Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18, Verse 50
सिद्धिं प्राप्तो यथा ब्रह्म तथाप्नोति निबोध मे । समासेनैव कौन्तेय निष्ठा ज्ञानस्य या परा
siddhiṃ prāpto yathā brahma tathāpnoti nibodha me | samāsenaiva kaunteya niṣṭhā jñānasya yā parā
Translation
How he who has attained perfection reaches Brahman, that in brief do thou learn from Me, O son of Kuntī — that supreme consummation of knowledge.
— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri
Word meanings
- siddhim
- perfection
- prāptaḥ
- attained
- yathā
- as
- brahma
- Brahman
- tathā
- so
- āpnoti
- obtains
- nibodha
- learn
- me
- of me
- samāsena
- by summary
- eva
- even
- kaunteya
- O Kaunteya
- niṣṭhā
- state
- jñānasya
- of wisdom
- yā
- which
- parā
- highest
Śaṅkarācārya's commentary
The perfection he has already attained consists in the body and the senses being prepared for devotion to knowledge, as a result of the Grace of the Lord worshipped through his duty. Consummation (niṣṭha) means perfection, the final or highest stage. The supreme consummation is of Brahma-jñāna, of the same nature as Self-knowledge, of the nature described by the Lord and in the passages of the Upaniṣads.