18.73 nashtO mOha: smruthirlabdhA

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

Chapter 18

<< Chapter 18 Verse 72

SlOkam – Original

arjuna uvAcha-

nashtO mOha: smruthirlabdhA thvath prasAdhAn mayAchyutha |
sthithO’smi gathasandhEha: karishyE vachanam thava ||

word-by-word meaning

arjuna uvAcha – arjuna says

achyutha – Oh achyutha!
thvath prasAdhAth – by your grace
mOha: – (my) contradictory knowledge
nashta: – is destroyed;
smruthi: – true knowledge
mayA – by me
labdhA – acquired;
gatha sandhEha: – being freed from doubts
sthitha: asmi – standing firm, with realisation of truth;
thava vachanam – according to your instructions (to fight the battle)
karishyE – will act.

Simple Translation

Oh achyutha! By your grace (my) contradictory knowledge is destroyed; true knowledge is acquired by me; being freed from doubts, I am standing firm, with realisation of truth; I will act according to your instructions (to fight the battle).

Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam

Arjuna now exclaimed:

‘By Your Grace, Achyuta! infatuation has left me and wisdom has been gained. I now sit with all doubts dispelled. I am settled. I will do Your bidding.’

Moha = Infatuation, illusion or folly; means the obfuscation of true knowledge (viparīta-jñāna), or perverted knowledge. By Your Grace, this has vanished.

Smṛiti = Wisdom or enlightenment concerning the true nature of spiritual verities (tatvam). And this has been obtained by me by Your Grace alone.

Moha or Infatuation is the love of self that is misplaced in not-self, or matter. It is the conceiving of the Kosmos of Sentients (chit) and Insentients (achit), which constitute Paramapurusha’s body —whose Soul He is— as not so constituted and not so Ensouled. It (Moha) is also the misconception of the nature of karma, nitya and naimittika, as if it led to bondage instead of its being the Mode of Paramapurusha’s Worship and the Means of reaching Him.

Smṛiti or Jñāna or wisdom consists in knowing that ātma is distinct from matter; is different in nature from matter; is essentially intelligent; is leige to Paramapurusha; and is solely under His direction. It also consists in knowing that Paramapurusha is the Dramatist of the Infinite Kosmos’s origination, duration and dissolution; He is the Antithesis of all evil; He is essentially Blessed; He the mighty Ocean of such Illustrious Attributes as Omniscience, Omnipotence, Empire, Power, Energy, Lustre etc; Who is called Parabrahm. It also consists in knowing that You, Vāsudeva, are Paramapurusha; are He Who is knowable by the Vedāntas, Who is to be reached by Love Devotional —known as Bhakti, Bhakti being culturable by the ātma-qualities such as external and internal restraints (śama and ḍama), overcoming barriers in the way of discharging the nitya and naimittika duties solely intended as acts done to endear oneself to Paramapurusha, —a Love which is developed by the possessing of the knowledge of higher and lower Truths (tatvas)— and reducing such knowledge to daily practice.

Hence I am freed from doubts, and I am relieved from all the grief that perverted knowledge begets, —perverted knowledge bred by wrong ideas of relationship, friendship, and pity (I was wont to entertain towards such persons as Bhīshma, Duryodhana etc). But I am now freed from such doubts; I am now settled. I will immediately put into execution Your bidding such as engaging in war etc., i.e., I will, without further ado, go to war at once (thus loyally and without question carrying out Your Divine Dispensation or without allowing my Individual will to arrest the harmonious course of Your own High Universal Will.)

>> Chapter 18 Verse 74

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