66. This verse strengthens the conclusion of the previous verse by stating the reverse and negating it. Previously, Shree Krishna said "Know God; know peace." In this verse, he says "No God; no peace." A person who has not learnt to discipline the mind and senses can neither meditate upon God nor experience his divine bliss. Without the higher taste, it becomes impossible to renounce the lower taste, and such a person keeps hankering for material happiness, like the bee finds it impossible to renounce the nectar of the flower:
This popular verse in Sanskrit literature relates a bee's story. The bee was sitting on a lotus flower, drinking its nectar. As the sun began setting, the petals of the flower began shutting. But the bee was so attached to enjoying the object of its senses that it refused to fly off. It thought, "There is still time for the flower to close. Let me suck some more nectar while I can." In the same way, we can see old age coming as a sure sign of death, but like the bee, we remain engrossed in enjoying worldly pleasures.
In the meantime, it became dark and the lotus flower closed, trapping the bee. It thought, "Never mind! Let me remain inside my beloved flower for tonight. Tomorrow morning, when its petals open again, I will fly away." Kāṣhṭha bhedo nipuṇopi sangṛihī kuṇṭhito bhavati padma vibhede [v57] "A bee has the power to cut through wood. But look at the attachment to the sense objects that the bee which can cut through wood is stuck inside the soft petals of the lotus." In the meantime, an elephant came, broke the lotus from the stem, and swallowed it. The bee along with the lotus went into the stomach of the elephant. The bee was thinking, "My beloved lotus is going somewhere, and I am happily going along with it." It died shortly thereafter.
Similarly, we humans too remain engrossed in the gratification of the senses, and do not heed to the message of the Saints to engage in devotion to God. Finally, time overtakes us in the form of death. Here, Shree Krishna says that those who refuse to discipline the senses and engage in devotion continue to be rocked by the three-fold miseries of Maya. Material desires are like an itching eczema, and the more we indulge in them, the worse they become. How can we be truly happy in this state of material indulgence?
67. The Kaṭhopaniṣhad states that God has made our five senses outward facing. parāñchi khāni vyatṛiṇatsvayambhūḥ [v58] Hence, they are automatically drawn towards their objects in the external world, and even one of the senses on which the mind focuses has the power to lead it astray.
"Deer are attached to sweet sounds. The hunter attracts them by starting melodious music and then kills them. Bees are attached to fragrance. While they suck its nectar, the flower closes at night, and they get trapped within it. Fish are trapped by the desire for eating, and they swallow the bait of the fishermen. Insects are drawn to light. They come too close to the fire and get burnt. The weakness of elephants is the sense of touch. The hunter uses this to trap the male elephant by using the female elephant as bait to draw it into the pit. On entering the pit to touch the female, the male elephant is unable to get out, and is killed by the hunter. All these creatures get drawn toward their death by one of their senses. What then will be the fate of a human being who enjoys the objects of all the five senses?" In this verse, Shree Krishna warns Arjun of the power of these senses in leading the mind astray.
68. Enlightened souls control the intellect through transcendental knowledge. Then, with the purified intellect, they control the mind, and the mind is used to bridle the senses. However, in the materially conditioned state, the reverse takes place. The senses pull the mind in their direction; the mind overpowers the intellect; and the intellect gets derailed from the direction of true welfare. Thus, Shree Krishna says that if the intellect is purified by spiritual knowledge, then the senses will be restrained; and when senses are held in check, the intellect will not be swayed from the path of divine wisdom.
69. Shree Krishna has used day and night figuratively here. People often confuse the meaning of this verse by taking the words literally. There was once a Khade Shree Baba (the standing ascetic), whose disciples claimed he was a very big sage. He had not slept in thirty-five years. He would stand in his room, resting on a hanging rope under his armpits. He used the rope to help him remain in the standing position. On being asked what his motivation was for this destructive kind of austerity, he would quote this verse of the Bhagavad Gita: "What all beings see as night, the enlightened sage sees as day." So to practice it, he had given up sleeping at night. What a misunderstanding of the verse! From all that standing, his feet and lower legs were swollen, and so he could practically do nothing except stand.
Let us try and understand the true meaning of Shree Krishna's words. Those who are in mundane consciousness look to material enjoyment as the real purpose of life. They consider the opportunity for worldly pleasures as the success of life, or "day," and deprivation from sense pleasures as darkness, or "night." On the other hand, those who have become wise with divine knowledge, see sense enjoyment as harmful for the soul, and hence view it as "night." They consider refraining from the objects of the senses as elevating to the soul, and hence look on it as "day." Using those connotations of the words, Shree Krishna states that what is night for the sage is day for the worldly-minded people, and vice versa.
70. The ocean is unique in its ability to maintain its undisturbed state, despite being inundated by the incessant flow of rivers into it. All the rivers of the world constantly empty themselves into the oceans, which neither overflow nor get depleted. Shree Krishna uses the word āpūryamāṇaṁ (filled from all sides) to describe that even the rivers pouring all their water during the rainy season into the ocean cannot make it flow over. Similarly, the realized sage remains quiescent and unmoved in both conditions—while utilizing sense objects for bodily necessities, or being bereft of them. Only such a sage can attain śhānti, or true peace.