Bg. 5.20 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

न प्रहृष्येत्प्रियं प्राप्य नोद्विजेत्प्राप्य चाप्रियम् । स्थिरबुद्धिरसम्मूढो ब्रह्मविद्‍ब्रह्मणि स्थित: ॥ २० ॥

Verse text

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

Synonyms

na — never ; prahṛṣyet — rejoices ; priyam — the pleasant ; prāpya — achieving ; na — does not ; udvijet — become agitated ; prāpya — obtaining ; ca — also ; apriyam — the unpleasant ; sthira-buddhiḥ — self-intelligent ; asammūḍhaḥ — unbewildered ; brahma-vit — one who knows the Supreme perfectly ; brahmaṇi — in the transcendence ; sthitaḥ — situated.

Translation

A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, who is unbewildered, and who knows the science of God is already situated in transcendence.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

20. He whose intelligence is fixed, who is free of bewilderment, who has knowledge of Brahman, and who is situated in Brahman, does not rejoice on attaining what is dear, and does not become agitated on attaining what is not favorable.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

20. He whose intelligence is fixed in ātmā, who is free of bewilderment due to connection with his body, and who realizes Brahman, and thus does not rejoice on attaining what is enjoyable and does not become agitated on attaining what is disagreeable, is situated in Brahman.

Purport

The symptoms of the self-realized person are given herein. The first symptom is that he is not illusioned by the false identification of the body with his true self. He knows perfectly well that he is not this body but is the fragmental portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is therefore not joyful in achieving something, nor does he lament in losing anything which is related to his body. This steadiness of mind is called sthira-buddhi, or self-intelligence. He is therefore never bewildered by mistaking the gross body for the soul, nor does he accept the body as permanent and disregard the existence of the soul. This knowledge elevates him to the station of knowing the complete science of the Absolute Truth, namely Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. He thus knows his constitutional position perfectly well, without falsely trying to become one with the Supreme in all respects. This is called Brahman realization, or self-realization. Such steady consciousness is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Such a person is equal in the face of objects both dear and not dear in this world. Attaining dear objects he does not rejoice and attaining unwelcome objects he does not become disturbed. The potential mood of prahṛṣyet and udvijet stands for the indicative present in this verse, or can mean that the person should practice that mood during the stage of sādhana. (Attaining dear objects, he should not rejoice and attaining unwelcome objects he should not become disturbed.) He is not bewildered (asaṁmūḍhaḥ), since bewilderment arises only from identification with joy, lamentation and other emotions.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

This verse speaks of the characteristics of the person situated in Brahman. Situated in his present body, he does not rejoice or lament on attaining favorable or unfavorable conditions attained by prārabdha karmas. Why? His intellect is fixed in his ātmā (sthira buddhiḥ) (rather than the body). He is not bewildered by identifying the eternal ātmā and the temporary body (asaṁmūḍhaḥ). He realizes the Brahman with its quality of equality (brahma vit). The person of these qualities is situated in Brahman.