[Advaita-l] What is siddhiH? gita 2.48 yogasthaH kuru karmANi

[Ajit Krishnan]

namaste,

I have a couple of questions on "siddhi" in 2.48 etc. It is entirely
possible that my questions are bogus, and arise from some
misunderstanding on my part.

In gita 2.48, we have "siddhi-asiddhyoH samo bhUtvA samatvam yoga ucyate".

What is siddhiH?

"phala-siddhau harSham phala-asiddhau ca viShAdam tyaktvA (madhusudana
saraswati)"
"phala-tRiShNA-shUnyena kriyamANe karmaNi sattva-shuddhi-jA
gyAna-prApti-lakshaNA siddhiH (shankara)".

I expected siddhiH to be be "phala-siddhiH / karma-phala-prAptiH",
along the lines of M.S.

(1) Where does the acharya's phrase "sattva-shuddhi-jA
gyAna-prApti-lakshaNA" come from? It looks out of place to me.

(2)  Sri Warrier translates this as "attainment of knowledge born of
mental purity". Again this just looks out of place to me.

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And then, in the commentary on 2.50 (buddhi-yukto jahAti-iha . . . ) , we find:

"sa jahAti . . . iha . . . sukRita-duShkRute . . .
sattva-shuddhi-gyAna-prApti-dvAreNa yataH, tasmAt
samatva-buddhi-yojAya yujyasva".

(3) The logic here seems loopy. Immediately after saying "you
shouldn't worry about siddhi in the least. That is yoga", we have "the
siddhi is important, so attain yoga". How is this seeming
contradiction resolved?

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Is anyone aware of any audio recordings of gita / upanishad teachings
etc. with the vyAkhyA given in samskritam itself?

bhavadIyaH,

        ajit