Quiz · 2.54–2.72
The man of steady insight
Cover the answer. Read the Devanagari of the verse before you open it.
1
In 2.54, what mood are prabhāṣeta (प्रभाषेत), āsīta (आसीत), and vrajeta (व्रजेत), and what do the three of them ask?
Answer
Optative, third person singular, the mood of "would." How would the steady-minded man speak, how would he sit, how would he walk. The subject of all three is sthitadhīḥ (स्थितधीः). Arjuna (अर्जुन) is asking for a man he could recognize, not for a report of something already said.
2
In 2.71, pumān (पुमान्) stands before carati (चरति). What is recited, and which sandhi makes it?
Answer
pumāṃścarati (पुमांश्चरति). A final n (न्) before c (च्) becomes anusvāra plus ś (श्). The split is still पुमान् + चरति pumān + carati. You hear ṃś (ंश्), and you write the nominative back with n (न्).
3
Say 2.71 in one English sentence.
Answer
The man who walks having left all desires, without longing, without "mine," and without "I," reaches peace.
4
What does Arjuna (अर्जुन) ask at 2.54, and where does Kṛṣṇa's (कृष्ण) answer leave him at the end of the chapter?
Answer
He asks for the description of the man of steady insight, and how that man would speak, sit, and walk. The answer is a portrait. Desire enters where a man dwells on objects: attachment, then desire, then anger, and the man is lost if the chain runs. The end is the man who walks without craving, and the standing Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) names brāhmī sthitiḥ (ब्राह्मी स्थितिः).
5
Cover the English of 2.62 and say the chain from the dwelling to the anger. Which word fails the sitting if anger comes straight from the objects?
Answer
dhyāyataḥ (ध्यायतः), then saṅgaḥ (सङ्गः), then kāmaḥ (कामः), then krodhaḥ (क्रोधः). Attachment arises toward the objects. Desire is born from attachment. Anger is born from desire. If anger comes straight from the objects, saṅgaḥ (सङ्गः) was skipped.