Bg. 2.55 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

श्रीभगवानुवाच प्रजहाति यदा कामान्सर्वान्पार्थ मनोगतान् । आत्मन्येवात्मना तुष्टः स्थितप्रज्ञस्तदोच्यते ॥ ५५ ॥

Verse text

śrī-bhagavān uvāca prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān pārtha mano-gatān ātmany evātmanā tuṣṭaḥ sthita-prajṣas tadocyate

Synonyms

śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said ; prajahāti — gives up ; yadā — when ; kāmān — desires for sense gratification ; sarvān — of all varieties ; pārtha — O son of Pṛthā ; manaḥ-gatān — of mental concoction ; ātmani — in the pure state of the soul ; eva — certainly ; ātmanā — by the purified mind ; tuṣṭaḥ — satisfied ; sthita-prajṣaḥ — transcendentally situated ; tadā — at that time ; ucyate — is said.

Translation

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

55. The Lord said: When he completely gives up all desires which arise from the mind alone, and is satisfied with the soul alone by that mind, he is called sthita-prajṣa.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

55. The Lord said: When he completely gives up all desires which arise from the mind alone, and is satisfied with the soul alone by that mind, he is called sthita prajṣa.

Purport

The Bhāgavatam affirms that any person who is fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or devotional service of the Lord, has all the good qualities of the great sages, whereas a person who is not so transcendentally situated has no good qualifications, because he is sure to be taking refuge in his own mental concoctions. Consequently, it is rightly said herein that one has to give up all kinds of sense desire manufactured by mental concoction. Artificially, such sense desires cannot be stopped. But if one is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then, automatically, sense desires subside without extraneous efforts. Therefore, one has to engage himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness without hesitation, for this devotional service will instantly help one onto the platform of transcendental consciousness. The highly developed soul always remains satisfied in himself by realizing himself as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord. Such a transcendentally situated person has no sense desires resulting from petty materialism; rather, he remains always happy in his natural position of eternally serving the Supreme Lord.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Step by step, Kṛṣṇa answers each of the four questions, from this verse until the end of the chapter. (This verse answers the first question: What is the nature of the jīvan-mukta?) He gives up all desires, so that not even one desire remains for any object. He is able to give up these desires because they belong to the mind (manogatān); they are not the intrinsic quality of the soul. If they were the intrinsic quality of the soul, they could not be given up, just as fire never gives up heat. The cause for this is stated. He is satisfied by the soul whose very nature is bliss (ātmanā tuṣṭaḥ), in the mind (ātmani) which has withdrawn from sense objects. The śruti says: yadā sarve pramucyante kāmā ye ’sya hṛdi śritāḥ atha martyo ’mṛto bhavaty atra brahma samaśnute When all the desires situated in the heart are cleared away, the mortal becomes immortal and enjoys Brahman. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 6.14

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

Being asked, the Lord answers these questions one by one until the end of the chapter. He answers the first question with this one verse. “O son of Pṛthā, when a person completely gives up all desires situated in the mind, he is known as sthita prajṣa. As desires belong to the mind, it is possible that they can be given up. If they belonged to the ātmā, then they would be difficult to give up, just as it is difficult for fire to give up its quality of heat.” “But can one remain like a dry piece of wood?” “One is completely satisfied (tuṣṭaḥ) in the mind which has withdrawn from desires (ātmani) with ones svarūpa or the Lord (ātmanā), whose essence is self-manifesting bliss. The person who gives up all sense objects as insignificant, and enjoys the bliss of the self is said to be situated in samādhi. He is called sthita prajṣa.” According to Medinī: ātmā puṁsi svabhāve’pi prayanta-manasor api dhṛtāv api manīṣāyāṁ śarīra-brahmaṇor api Atmā refers to the human being, nature, fire, mind, determination, understanding, body, and Brahman (jīva and the Lord). The word brahma in this verse refers to jīva or īśvara.

Surrender Unto Me

This is called "sthita‑prajna" or transcendentally situated. The symptoms are basically two: there is no material affections and he is so pure his satisfaction in consciousness in entirely spiritual on the self alone. This is actually basically describing someone who attains this consciousness on the Jnana path ‑ a pure samadhi type of person. But it is also true in the Bhakti path because everything that is true about someone in the Jnana level, how he is detached from matter, is also true in the Krsna consciousness level. These things will become clear as we go on. The second question Krsna answers is in Text 56 and 57: "How he speaks?". The inner meaning of this question is "how is his mentality and words affected by the affection, equanimity or anger of others?" In other words, "if one is angry with you or affectionate with you or just neutral with you and you are on that platform of self realization, how do you react to that in your mind and in your words?" [ 3 . How does he speak? (How are his mentality and words affected by the affection, equanimity, or anger of others?) Such a pure soul is neither mentally disturbed, elated, attached, fearful, or angry, and he verbally neither praises nor criticizes the good and evil he attains. (56‑57) ]