Devanagari
शक्नोतीहैव य: सोढुं प्राक्शरीरविमोक्षणात् ।
कामक्रोधोद्भवं वेगं स युक्त: स सुखी नर: ॥ २३ ॥
Verse text
śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ
prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt
kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ
sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ
Synonyms
śaknoti
—
is able
;
iha eva
—
in the present body
;
yaḥ
—
one who
;
soḍhum
—
to tolerate
;
prāk
—
before
;
śarīra
—
the body
;
vimokṣaṇāt
—
giving up
;
kāma
—
desire
;
krodha
—
and anger
;
udbhavam
—
generated from
;
vegam
—
urges
;
saḥ
—
he
;
yuktaḥ
—
in trance
;
saḥ
—
he
;
sukhī
—
happy
;
naraḥ
—
human being.
Translation
Before giving up this present body, if one is able to tolerate the urges of the material senses and check the force of desire and anger, he is well situated and is happy in this world.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
23. He who can tolerate in this world the agitation arising from lust and anger before being liberated from the body is a yogī and is happy.
Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
23. He who can tolerate the agitation arising from lust and anger when they arise till the time of giving up the body has attained realization of ātmā and is blissful in that realization.
Purport
If one wants to make steady progress on the path of self-realization, he must try to control the forces of the material senses. There are the forces of talk, forces of anger, forces of mind, forces of the stomach, forces of the genitals, and forces of the tongue. One who is able to control the forces of all these different senses, and the mind, is called gosvāmī, or svāmī. Such gosvāmīs live strictly controlled lives and forgo altogether the forces of the senses. Material desires, when unsatiated, generate anger, and thus the mind, eyes and chest become agitated. Therefore, one must practice to control them before one gives up this material body. One who can do this is understood to be self-realized and is thus happy in the state of self-realization. It is the duty of the transcendentalist to try strenuously to control desire and anger.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Though fallen in the ocean of saṁsāra, this person alone is the yogī (yuktaḥ), and he alone is happy.
Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
The disturbance of lust and anger is unfavorable for steadiness in jṣāna. Therefore one who is endeavoring for steadiness in jṣāna should tolerate them.
He who can tolerate the agitation (vegam) in the form of disturbances and problems to mind, eye or other organs, arising from lust and anger, he who can control them (soḍhum) at the time they arise (iha), by the joy of realization of ātmā, until the time he gives up the body, has attained samādhi in realization of ātmā (yuktaḥ), and he is blissful with realization of ātmā (sukhī). Therefore, with intense effort one must tolerate these disturbances.
Surrender Unto Me
One has to question himself: "Here I am, and how long do I have to tolerate this?" Sometimes we review Krsna consciousness like "one day we will wake up and suddenly will become liberated, maya will be gone, we will not have to strugle with our mind with its attractions and repulsions". This is a dream practically speaking.
This verse answers this question: "How long I must tolerate this situation?" Until this body is dead. Until then we have to tolerate all this. We must learn to tolerate it now and not just surrender to any stupid, foolish and whimsical desire that our mind comes up with. We might as well realize that we will go on practicing the tolerance of the mind until the body drops down dead.
And how is it possible to be so tolerant?
By fixing one's consciousness on the Supersoul or Krsna. One can not do it without that. One cannot tolerate the pushings and pullings of the mind unless one's consciousness is fixed on the Supreme Lord. Then one can be happy in this world, if one learns how to do that.
Whether one is practicing to do that or whether one has already achieved it, one should not take pleasure in the sources of misery. One should not rejoice when achieving something pleasurable nor lament upon obtaining something unpleasant has to be self‑intelligent. " A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self‑intelligent, w unbewildered, and who knows the science of God, is already situated in transcendence."(Text 20)
One has to know the science of God ‑ that is called "to be fixed up".
[ 2 . Tolerating and checking bodily and mental urges, his happiness, activities, and goals are within. He works for the welfare of all, is free from sin, is absorbed in endeavoring for perfection, and is soon liberated in the Supreme. (24‑26) ]