BHAGAVAD-GITA 5:20

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 5:20

 

na prahrsyet priyam prapya

nodvijet prapya capriyam

sthira-buddhir asammudho

brahma-vid brahmani sthitah

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

na--never; prahrsyet--rejoices; priyam--the pleasant;

prapya--achieving; na--does not; udvijet--become agitated;

prapya--obtaining; ca--also; apriyam--the unpleasant;

sthira-buddhih--self-intelligent; asammudhah--unbewildered;

brahma-vit--one who knows the Supreme perfectly; brahmani--in the

transcendence; sthitah--situated.

 

TRANSLATION

 

A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor

laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent,

who is unbewildered, and who knows the science of God, is already

situated in transcendence.

 

PURPORT

 

The symptoms of the self-realized person are given herein. The first

symptom is that he is not illusioned by the false identification of

the body with his true self. He knows perfectly well that he is not

this body, but is the fragmental portion of the Supreme Personality of

Godhead. He is therefore not joyful in achieving something, nor does

he lament in losing anything which is related to his body. This

steadiness of mind is called sthira-buddhi, or self-intelligence. He

is therefore never bewildered by mistaking the gross body for the

soul, nor does he accept the body as permanent and disregard the

existence of the soul. This knowledge elevates him to the station of

knowing the complete science of the Absolute Truth, namely Brahman,

Paramatma and Bhagavan. He thus knows his constitutional position

perfectly well, without falsely trying to become one with the Supreme

in all respects. This is called Brahman realization, or

self-realization. Such steady consciousness is called Krsna

consciousness.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.