BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:15

[Guest guest]

BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:15

 

yam hi na vyathayanty ete

purusam purusarsabha

sama-duhkha-sukham dhiram

so 'mrtatvaya kalpate

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

yam--one to whom; hi--certainly; na--never; vyathayanti--are

distressing; ete--all these; purusam--to a person; purusa-rsabha--O

best among men; sama--unaltered; duhkha--in distress; sukham--and

happiness; dhiram--patient; sah--he; amrtatvaya--for liberation;

kalpate--is considered eligible.

 

TRANSLATION

 

O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by

happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for

liberation.

 

PURPORT

 

Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of

spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of

distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation.

In the varnasrama institution, the fourth stage of life, namely the

renounced order (sannyasa), is a painstaking situation. But one who is

serious about making his life perfect surely adopts the sannyasa order

of life in spite of all difficulties. The difficulties usually arise

from having to sever family relationships, to give up the connection

of wife and children. But if anyone is able to tolerate such

difficulties, surely his path to spiritual realization is

complete. Similarly, in Arjuna's discharge of duties as a ksatriya, he

is advised to persevere, even if it is difficult to fight with his

family members or similarly beloved persons. Lord Caitanya took

sannyasa at the age of twenty-four, and His dependents, young wife as

well as old mother, had no one else to look after them. Yet for a

higher cause He took sannyasa and was steady in the discharge of

higher duties. That is the way of achieving liberation from material

bondage.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.