Bg 14.23
udāsīna-vad āsīno guṇair yo na vicālyate
guṇā vartanta ity evaṁ yo ’vatiṣṭhati neṅgate
Bg 14.24
sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ sva-sthaḥ sama-loṣṭāśma-kāñcanaḥ
tulya-priyāpriyo dhīras tulya-nindātma-saṁstutiḥ
Bg 14.25
mānāpamānayos tulyas tulyo mitrāri-pakṣayoḥ
sarvārambha-parityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate
Translation
23. He who, seated like one unconcerned, is not moved by the 'GUNAS, ' who, knowing that the 'GUNAS' operate, is self-centred and swerves not . . .
24. Alike in pleasure and pain; who dwells in the Self; to whom a clod of earth, a precious stone and gold are alike; to whom the dear and the not-dear are the same; firm; the same in censure and self-praise. . . .
25. The same in honour and dishonour; the same to friend and foe; abandoning all undertakings --- he is said to have crossed beyond the GUNAS.
Commentary
In this section, constituted of the following three verses, we have an exhaustive picture of the relationship that a Man-of-Perfection maintains with the things and beings of the world. A man's culture may be a false mask. Many of us can act the part of God as long as the situations around us are not too tempting. A man may not be a tyrant as long as he has no power; he may live a quiet life, as long as he is poor; he may be above corruption, as long as he has no seducing chances. Thus, many good qualities which we attribute to many people around, are all a falsely painted, superficial beauty, concealing behind its artifice a weak and unhealthy personality.
Potential devils stalk about in the world in the borrowed garbs of artificial raiment. Therefore, the real test of a Perfect One is not in the jungle or in a cave, but in the market-place where he is teased by the mischiefs of the world. Christ was never so great as when he was nailed to the cross! The true nature in us will come out only when we are crushed; the fragrance of chandana (Sandal wood) emerges only when rubbed; Tulasi (Ocimum) leaves leave their fragrance on the very fingers that crush them.
HE WHO, SEATED LIKE ONE UNCONCERNED, IS NOT MOVED BY THE GUNAS --- In all his experiences in the world, good, bad or indifferent, he is unconcerned, since he knows that it is the play of the mind and intellect. In a cinema hall, the tragedies and comedies on the screen need not affect us, since we know that it is a show put up for our entertainment. This does not mean that the Seer is totally unconcerned with the happenings of the world. Vyasa is very careful in his choice of expression. He says that the Man-of-Perfection looks "LIKE ONE UNCONCERNED." That is to say, he is not in the least agitated; nor does he become hysterical by anything that is happening around him in life.
WHO, KNOWING THAT THE 'GUNAS' OPERATE --- He understands that the changes in his own inward personality are all nothing but the kaleidoscopic changes of the gunas and that the world outside changes according to one's mental conditions. A man of True Wisdom lives, ever fully aware of the technique behind the changes in himself and in the world around him.
IS SELF-CENTERED AND SWERVES NOT --- In order to watch the play of the three gunas in himself, he should be an observer from beyond the gunas. Thus, established in his Pure Spiritual Nature, he is able to observe detachedly and enjoy the play of the gunas in himself and in the world around him. An observer of a street fight, looking down from his balcony, is not affected by what he observes; so too, the Man-of-Wisdom, awakened to the Spiritual Consciousness, swerves not from his consummate equilibrium, when he witnesses the play of the gunas in himself and ever remains established in his own Divine Nature (ava-tishthati).
CONTINUING TO ELUCIDATE THE THOUGHT SUGGESTED IN THE PREVIOUS STANZA, THE LORD SAYS:
The equanimity and balance of personality which are observed in a Perfect Man, in the midst of the changing vicissitudes of life, are brought out in this stanza. One who has gone beyond the tyrannies of the three gunas lives in a kingdom of his own, wherein neither the thrills of Sattwa, nor the noisy clamours of Rajas, nor the weariness of Tamas have any admission at all. Serenely self-composed, he dwells in the Self, far away from the sweat and agitations of base appetites, low impulses and selfish passions.
To the average man, this state of equipoise may look like complete death. And, no doubt, it is so; it is the death of the limited, finite life of relative experiences, lived by the baser ego. Spirit, conditioned by Matter, behaves like a reed upon the tumultuous surface of an ever-agitated mind. Always disturbed by the constant storms of love and hate, likes and dislikes, this unhappy sense-on-individuality suffers its shattering agitations and endless sorrows.
To withdraw, therefore, from this chaotic field of desires and attachments into the shelter of the Self, is to release the diviner possibilities in ourselves. The dreamer dies to be reborn as the waker; the individual sense of the ego dies to release the infinite glories of the Self.
Having awakened from the dream, what would be the waker's relationship with his dream-world, is the question that Arjuna asks Krishna! One who has gone beyond the shackles of the three gunas, has awakened from all the misconceptions of the world, fed by one's 'I'-ness and 'my'-ness. In that state of godly awakening, there cannot be any deep and sincere relationship with the experiences of the lower world, whether it be joy or sorrow, things dear or not-dear, blame or praise. In all the experiences, he is a balanced, unattached witness.
WHO DWELLS IN THE SELF (Svasthah) --- One who has transcended the gunas that rule the tendencies of the mind, becomes the Self, just as one who has crossed the frontiers of a dream, discovers himself to be waker. What would be the relationship of one who dwells in the Self, with the things around him, and what would be his attitude to things happening around him, is being answered here. Established as he is in Supreme Wisdom, the world that is contacted from the levels of the body, the mind and the intellect does not touch him. He lives in a world of his own, far above the plane of Matter.
ALIKE IN PLEASURE AND IN PAIN --- To come in contact with the outside world through sense-perceptions, to evaluate them in terms of similar experiences in the past, and to experience pleasure or pain, is a trick of our individual personality. The worlds of stimuli march into us and we respond to them and these intelligent responses can fall under two categories: pleasure and pain. That which is pleasurable to one is bound to be painful to another. If the things of the world were in their own nature either pleasurable or painful, they would have certainly caused the same uniform reactions in all of us.
It is the nature of the Sun to be hot, and therefore, the heat of the Sun is common to us all. But the things of the world do not produce reactions in everyone in the same way, and therefore, it is an interpretation of our mind and intellect, which is coloured by our own past experiences. He who is not looking at the world through these coloured goggles of the mind and intellect will be alike in pleasure and pain.
REGARDING A CLOD OF EARTH, A PRECIOUS STONE AND GOLD ALIKE --- Possession of things is another appetite which the majority of living creatures have. People like to possess and hoard precious-stones or gold, but do not care for a clod of mud. But to an awakened Man-of-Wisdom, all these possessions are one and the same and from his estimation none of them has any real value.
Children collect peacock feathers, shells, marbles, broken glass-bangles, old stamps, shapely stones, etc., from the roadside or from waste-paper baskets, and with extreme possessiveness, they keep them as their precious possessions. But as they grow, without a regret, they throw them away and the younger ones in the family accept them with gratitude as a precious inheritance from their elders. Similarly, a man living his ego-centric life of desires for possessions, may value gold and precious stones; but to the Awakened Soul, in his sense of Infinitude, these limited possessions, hugged on to by lesser minds, have no charm at all.
THE SAME TOWARDS THINGS DEAR AND THINGS NOT-DEAR --- In our relationship with others, where there is an agreeable nature, we come to love it dearly, while, wherever there is a disagreeable nature, we hate it. Love and hate, dear and not-dear, are all our reactions to the agreeable and disagreeable natures of things or situations. These reactions are, no doubt, from the levels of the mind. One who is standing on windy shores wearing a thick coat will not feel the cold that another must feel, when, in his nakedness, he is dipping in the sea. the cold waters come in contact with the skin of the naked man and he experiences the discomforts, while the man on the shore, comfortably warm in his coat, knows no cold.
The average man, plunged in identification with his own mind and intellect, suffers the world and interprets it as agreeable or disagreeable, and brings down upon himself a lot of confusions and problems. The man of Steady Wisdom is he, whose equilibrium is not disturbed by the onslaught of things and circumstances of the world, whether they be dear or not dear.
SAME IN CENSURE AND IN PRAISE --- A Man-of-Perfection is the same in censure and praise. The experience of a dream cannot contribute either joy or sorrow to one who has "awakened," he might have been a beggar insulted by the entire society in the dream-world or might have been an adored Raja ruling a vast empire in his dream. But when he wakes up, neither the PRAISE he received as a Raja, nor the CENSURE he suffered as a beggar can leave any reactions upon him. Awakened from the "dream", the Man-of-Wisdom evaluates the blame and praise of the world outside and finds them both utterly insignificant.
In the above four beautiful, chosen phrases, Vyasa has indicated some of the main conditions of life in which the ordinary man comes to eke out his joys and sorrows. Pleasure and pain, good and bad possessions, agreeable and disagreeable experiences, joys and sorrows provided by praise and censure, are some of the conditions of life by which we get entangled in a web of agitations and sorrows.
MOREOVER:
If the above has drawn a flat picture of the Man-of-Perfection, herein we have added strokes that shade the outlines and give them a rounded beauty to depict them vividly for our keener observation and closer vision.
THE SAME IN HONOUR AND DIS-HONOUR --- The sense of equanimity in honour and dis-honour is described here as one of the definite signs of perfection attained. Rooted in his own lived experiences of divinity, a man of Vision is not afraid of life and its rewards, because, such a Perfect One looks at things and happenings from his own special angle. The egoistic evaluation of life tends to respect honour and shun dishonour.
Even in ordinary life, we have found martyrs courting what others consider as dishonour. They energetically love and serve their generation in spite of the insults and disgrace piled upon them by ignorant people. For Archimedes, running along the streets naked from his bath-tub crying "Eureka," "Eureka," might have been a dishonour on any other day except on that day of his discovery! Honour and dishonour are the evaluations of the intellect that change from time to time, from place to place. To one who has transcended the ordinary planes of egoism and vanity, both are the same; a crown of thorns is as welcome as a crown of roses!!
THE SAME TO FRIEND AND FOE --- To one who treads the Path of Wisdom and has risen above the gunas, there is no foe in the world; nor is he attached to anyone in earthy friendships. My right hand is never a foe to me; nor is it merely a friend; it is myself. Another, other than myself, alone can claim enmity or friendship with me. When I have realised the ONENESS of my spiritual nature, Infinite and All-pervading, as the Spirit, I have no relationship with the world outside; I live my vivid personal experience: "THEY ARE I."
ABANDONING ALL UNDERTAKINGS --- The man of tranquillity, living in God-consciousness, has no more ego in him, nor is he pestered by the endless ego-centric desires which are the sorrows of life. Desire-motivated activities, undertaken with an anxiety to earn and to acquire, to possess and to hoard, to aggrandise and to claim ownership are indicated by the term "undertaking." All these are possible only when the ego is there. When the limited ego-sense has volatilised in the realisation of the Infinite, all ego-motivated activities also end. Thereafter, he, the God-inspired, works in the world as a God-man.
HE IS SAID TO HAVE GONE BEYOND THE GUNAS --- The above three stanzas together paint the complete picture of one who has transcended the gunas. These three stanzas answer Arjuna's second question.
Shankara recognises in these three stanzas "A RULE OF CONDUCT LAID DOWN FOR THE SAMNYASIN WHO SEEKS MOKSHA." These qualities are to be cultivated by every SEEKER who is trying to live the Hindu-culture. Once the seeker has gained inner freedom, these become the characteristic features of his nature. They form the essential marks that indicate one who has risen above the gunas.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
udāsīna-vad āsīno guṇair yo na vicālyate
guṇā vartanta ity evaṁ yo ’vatiṣṭhati neṅgate
Bg 14.24
sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ sva-sthaḥ sama-loṣṭāśma-kāñcanaḥ
tulya-priyāpriyo dhīras tulya-nindātma-saṁstutiḥ
Bg 14.25
mānāpamānayos tulyas tulyo mitrāri-pakṣayoḥ
sarvārambha-parityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate
Translation
23. He who, seated like one unconcerned, is not moved by the 'GUNAS, ' who, knowing that the 'GUNAS' operate, is self-centred and swerves not . . .
24. Alike in pleasure and pain; who dwells in the Self; to whom a clod of earth, a precious stone and gold are alike; to whom the dear and the not-dear are the same; firm; the same in censure and self-praise. . . .
25. The same in honour and dishonour; the same to friend and foe; abandoning all undertakings --- he is said to have crossed beyond the GUNAS.
Commentary
In this section, constituted of the following three verses, we have an exhaustive picture of the relationship that a Man-of-Perfection maintains with the things and beings of the world. A man's culture may be a false mask. Many of us can act the part of God as long as the situations around us are not too tempting. A man may not be a tyrant as long as he has no power; he may live a quiet life, as long as he is poor; he may be above corruption, as long as he has no seducing chances. Thus, many good qualities which we attribute to many people around, are all a falsely painted, superficial beauty, concealing behind its artifice a weak and unhealthy personality.
Potential devils stalk about in the world in the borrowed garbs of artificial raiment. Therefore, the real test of a Perfect One is not in the jungle or in a cave, but in the market-place where he is teased by the mischiefs of the world. Christ was never so great as when he was nailed to the cross! The true nature in us will come out only when we are crushed; the fragrance of chandana (Sandal wood) emerges only when rubbed; Tulasi (Ocimum) leaves leave their fragrance on the very fingers that crush them.
HE WHO, SEATED LIKE ONE UNCONCERNED, IS NOT MOVED BY THE GUNAS --- In all his experiences in the world, good, bad or indifferent, he is unconcerned, since he knows that it is the play of the mind and intellect. In a cinema hall, the tragedies and comedies on the screen need not affect us, since we know that it is a show put up for our entertainment. This does not mean that the Seer is totally unconcerned with the happenings of the world. Vyasa is very careful in his choice of expression. He says that the Man-of-Perfection looks "LIKE ONE UNCONCERNED." That is to say, he is not in the least agitated; nor does he become hysterical by anything that is happening around him in life.
WHO, KNOWING THAT THE 'GUNAS' OPERATE --- He understands that the changes in his own inward personality are all nothing but the kaleidoscopic changes of the gunas and that the world outside changes according to one's mental conditions. A man of True Wisdom lives, ever fully aware of the technique behind the changes in himself and in the world around him.
IS SELF-CENTERED AND SWERVES NOT --- In order to watch the play of the three gunas in himself, he should be an observer from beyond the gunas. Thus, established in his Pure Spiritual Nature, he is able to observe detachedly and enjoy the play of the gunas in himself and in the world around him. An observer of a street fight, looking down from his balcony, is not affected by what he observes; so too, the Man-of-Wisdom, awakened to the Spiritual Consciousness, swerves not from his consummate equilibrium, when he witnesses the play of the gunas in himself and ever remains established in his own Divine Nature (ava-tishthati).
CONTINUING TO ELUCIDATE THE THOUGHT SUGGESTED IN THE PREVIOUS STANZA, THE LORD SAYS:
The equanimity and balance of personality which are observed in a Perfect Man, in the midst of the changing vicissitudes of life, are brought out in this stanza. One who has gone beyond the tyrannies of the three gunas lives in a kingdom of his own, wherein neither the thrills of Sattwa, nor the noisy clamours of Rajas, nor the weariness of Tamas have any admission at all. Serenely self-composed, he dwells in the Self, far away from the sweat and agitations of base appetites, low impulses and selfish passions.
To the average man, this state of equipoise may look like complete death. And, no doubt, it is so; it is the death of the limited, finite life of relative experiences, lived by the baser ego. Spirit, conditioned by Matter, behaves like a reed upon the tumultuous surface of an ever-agitated mind. Always disturbed by the constant storms of love and hate, likes and dislikes, this unhappy sense-on-individuality suffers its shattering agitations and endless sorrows.
To withdraw, therefore, from this chaotic field of desires and attachments into the shelter of the Self, is to release the diviner possibilities in ourselves. The dreamer dies to be reborn as the waker; the individual sense of the ego dies to release the infinite glories of the Self.
Having awakened from the dream, what would be the waker's relationship with his dream-world, is the question that Arjuna asks Krishna! One who has gone beyond the shackles of the three gunas, has awakened from all the misconceptions of the world, fed by one's 'I'-ness and 'my'-ness. In that state of godly awakening, there cannot be any deep and sincere relationship with the experiences of the lower world, whether it be joy or sorrow, things dear or not-dear, blame or praise. In all the experiences, he is a balanced, unattached witness.
WHO DWELLS IN THE SELF (Svasthah) --- One who has transcended the gunas that rule the tendencies of the mind, becomes the Self, just as one who has crossed the frontiers of a dream, discovers himself to be waker. What would be the relationship of one who dwells in the Self, with the things around him, and what would be his attitude to things happening around him, is being answered here. Established as he is in Supreme Wisdom, the world that is contacted from the levels of the body, the mind and the intellect does not touch him. He lives in a world of his own, far above the plane of Matter.
ALIKE IN PLEASURE AND IN PAIN --- To come in contact with the outside world through sense-perceptions, to evaluate them in terms of similar experiences in the past, and to experience pleasure or pain, is a trick of our individual personality. The worlds of stimuli march into us and we respond to them and these intelligent responses can fall under two categories: pleasure and pain. That which is pleasurable to one is bound to be painful to another. If the things of the world were in their own nature either pleasurable or painful, they would have certainly caused the same uniform reactions in all of us.
It is the nature of the Sun to be hot, and therefore, the heat of the Sun is common to us all. But the things of the world do not produce reactions in everyone in the same way, and therefore, it is an interpretation of our mind and intellect, which is coloured by our own past experiences. He who is not looking at the world through these coloured goggles of the mind and intellect will be alike in pleasure and pain.
REGARDING A CLOD OF EARTH, A PRECIOUS STONE AND GOLD ALIKE --- Possession of things is another appetite which the majority of living creatures have. People like to possess and hoard precious-stones or gold, but do not care for a clod of mud. But to an awakened Man-of-Wisdom, all these possessions are one and the same and from his estimation none of them has any real value.
Children collect peacock feathers, shells, marbles, broken glass-bangles, old stamps, shapely stones, etc., from the roadside or from waste-paper baskets, and with extreme possessiveness, they keep them as their precious possessions. But as they grow, without a regret, they throw them away and the younger ones in the family accept them with gratitude as a precious inheritance from their elders. Similarly, a man living his ego-centric life of desires for possessions, may value gold and precious stones; but to the Awakened Soul, in his sense of Infinitude, these limited possessions, hugged on to by lesser minds, have no charm at all.
THE SAME TOWARDS THINGS DEAR AND THINGS NOT-DEAR --- In our relationship with others, where there is an agreeable nature, we come to love it dearly, while, wherever there is a disagreeable nature, we hate it. Love and hate, dear and not-dear, are all our reactions to the agreeable and disagreeable natures of things or situations. These reactions are, no doubt, from the levels of the mind. One who is standing on windy shores wearing a thick coat will not feel the cold that another must feel, when, in his nakedness, he is dipping in the sea. the cold waters come in contact with the skin of the naked man and he experiences the discomforts, while the man on the shore, comfortably warm in his coat, knows no cold.
The average man, plunged in identification with his own mind and intellect, suffers the world and interprets it as agreeable or disagreeable, and brings down upon himself a lot of confusions and problems. The man of Steady Wisdom is he, whose equilibrium is not disturbed by the onslaught of things and circumstances of the world, whether they be dear or not dear.
SAME IN CENSURE AND IN PRAISE --- A Man-of-Perfection is the same in censure and praise. The experience of a dream cannot contribute either joy or sorrow to one who has "awakened," he might have been a beggar insulted by the entire society in the dream-world or might have been an adored Raja ruling a vast empire in his dream. But when he wakes up, neither the PRAISE he received as a Raja, nor the CENSURE he suffered as a beggar can leave any reactions upon him. Awakened from the "dream", the Man-of-Wisdom evaluates the blame and praise of the world outside and finds them both utterly insignificant.
In the above four beautiful, chosen phrases, Vyasa has indicated some of the main conditions of life in which the ordinary man comes to eke out his joys and sorrows. Pleasure and pain, good and bad possessions, agreeable and disagreeable experiences, joys and sorrows provided by praise and censure, are some of the conditions of life by which we get entangled in a web of agitations and sorrows.
MOREOVER:
If the above has drawn a flat picture of the Man-of-Perfection, herein we have added strokes that shade the outlines and give them a rounded beauty to depict them vividly for our keener observation and closer vision.
THE SAME IN HONOUR AND DIS-HONOUR --- The sense of equanimity in honour and dis-honour is described here as one of the definite signs of perfection attained. Rooted in his own lived experiences of divinity, a man of Vision is not afraid of life and its rewards, because, such a Perfect One looks at things and happenings from his own special angle. The egoistic evaluation of life tends to respect honour and shun dishonour.
Even in ordinary life, we have found martyrs courting what others consider as dishonour. They energetically love and serve their generation in spite of the insults and disgrace piled upon them by ignorant people. For Archimedes, running along the streets naked from his bath-tub crying "Eureka," "Eureka," might have been a dishonour on any other day except on that day of his discovery! Honour and dishonour are the evaluations of the intellect that change from time to time, from place to place. To one who has transcended the ordinary planes of egoism and vanity, both are the same; a crown of thorns is as welcome as a crown of roses!!
THE SAME TO FRIEND AND FOE --- To one who treads the Path of Wisdom and has risen above the gunas, there is no foe in the world; nor is he attached to anyone in earthy friendships. My right hand is never a foe to me; nor is it merely a friend; it is myself. Another, other than myself, alone can claim enmity or friendship with me. When I have realised the ONENESS of my spiritual nature, Infinite and All-pervading, as the Spirit, I have no relationship with the world outside; I live my vivid personal experience: "THEY ARE I."
ABANDONING ALL UNDERTAKINGS --- The man of tranquillity, living in God-consciousness, has no more ego in him, nor is he pestered by the endless ego-centric desires which are the sorrows of life. Desire-motivated activities, undertaken with an anxiety to earn and to acquire, to possess and to hoard, to aggrandise and to claim ownership are indicated by the term "undertaking." All these are possible only when the ego is there. When the limited ego-sense has volatilised in the realisation of the Infinite, all ego-motivated activities also end. Thereafter, he, the God-inspired, works in the world as a God-man.
HE IS SAID TO HAVE GONE BEYOND THE GUNAS --- The above three stanzas together paint the complete picture of one who has transcended the gunas. These three stanzas answer Arjuna's second question.
Shankara recognises in these three stanzas "A RULE OF CONDUCT LAID DOWN FOR THE SAMNYASIN WHO SEEKS MOKSHA." These qualities are to be cultivated by every SEEKER who is trying to live the Hindu-culture. Once the seeker has gained inner freedom, these become the characteristic features of his nature. They form the essential marks that indicate one who has risen above the gunas.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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