Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 69

Chapter 2 – Sankhya Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

या निशा सर्वभूतानां तस्यां जागर्ति संयमी ।
यस्यां जाग्रति भूतानि सा निशा पश्यतो मुनेः ॥

Transliteration

yā niśā sarvabhūtānāṃ tasyāṃ jāgarti saṃyamī .
yasyāṃ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ ॥

Meaning

What is night for all beings, in that the self-controlled one is awake; and that in which all beings are awake is night for the sage who sees.

Word meanings

या – that which
निशा – night
सर्वभूतानाम् – for all beings
तस्याम् – in that
जागर्ति – is awake
संयमी – the self-controlled one
यस्याम् – in which
जाग्रति – are awake
भूतानि – beings
सा – that
निशा – night
पश्यतः – who sees (the truth)
मुनेः – for the sage

Anvaya (word order)

सर्वभूतानां या निशा, तस्यां संयमी जागर्ति; यस्यां भूतानि जाग्रति, सा पश्यतः मुनेः निशा ।

Explanation

Having completed the discussion of sense-control, Krishna now uses a wonderful, mysterious paradox to show how fundamentally the vision of the sthitaprajna differs from that of the ordinary worldly person. This verse is counted among the most profound and beautiful in the Gita. On the surface it reads like a riddle: at the same time one sleeps and another wakes; what is day for one is night for the other.

First understand that ‘night’ and ‘day’ here are not physical but inner states. ‘Night’ means a realm to which one is blind, in which one's awareness is asleep. ‘Being awake’ means being alert to something, having one's interest and vision active in it. Traditional commentators give a fine example: for the owl the day is like night, because it cannot see in daylight; while the night, which is darkness for others, is when the owl sees clearly. The same hour, two entirely different experiences.

‘Ya nisha sarva-bhutanam tasyam jagarti samyami’ — in what is night for all beings, the self-controlled one is awake. What is that ‘night’? Shankara says: the supreme reality, the Self. The ordinary person is fast asleep to the Self, to God, to eternal truth. These are darkness for him; he has no interest in them and no experience of them. But the self-controlled one is awake precisely there — the reality of the Self is as clear to him as daylight. Ramanuja likewise says that knowledge of the Self's true nature, to which the intellect of all is in darkness, shines brightly for the self-controlled.

‘Yasyam jagrati bhutani sa nisha pashyato muneh’ — that in which all beings are awake is night for the sage who sees. In what are ordinary people awake? Wealth, position, pleasure, honour and insult, gain and loss — for these they stay alert and anxious day and night. That is their ‘day’. But for the sage all this is ‘night’ — the pull of these objects has ended for him, just as the objects of a dream lose their hold on one who has woken. He sees them, but his awareness does not get entangled in them. Note the word ‘pashyatah’ — the sage is ‘one who sees’. His not being awake to these things comes not from ignorance but from having seen the truth. One who has seen the sun is no longer drawn by the flicker of a lamp.

Shankara draws a further conclusion from this verse: for one awake in the reality of the Self, actions driven by desire, which rest on a vision of difference, naturally fall away; hence steadfastness in knowledge goes together with renunciation. Other teachers, especially from the standpoint of karma-yoga, hold that the sage continues to act, but action no longer binds him because his vision has changed.

The verse carries a very practical message. What society considers supremely important may not truly be so; and what it ignores — self-reflection, truth, compassion — may be the real light of life. The sthitaprajna lives by the measure of truth, not by the measure of the crowd. That is why he sometimes appears strange to the world — yet in truth it is he who is awake.

Context

Verse 2.68 concluded the theme of sense-control: he whose senses are restrained has steady wisdom. This verse shows how different the vision of such a self-controlled person is from that of the worldly — the paradox of night and day. In the next verse (2.70) Krishna describes his unshakable peace through the image of the ocean.

Life lesson

Do not take what the crowd is awake to as the truth of life. Each day, practise waking up in that ‘night’ in which the world sleeps — self-reflection, prayer and contemplation of truth.

Key terms

Nisha: night — here, the realm to which awareness is asleep
Samyami: one who has mastered the senses and mind
Pashyan muni: the sage who directly sees the truth
Jagarana: wakefulness — alert, active awareness of something