न प्रहृष्येत्प्रियं प्राप्य नोद्विजेत्प्राप्य चाप्रियम् ।
स्थिरबुद्धिरसम्मूढो ब्रह्मविद् ब्रह्मणि स्थितः ।। ५.२० ।।

na prahṛṣyet-priyaṁ prāpya nodvijet-prāpya cāpriyam |
sthira-buddhir-asammūḍho brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ || 5.20 ||

Audio-BG-5.20

An-Even-and-Harmonious-Mind

‘Samya’ being the sole quality upon which the victory over worldliness is based, Krishna exhorts the effort as well as objective seekers must adhere to:

Do not be rapturous with delight on meeting anything pleasant, or be given to agitation on confronting the unpleasant. Free of doubt and delusion, firm in resolve, such a one becomes a Knower of Brahman, established or abiding in Brahman.

Here too Krishna makes a twin proposition and then integrates it to the ultimate spiritual attainment. He asks the seeker to stand firmly on his daily secular activities and interactions. The seeker has no need to search or woo any special kind of pursuit. His sadhana will remain allied with whatever he does otherwise day in and day out. He can still work his way up marvellously. His activities will help him bring all the refinement and elevation he aspires for.

All that the sadhaka has to do is to focus his attention on two important notes, priya and apriya – the pleasant and the unpleasant.For, the entire inputs from the world can produce only these two resultants. Thus the pleasant and unpleasant ‘fully’ represent, in the language and assessment of the mind, the whole world and all the effects it can bring about.

Krishna says, the seeker’s skill lies in meeting the ‘priya’ and ‘apriya’ with a uniform response, which should not be allowed to waver at any time. In this is his yogic cleverness. He should not give vent to any exultation over whatever pleasant meets him. Equally so, no perturbation should take over his mind when the unpleasant comes. The pleasant and unpleasant being repeatedly there, his attitudinal uniformity will also have to be persistent. In fact, Krishna is providing a very beautiful scope and compulsion to all earnest seekers to make their sadhana all-fold and ever-relevant. None can complain about lack of time or opportunity to do this sadhana, because, the sadhana becomes coeval with his day-to-day living.

The world goes on generating the pleasant-unpleasant duo. And the sadhaka goes on extending his uniform reception to it. Life puts on a new glow, splendour. There is no scope for staleness at all any time.

Here too, there is no particular religiosity! The usual run of life with its daily routine and behaviour is alone the basis. Nevertheless, along with these, the unfailing yoga-sadhana also reigns. Sadhana becomes concurrent with the mind, in all circumstances. Nothing additional is necessary to induce or strengthen the sadhana.

Having clearly grasped the truth that the world can produce only two effects – priya and apriya – in his mind, and therefore he need only have an attitude of ‘samatva’, and being of firm conviction, he becomes free of all doubts and vacillations of his mind forever. As a result, one becomes a sthira-buddhih – his intelligence becomes well-resolved. The ability of the world to shake or dislodge the mind stands terminated before such a samya enrichment. He becomes therefore, asammudhah.

These are the true qualities or embellishments that distinguish a Knower of Brahman (Brahma-vit). The enrichment will make him abide in Brahman, the Supreme Reality. To abide in Brahman is to preserve and manifest a natural ease and poise, this deep inward uniformity.