Arjuna is simply advised to act according to the dictation of Krsna. The following of Krsna’s dictation is real yoga, and this is practiced in the process called Krsna consciousness. By Krsna consciousness only can one give up the sense of proprietorship. One has to become the servant of Krsna, or the servant of the servant of Krsna. That is the right way to discharge duty in Krsna consciousness, which alone can help one to act in yoga.

Arjuna is a ksatriya, and as such he is participating in the varnasrama-dharma institution. It is said in the Visnu Purana that in the varnasrama-dharma, the whole aim is to satisfy Visnu. No one should satisfy himself, as is the rule in the material world, but one should satisfy Krsna. So unless one satisfies Krsna, one cannot correctly observe the principles of varnasrama-dharma. Indirectly, Arjuna was advised to act as Krsna told him.

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