यदा ते मोहकलिलं बुद्धिर्व्यतितरिष्यति |
तदा गन्तासि निर्वेदं श्रोतव्यस्य श्रुतस्य च || 52||
yadā te moha-kalilaṁ buddhir vyatitariṣhyati
tadā gantāsi nirvedaṁ śhrotavyasya śhrutasya cha
yada te moha-kalilam buddhir vyatitarishyati
tada gantasi nirvedam shrotavyasya shrutasya cha
Translation
BG 2.52: When your intellect crosses the quagmire of delusion, you will then acquire indifference to what has been heard and what is yet to be heard (about enjoyments in this world and the next).
Commentary
Shree Krishna had previously said that people who are attached to worldly enjoyment get attracted to the flowery words of the Vedas, which propagate ostentatious rituals for gaining worldly opulences and attaining the celestial abodes (verses 2.42–2.43). However, one whose intellect is illumined with spiritual knowledge no longer seeks material sense pleasures, knowing them to be harbingers of misery. Such a person then loses interest in Vedic rituals. The Muṇḍakopaniṣhad states:
parīkṣhya lokānkarmachitānbrāhmaṇo nirvedamāyānnāstyakṛitaḥ kṛitena (1.2.12)[v45]
“Realized sages go beyond Vedic rituals, after understanding that the pleasures one attains from fruitive karmas, in this life and in the celestial abodes, are temporary and mixed with misery.”
