Buddhi-yoga in the Bhagavad-gîtå: An Interpretive Analysis: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Buddhi-yoga is discussed in the second chapter of the Bhagavad-gîtå. It is offered to Arjuna as a discipline that will free him from the bondage of karma by providing a means to unite spiritual insight with a life of action. Texts 2.39-53 introduce Buddhi-yoga and 2.54-72 provide accounts of the yogin who practices it. The term “buddhi-yoga” is translated in various ways, including “singleness of purpose,” “the discipline of understanding,” “the discipline of mental attitude,” and “the yoga of discrimination.”1 And as far as the word buddhi itself, it is commonly translated as “intellect,” connoting a faculty of discernment.