Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Verse 52
भगवद् गीता अध्याय 18 श्लोक 52

विविक्तसेवी लघ्वाशी यतवाक्कायमानसः।
ध्यानयोगपरो नित्यं वैराग्यं समुपाश्रितः।।18.52।।



English Translation - Swami Gambirananda
18.52 One who resorts to solitude, eats sparingly, has speech, body and mind under control, to whom meditation and concentration are ever the highest (duty), and who is possessed of dispassion;


English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary
18.51 - 18.53 Endowed with a purified understanding means endowed with the Buddhi capable of understanding the self as it is in reality; subduing the mind by steadiness means making the mind fit for meditation by turning away from external and internal objects; relinishing sound and other objects of senses means keeping them far away, casting aside love and hate occasioned by them (i.e., the sense objects).

Resorting to solitude means living in a lonely place free from hindrances to meditation; eat but little means eating neither too much nor too little; restraining speech, body and mind means directing the operations of body, speech and mind to meditation; ever engaged in the Yoga of meditation means being like this, i.e., constantly engaged in the Yoga of meditation day after day until death; taking refuge in dispassion means developing aversion to all objects except the one entity to be meditated upon, by considering the imperfections of all objects and thus cultivating detachment to everything.

Forsaking egoism means abandoning the tendency to consider what is other than the self, as well as neutralising the power of forcible Vasnas (tendencies) which nourish (egoism), and the resulting pride, desire, wrath and possessiveness. With no feeling of mine means free from the notion that what does not belong to oneself belongs to oneself; Who is tranil means, who finds sole happiness in experiencing the self. One who has become like this and performs the Yoga of meditation becomes worthy for the state of Brahman. The meaning is that, freed from all bonds, he experiences the self as It really is.


Transliteration Bhagavad Gita 18.52Viviktasevee laghwaashee yatavaakkaayamaanasah;
Dhyaanayogaparo nityam vairaagyam samupaashritah.


Word Meanings Bhagavad Gita 18.52buddhyā—intellect; viśhuddhayā—purified; yuktaḥ—endowed with; dhṛityā—by determination; ātmānam—the intellect; niyamya—restraining; cha—and; śhabda-ādīn viṣhayān—sound and other objects of the senses; tyaktvā—abandoning; rāga-dveṣhau—attachment and aversion; vyudasya—casting aside; cha—and; vivikta-sevī—relishing solitude; laghu-āśhī—eating light; yata—controls; vāk—speech; kāya—body; mānasaḥ—and mind; dhyāna-yoga-paraḥ—engaged in meditation; nityam—always; vairāgyam—dispassion; samupāśhritaḥ—having taken shelter of; ahankāram—egotism; balam—violence; darpam—arrogance; kāmam—desire; krodham—anger; parigraham—selfishness; vimuchya—being freed from; nirmamaḥ—without possessiveness of property; śhāntaḥ—peaceful; brahma-bhūyāya—union with Brahman; kalpate—is fit