Verse-39
Chapter 18 — Moksha Sanyasa Yoga
Verse 39
🕉 Original Sanskrit Shloka
yadagre cānubandhe ch sukham mohanāmtmanaḥ
nidrālasyapramādottham tattāmasamudāhṛtam
🕉 English Translation
Aarambh aur parinaam dono mein jo,
Karta hai mohit sadaa jeev ko.
Pramaad,alasya,nidra se hee,
Mile sukh jo kehlata hai tamasi.
📜 Translation
English
The happiness which originates from sleep, indolence and sloth, which in the beginning and also in the end deludes one–that happiness has been called tamasic.
There is one kind of happiness–in the beginning is encountered some difficulty, but in the end there is only happiness and happiness. The second type is that in which there is happiness in the beginning but the result is of the nature of sorrow. The third type of happiness is strikingly different! It is not beneficial either in the beginning or in the end.
Here instead of using the word unhappiness for the states in the beginning and also in the end, the preacher of the Gita with great skill has used the word 'mohanamatmanah' that which brings about delusion. Sleep gives pleasure, but the pleasure of the state of unconsciousness is not that of the awakened state. Here the discrimination is dormant. Proper and necessary sleep reduces tamoguna, but to get attached and absorbed in the pleasure of this state, whenever it be, always under the influence of slumber, this undoubtedly is a tamasic state and along with that, allowing ignorance to hold complete sway over us. The increase of tamoguna will cause one to turn away from the purity and essential truth principle. The experience will be apparently of happiness, but under the notion of happiness there prevails ignorance and the long-term result is bondage!
Similar is the case with sloth and laziness! It becomes the nature of some to remain idle, to be without work, keep sitting, being inactive, whiling away time. They take this to be happiness. The reality is that laziness is a strong enemy of the embodied being. Neither is its beginning good nor its end. There are two types of laziness. One is where there is no attempt to do anything and the other is when one not doing what is required to be done–interest in meaningless activities and undertakings and to consider it full of happiness; this comes in the purview of indolence.
Here too is reflected the profound beautiful and philosophical nature of the Gita. There is pleasure though in sleep, laziness and sloth. Not understanding its essential nature, invariably the human being gets confined to this limit and under attachment to this, abandons even the work which is required to be done. The attachment to the pleasure of sleep sometimes deprives one of the joy of singing bhajans (religious songs dedicated to God). The human being thinks–why wait for the joy of bhajans in the time to come, why give up the pleasure of sleep which is being enjoyed at the moment? One has to save oneself from this tendency. Sometimes this kind of thought takes hold of even good seekers. Similarly indolence and laziness invariably makes one desist from doing work which is required to be done. This does not bring gain in any form. In the beginning these kinds of thoughts arise from ignorance and their outcome pushes one to an abyss of ignorance.