Just as an excellent artist working at his masterpiece on his canvas would again and again approach his piece of art to add more details with finer strokes to his picture, and would again and again retreat from the canvas to gaze at his art from a distance, so too here, the Lord is creating with his chosen words the picture of the mental life of a man of equipoise and perfection upon the canvas of man’s heart. He dedicates many stanzas in order that the picture may clearly and vividly come into the recognition and appreciation of even the ordinary, casual student. Here is yet another stanza offered with a burning enthusiasm and almost missionary zeal, so that Arjuna, the confused, may come to gain a vivid picture of the Man-of-Perfection, who is not a mere impotent stone idol on the Ganges-banks, but a veritable dynamic factor that moulds and influences his generation of fellow beings.

Ordinarily, man gets excited or becomes despondent, not because of the happenings in the outer world, but because of his individual contact with them. If any man dies in the city, it is not tragedy to me, but when my father dies, it is my calamity. This clearly proves that the death of a man, in itself, cannot bring any disturbance to my mind, unless my mind had already projected itself on its relationship to the individual who has died. The Man-of-Perfection who has won over his mind and has come to experience the Infinite Self, can no more, therefore, “FEEL ANY JOY ON RECEIVING WHAT IS PLEASANT, NOR GRIEVE ON RECEIVING WHAT IS UNPLEASANT.” It does not mean that a Man-of-Perfection is a wooden doll or an iron statue, incapable of reacting to the external things whether they be pleasant or unpleasant. It only means that a man of true inward culture, discovers in himself, in his own wisdom, a balance and an equipoise, which cannot be shattered very easily.

When a man of such super-human mental steadfastness is analysed, we can easily discover that no condition or circumstances in the outer world can ever gain an entry into the inner precincts of his personality. His intellect becomes steady, since it is not poisoned with the usual ego-centric misconceptions. It is, in fact, very interesting to note how the ideas arranged in this stanza, in their very sequence, explain a wondrous truth. One who is unaffected by the presence of things, good or bad, is the one whose “INTELLECT IS STEADY,” and the one whose INTELLECT IS STEADY, is the “ONE IN WHOM ALL DELUSIONS HAVE ENDED.” A steady intellect from which all delusions have dropped becomes the instrument for “KNOWING Brahman” — and the “one who knows Brahman becomes Brahman,” and therefore, comes to live “ESTABLISHED IN THE BRAHMIC CONSCIOUSNESS OF INFINITE BEATITUDE,” a living God-man walking upon the earth that is Olympus to him.

MOREOVER, RESTING IN BRAHMAN:

Brahmavit, a knower of Brahman, as described; sthitah, who is established; brahmani in Brahman- who is not a performer of actions, i.e. one who has renounced all actions; sthira-buddhih, should have his intellect steady-the man of steady intellect is one who has the unwavering, firm conviction of the existence of the one and the same taintless Self in all beings; and further, asammudhah, he should not be deluded, he should be free from delusion. Na prahrsyet, he should not get delighted; prapya, by getting; priyam, what is desirable; na ca udvijet, and surely, neither should he become dejected; prapya, by getting; apriyam, what is undesirable-because the acquisition of the desirable and the undesirable are causes of [Ast.’s reading is ‘horsa-visadau kurvate, cause happiness and sorrow’ in place of ‘harsa-visada-sthane, sources of happiness and sorrow’, which (latter) reading occurs in G1. Pr. and A.A.-Tr.] happiness and sorrow for one who considers the body as the Self; not for the one who has realized the absolute Self, since in his case there can be no acquisition of desirable and undesirable objects. Further, the one who is established in Brahman-