The Bhagavad Gita 2:45

Gita 2:45

The Vedas (ancient Sanskrit scriptures) concern themselves with the three gunas (qualities of material nature). Get past these three gunas, Arjuna.

Be indifferent to the pairs of opposites, eternally fixed in truth. Be free from the desire to acquire and hoard, and (instead) be self controlled.

The gunas discussed in this verse are spoken of in detail in the fourteenth chapter of the Gita. But for now the gunas are the three qualities of material nature. The Vedas say that the material world is broken into three qualities, which are goodness/truth, passion/action, and ignorance/inertia, and that everything in this world are made up of differing degrees of these qualities. Krishna will explain this more later.

Krishna also begins to touch on a topic he will go into a lot, which is very important to grasp in order to begin to receive the peace and happiness in your life which I’m sure this book can bring you. The statement I’m referring to is “indifference to the pairs of opposites”, what this is referring to, is our ceaseless desire to keep things the way we want them. This goes from the littlest thing like the water in the showers is a little too cold, or a little too hot, to the big things like I want to live in a beautiful house in the country instead of this stuffy little apartment. Not that we never have to concern ourselves with what we need or want, but I am telling you if you were to start listening to yourself very carefully you would begin to see it never stops. Your mind is constantly thinking of what you like and don’t like from minute to minute. Now this is a very time consuming job and it can leave you with very little extra energy, like to figure out the meaning of life or your purpose in it. So Krishna is going to try and teach us to stop doing this.