How is simplicity as an austerity of the body in Gita 17.14 different from simplicity as an austerity of the mind in Gita 17.16?

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question what is the difference between simplicity which is mentioned as the austerity of the body in 17.14 and simplicity is austerity of the mind mentioned in 17.16 answer if you look at the Sanskrit 17.14 is so there that is translated as simplicity now is also has the same root from which Arjuna comes and Arjava literally means from the Sanskrit point of view it means straight forwardness that means that as one is inside one is outside like that so Baldev with the Bhushan and Chakravarti path their Gita this is translated as sincerity so sincerity means that sincerer there is no stuffing, no show one is genuine so naturally if a person is simple then they will have sincerity that means in this context of the austerity of the body that sometimes we may put on a show of being very austere in front of others but then privately we may indulge in our senses so Arjava means that one is simple one doesn’t basically if you can say the opposite of simplicity is duplicity so duplicity at the level of the body could be that one acts like sense control publicly but one acts sense gratifier privately but when one is simple that means one doesn’t have this duplicity so simplicity and sincerity can both be understood to be synonymous over there and what another thing that is described was the Brahmacharya Mahimsa so what could take away our simplicity and sincerity are the bodily drives say lust and anger so Brahmacharya is regulation of lust, Ahimsa non-violence is regulation of anger so in this way the forces that make us act improperly at the bodily level one controls them so the idea of simplicity is there when not only one is not just creating an image of being self controlled but one is actually honestly striving for self control so that’s its simplicity in that sense that there is nothing no dichotomy between what one is externally and what one is internally if we go into the 16th text that is manah prasada saumyatvam maunam atma vinigraha bhavasam shuddhiridhyetat tapo manasam uchyate that is said that manah prasada that the peacefulness of the mind, satisfaction of the mind saumyatva manah prasada saumyatvam saumyatva is gentleness so actually Krishna uses the word saumya rupa the bhagavata uses that in the 11th chapter also and Krishna has shown his kala rupa as a part of the vishwa rupa the kala rupa is very ferocious Arjuna is alarmed by seeing it and then Krishna to pacify Arjuna shows him his saumya rupa his gentle form now moving on so in this context if we consider what is saumyatva mean and how does it relate with simplicity so manah prasada saumyatvam maunam atma vinigraha manah prasada is keeps the mind cheerful and saumyatva so actually the mind has many drives sometimes you know we may not express our private desires publicly but often the kind of private desires that we have they may be quite shocking if people came to know about those desires so austerity of the mind means that one doesn’t cultivate those desires, it’s not that those desires don’t come but one doesn’t entertain them one doesn’t feed them by contemplation now of course when we talk about desires usually we associate it with lust or greed but it can also be associated with anger that often when somebody does something which upsets us we become furious with them if those people are say in a position of authority above us then we may not show our anger but still there is enormous resentment and anger that is there inside us but we civilized behavior require that we don’t express it physically but mentally we do entertain it many times people replay revenge fantasies in their mind you know I’ll do like this I’ll do like this so all these are ways in which the mind is being mind is giving in to anger but simplicity there when we means gentleness gentleness means the opposite of gentleness is harshness so gentleness harshness is when a person is angry and they express that harshness through their words they express their anger as harshness through their words or their actions so yes definitely at the level of the actions and words we need to be self-controlled ahimsa but beyond that even at the level of the mind so these austerities are actually at a deeper level each of them so Krishna talks about ahimsa means don’t physically express anger then if you see intermediate verse 17.15 he says that don’t agitate people’s minds so there what it means is that again don’t speak don’t just give vent to your anger so at the physical level Krishna is saying don’t give physical expression to anger that’s bodily austerity don’t give verbal expression to anger that is verbal austerity and don’t give mental expression to anger that is mental austerity there is refers to gentleness which means not being hateful not being resentful not being vengeful all that we avoid and be a gentle now again if we consider simplicity as meaning no duplicity sometimes again people for the case of civilized behavior they may just talk gently with others they may appear gentle but they are not internally gentle now when there is animosity visible animosity then it can be easily seen it said that you cannot clench you cannot shake hand with the clenched fist if my fist is clenched then I cannot shake hands with anyone I am in angry mood then I cannot be cordiality so a physical expression of animosity is too much but what Krishna is saying that austerity of the mind means that even at the mental level one tries to cultivate a gentle disposition towards others so basically simplicity at the level of the body and simplicity at the level of the mind they are both talked about in terms of absence of duplicity and they are progressively deeper levels so simplicity at the level of the body would mean that one doesn’t give in to greed and get a lot of material things for one’s enjoyment simplicity at the level of the mind would mean that one doesn’t try to play around with facts, complicate things and try to spin into spin things to support one’s own idea of reality so basically the same principle applied at the physical level is talked about in 17.40 and the same principle applied at the mental level is talked about in 17.60