Verse 18.50

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 18.50:

सिद्धिं प्राप्तो यथा ब्रह्म तथाप्नोति निबोध मे ।
समासेनैव कौन्तेय निष्ठा ज्ञानस्य या परा ॥ ५० ॥

siddhiṃ prāpto yathā brahma tathāpnoti nibodha me |
samāsenaiva kaunteya niṣṭhā jñānasya yā parā || 50 ||

siddhim–perfection; prāptaḥ–one who has attained; yathā–how; brahma–spiritual realization; tathā–also; āpnoti–attains; nibodha–hear; me–from Me; samāsena–in brief; eva–indeed; kaunteya–O son of Kuntī; niṣṭhā–stage of steadiness; jñānasya–of transcendental knowledge; yā–which; parā–the highest.

Hear from Me in brief, O son of Kuntī, the means whereby a person who has achieved perfection [in the form of naiṣkarmya, or freedom from the reactions to fruitive work] attains realization of spiritual reality, which is the highest culmination of transcen-dental knowledge.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

(By Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura; the innermost intention of the commentary named ‘the shower of essential meanings’)

“And now, hear from Me how he then attains and realizes brahma, the Supreme.” Niṣṭhā parā refers to complete cessation of ignorance through the practice of various types of yoga. According to the Amara-koṣa, niṣṭhā means ‘completion’, ‘destruction’ or ‘end’. “Try to understand that when ignorance is almost destroyed, then knowledge, also, begins to be destroyed. And finally, when one entirely relinquishes jñāna, one realizes brahma.”