An inspired artist, trying to express his idea on the canvas in the language of colour, will off and on stand back from his easel, and will again, with growing tenderness and love, approach the product of his art, to place a few more strokes with his brush; here Krishna, inspired by his own theme, is again and again choosing right words to add more light and shade to the picture-of-the-Perfect, the one which he was painting upon the heart-slab of his listener — Arjuna.

He who, without attachment, squarely meets life with all equanimity and poise, is one who is “established in Wisdom.” Here also we have to understand the entire stanza as a whole, or else, there will be the danger of misinterpreting its true meaning. Mere detachment from the things of life is NOT the sign of perfection, nor of true discriminative understanding. But many unintelligent enthusiasts actually desert their duties in life and run away, hoping that, since they have developed perfect detachment from the sensuous world, they will gain their “goal” in the quietude of the jungle. Arjuna himself had earlier stated that he would renounce the call of duty and the field of activity. By thus retiring into quietude, the Pandava-hero hoped to reach Perfection and Peace. To dissuade Arjuna from taking this calamitous step, Krishna started his discourse with a serious note in the second chapter.

Detachment from suicidal affections and unintelligent tenderness cannot by itself take man to the higher realms of Divinity. Detachment from the world outside must equally be accompanied by a growing balance in ourselves to face all challenges in life — ‘ auspicious’ (Shubha) and ‘inauspicious’ (Ashubha) — in perfect equipoise without either any uncontrolled rejoicing at the Shubha, or any aversion for the Ashubha experiences.

A mere detachment in itself is not the way of perfect life, inasmuch as it is only a negative existence of constantly escaping from life. To live in ATTACHMENT is to live in slavery to the things of the world. But the Perfect One is he, who, with divine freedom, lives in the world, dexterously meeting both joys and sorrows which life may provide for him. In winter, to be out in the sun and lie basking in its rays is to enjoy its warmth and at the same time to suffer its glare. To complain of the glare is to bring sorrow into the very enjoyment of the warmth. One who is intelligent will either try to ignore the glare and enjoy the warmth fully, or shade off the glare and bask in the enjoyable warmth.

Similarly, life, by its very nature, is a mixture of both good and bad, and to live ever adjusting ourselves — avoiding the bad and striving to linger in the experience of the good — is to live unintelligently. The Perfect-One experiences the best and the worst in life with equal detachment because he is ever established in THE TRUE AND THE ETERNAL, which is the very Self.

In his question, Arjuna had enquired of Krishna, how a Perfect Master would speak. This stanza may be considered as an answer to it. Since the Perfect man-of-Wisdom neither feels any aversion to the sorrows nor rejoices in the joys of life, he neither compliments anything in the world, nor does he condemn anything. To him everything is wonderful. He sees things AS THEY ARE, uncoloured by his mental moods. Such a Perfect One is beyond all the known principles of behaviourism of Western psychology.

MOREOVER:

Further, prajna, the wisdom; tasya, of that person, fo that sannyasin; pratisthita, remains established; yah, who; anabhi-snehah, has no attachment for; sarvatra, anything anywhere, even for body, life, etc.; who na abhinanadati, neither welcomes; na dvesti, nor rejects; tat tat, anything whatever; subha-asubham, good or bad; propya, when he comes across it, i.e. who does not rejoice on meeting with the good, nor reject the bad on meeting with it. Of such a person, who is thus free from elation or dejection, the wisdom arising from discrimination remains established.