Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 1 (BG 6.1) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

In the first discourse, Arjun's thought was to flee the battlefield and spend his life in renunciation. He did not understand that the karma yogi—the person who performs action with selfless devotion—is the greatest renunciate of all. To perform action without renouncing selfish desire, or to flee from action, means to cause harmful interference in the harmony of the world. When the mind is immature, to flee from life's struggles and go to the tranquil banks of the Ganges for the practice of meditation would result in the fall of even a good person of ordinary virtue to the level of a stone lying in the river. In this verse, Lord Sri Krishna seems to mock Arjun's erroneous thinking. Yet there is no harshness in the Lord's irony. We shall see later that Arjun himself comes to laugh at his own mistaken understanding. For the success of deep meditation, the development of inner powers and their proper application in the right direction is also absolutely necessary. In this discourse, the Lord has placed special emphasis on bringing about transformation in the purposes and sentiments of our mind. Through this, we can enter the spiritual path.