Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 69 (BG 2.69) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

# BG 2.69 The purpose of this verse is to clarify the distinction between the vision of the wise and the ignorant. The world experienced through the limitations of body and mind differs from the world perceived through the open window of the heart illumined by spiritual wisdom. Here, through the language of metaphor, the principle is expressed with such completeness that many who engage in dry logic fail to perceive the beauty of poetry inherent within it. The harmonizing of poetry and knowledge is the distinctive characteristic of the Aryan peoples, and when the philosopher-poet Vyasa took up his pen and birch bark to express the joy of perfection, he could employ no medium superior to poetry in the Gita. The ignorant person never perceives the world as it truly is; rather, he colors the world with the hues of his own mind and then blames external objects for their perceived defects. When one views the world through colored glasses, it appears colored; but when the lens is removed, the world appears exactly as it is. Today, when we perceive the world through body, mind, and intellect, it naturally appears limited and flawed. Yet all these defects belong only to the limitations themselves. The person of steady wisdom, when perceiving through the vision of knowledge, experiences only completeness and bliss. When an electrical engineer arrives in a great city where, from evening onward, electric light sparkles in all directions, he asks whether it is alternating or direct current. Yet that same sight causes an illiterate villager to cry out in wonder, "I see light without oil or wick!" From the villager's perspective, there is neither electricity nor the question of alternating or direct current. The engineer's understanding is unknown to the villager, and the engineer cannot comprehend the villager's astonishment. This verse teaches that the ignorant mortal being sleeps regarding the nature of the Self, while the wise person is fully awakened to it. Those worldly matters toward which the ignorant remain alert and through which they suffer—the person of steady wisdom regards these as night, the state of ignorance. Only the wise devotee who has renounced all desires attains liberation; the person of desires never does. The Lord explains this through an illustration.