Gita Bhashya -Sankara 650

Shri Sankara's Gita Bhashya

(Sri Sankaracharya's Commentary on the Gita)

CHAPTER -16

(The sentence is completed in verse 3) Fearlessness, absence of timidity (i.e. courage); purity of heart, purity of the inner-organ (antah-karana), abandonment of deception, dissimulation, falsehood, and the like,-that is to say, conducting oneself in his affairs with honesty; steadfastness in knowledge, in the understanding of the signification of matters such as the Self from Scripture and the teacher, and in Yoga, in making what has been so understood become the object of personal experience, by one-pointed attention through withdrawal of the senses etc. This constitutes the Divine or sāttvic sampad, of the first rank. And whatever disposition among those mentioned happens to be found in persons having the duty to follow a particular path, that is spoken of as the sāttvic nature of persons in that path. Giving away in charily, sharing food and the like, as far as possible; self-restraint, control of the external senses,-the control of the internal sense (tranquillity through sense control) being mentioned later (in verse 2); Yaffta, that enjoined by Śruti such as the agni-hotra (fire-worship), as also that enjoined by Smrti, namely worship of the gods (Deva-yajna) and the rest; study of one's own Scriptures, the Rg-Veda and the like, for securing results unseen; austerity, penances relating to the body, etc., which will hereafter be mentioned; uprightness, rectitude at all times;