Bhagavad Gita

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita: Sankhya Yogam: Chapter 2: Verse 55

Bhagavad Gita - krishna

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One Who is Self Realized Attains a State of Perfect Balance

श्रीभगवानुवाच |

प्रजहाति यदा कामान्सर्वान्पार्थ मनोगतान् |
आत्मन्येवात्मना तुष्ट: स्थितप्रज्ञस्तदोच्यते || 2.55||

śhrī bhagavān uvācha

prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān pārtha mano-gatān
ātmany-evātmanā tuṣhṭaḥ sthita-prajñas tadochyate|| 2.55||

Shloka Translation
BG – Ch. 2- Ver. 55:

The Supreme Lord stated: O Parth, a person is considered to be transcendentally situated when he or she abandons all selfish desires and cravings of the senses that torture the mind and becomes content in the realisation of the self.

Explanation

When a person learns to divert their mind away from material pleasures and renounces sensual wants, they are able to connect with the soul’s inner delight and become transcendentally situated. A person who is transcendentally situated has given up selfish aspirations and demands of the senses and is content with themselves.

Shri Krishna enumerates all of the circumstances that can cause us to lose our calm. We will never lose our mental balance and equanimity if we keep track of these things and remain alert and aware when they occur. This section of the chapter provides a very practical distillation of the Gita’s whole teaching.

Constantly harbouring material cravings throws our mental balance off and pushes us further away from a condition of equanimity. As a result, a wise man is one who has learnt to let go of all such aspirations.

This person of steady insight is always content and does not need to run out into the world of material items since he has extinguished all of his wants. This is due to his realisation of his connection to the eternal essence, which pervades the entire cosmos and is thus eternally complete and content. As a result, as this shloka points out, he will be “self-satisfied in his own self.

Krishna makes both good and negative statements on what it means to be a realized person. Because it is easier to comprehend, he begins with the negative aspect. A person of stable wisdom is one who has entirely let go of all mental cravings. That scares the hell out of us. Then, to avoid any misunderstanding, Krishna promptly follows up with a pleasant affirmation. He has no desires since the Self has placed him in the Self alone. Atman is another word for self. The absolute state of Godhood is Atman.

Everything else fades into insignificance when you have access to your own Infinite status. All finite things’ value is reduced to zero in an instant. He is providing us an absolute definition. The absolute is impossible to comprehend. As a result, we must return to our previous position. Understand the meaning of it in terms of our own lives, and then extrapolate to figure out what He’s talking about.

Spiritual growth must take place over time. If you’re stuck on the physical plane, consider moving up to the emotional one. Once you’ve experienced the delight of emotional fulfilment, your previous bodily joys appear insignificant. When you reach an intellectual aim, even emotional pleasures become insignificant. Finally, nothing in the world will be able to entice you once the temptation of the Infinite has ensnared you. This is the part of the definition of a realised Soul that is positive.

Every facet of life is changing. Growth, or escalation, is a one-way street. You can never go back to the lower level once you reach the upper one. You can’t go back to the previous step. ‘Yad gatva na nivartante,’ says the Gita, assuring you. There is no going back once you’ve reached a higher level.

Verse & what we can learn

Self Realization leads to having a balanced state of mind.

In Sanskrit, “sthitha” means stable and “pragya” means mind. In short, sthithaprgya is the stability of mind achieved by self control and steady wisdom. A person can be described as sthithapragya when he will always be in peace and will not be affected by the outcome of his deeds.

The path to attain sthithapragnya is not an easy task. Keeping oneself away from desires and emotions is not the way to achieve it. For that we should be like a lotus flower. Just how, a droplet of water cleanses the lotus leaf by taking away the impurities, without clinging to the surface, our mind too should let the emotions flow through it without letting them get attached to it.

In the next verse, Arjuna asks Shri Krishna describes the qualities of a sage.

Let’s learn to live with “The Gita” via Meditation Affinity…

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