[Advaita-l] What is siddhiH? gita 2.48 yogasthaH kuru karmANi

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sun, 20 Jan 2008, Ajit Krishnan wrote:

> In gita 2.48, we have "siddhi-asiddhyoH samo bhUtvA samatvam yoga ucyate".
>
> What is siddhiH?
>
> "phala-siddhau harSham phala-asiddhau ca viShAdam tyaktvA (madhusudana
> saraswati)"
> "phala-tRiShNA-shUnyena kriyamANe karmaNi sattva-shuddhi-jA
> gyAna-prApti-lakshaNA siddhiH (shankara)".
>
> I expected siddhiH to be be "phala-siddhiH / karma-phala-prAptiH",
> along the lines of M.S.
>
> (1) Where does the acharya's phrase "sattva-shuddhi-jA
> gyAna-prApti-lakshaNA" come from? It looks out of place to me.
>

siddhi is the result of jnana which is the result of pure sattva or 
ishvararadhanabuddhi as M.S. puts it.  The latter has a more theistic 
orientation but the idea is the same.

> (2)  Sri Warrier translates this as "attainment of knowledge born of
> mental purity". Again this just looks out of place to me.
>

To compare, A. Mahadeva Shastri translates it as "attainment of knowledge 
as the result of the mind attaining purity"

> And then, in the commentary on 2.50 (buddhi-yukto jahAti-iha . . . ) , 
> we find:
>
> "sa jahAti . . . iha . . . sukRita-duShkRute . . .
> sattva-shuddhi-gyAna-prApti-dvAreNa yataH, tasmAt
> samatva-buddhi-yojAya yujyasva".
>
> (3) The logic here seems loopy. Immediately after saying "you
> shouldn't worry about siddhi in the least. That is yoga", we have "the
> siddhi is important, so attain yoga". How is this seeming
> contradiction resolved?
>

We shouldn't care about sucess or failure in attaining siddhi because it 
is not the "product" of human volition.  Detachment from worry about 
results gives rise to jnana which naturally results in siddhi.

> Is anyone aware of any audio recordings of gita / upanishad teachings
> etc. with the vyAkhyA given in samskritam itself?

Sorry I don't know.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>