Whenever you meet something pleasant – may be in the form of words from someone, a relative, friend or otherwise – do not unduly delight over it. Deliberately choose to be moderate in your reception and response. Replace your attitude of differentiation with the new vision of moderation and equalness.

Dear and blessed souls:

Harih Om Tat Sat.

Broad and expansive aspects of Spirituality

Krishna beautifully disentangled the mystery of jñāna-niṣṭhā – how to be established in Knowledge – while still engaged in day-to-day life and activities. Worldliness is a web only a pure mind and intelligence can discern and handle.

Krishna now continues to dispel Arjuna’s delusion. Is the freedom from re-birth, namely, not having to be born in the world again and again, the real goal of spiritual life? Not at all. Krishna, with utmost clarity, discusses the broader and more expansive aspects, as well as efficacies of spiritual wisdom in the next few verses, explaining spirituality as far more broad-based than what people generally consider it to be.

Jñāna, knowledge, is the sole factor that works and brings the desired benefit. This means intelligence and mind alone are the instruments employed in the whole pursuit, a point an earnest seeker should note with great emphasis.

Equal-vision (sama-darśana) – unique feature of Bhagavad Gita

Thus, we go to the next verse (5.18) in which Krishna strikes an interactional expanse of spiritual knowledge, whereby the seeker embodies functional sama-darśana, equal vision. Equal-vision is one of the unique special features of Bhagavad Gita, through which Krishna brings the lofty Yogic and Upanishadic concepts to practical, secular level and terms.

To relate and explain the essence of equal-vision, Krishna is arraying a set of beings, ranging from the celebrated brahmana to the lowest stratum born (shvapaaka). All of them are alike, each with a paancha-bhoutik body in which the same Self is present. So, bodily all are the same. With regard to the animating Inner Presence too, it is equally so. The soul giving rise to the notion ‘I’ is the same. Krishna states that one who sees this Supreme Truth, is verily wise, enlightened. Thus, the equalness of vision is what makes one a full Knower. Such a Knower, endowed with spiritual knowledge and humility, is the most adorable and noble.

It is Brahmanas who have austerely preserved the spiritual wisdom of this holy land, ensuring that no word or syllable has changed in our most ancient spiritual texts till now. The shvapaaka is, in a way, the lowest of the humans, given to eating dogs, a habit considered exceedingly derogatory. Among the animals the first is the greatly esteemed cow, followed by elephant, the biggest being on land, and then the dog distinguished for its loyalty. Thus, we have an intriguing assortment of beings around us. Towards all of them, the enlightened one has equal-vision. This equalness is not an artificial, strenuous, forcefully cultivated characteristic. Rather, it naturally graces the Knower, as a functional expansion of his inner vision and realization.

Elephant has its distinct qualities like discernment and readiness to obey the mahout who employs it for various purposes, including temple rituals. The Knower, the Yogin, looks at all of them with the same attitude and fondness. How and why? Just as he is the Self, in every one he recognizes the same Self. All bodies survive and also are supported and shaped by the same inlying ‘Presence’. The biological laws and processes which govern the body, are set in motion by Nature. Where is then any fundamental difference between the bodies of all? All are equally made of food they consume. So, it is wrong to differentiate beings in any way on the ground of their birth. The body of each is animated and activated by the same Inner Presence. So, sama-darśana, equal-vision, is a natural outcome of spiritual wisdom. Any one who lacks such equal-vision is not indeed a Knower.

Self-knowledge implies Oneness

Self-knowledge verily implies recognition of Oneness – the knowledge that all are One, the same. There is no second factor any time anywhere in any front. The Self present in one’s body is the same in all other bodies. Due to its subtlety, which makes it permeate everywhere, it pervades the whole visible creation. Self is unlike matter and material presences. It transcends matter and material formations, to remain Omnipresent. In its Omnipresence everything and all are included. This kind of expansive thought and vision is characteristic of Self-knowledge and Self-Knowers. So, sama-darśana is co-existential with Self-realization. This is what distinguishes a Knower from all the rest.

Samatva is a qualitative enrichment adorning the spiritual mind. Samatva-buddhi is the core of Sāṅkhya Yoga and Karma Yoga alike, as Krishna has already explained in the 2nd chapter (2.14,48). However, samatva is not limited to inner experiences and undulations. It equally pertains to interactional aspects – the objective variety as well as situations. After all, all experiences and attitudes arise within the body.

Thus, spirituality is not alone inner enrichment but equally sensory sublimation as well, as Krishna emphasizes here. Senses are inert, and it is the mind that animates and activates them. Naturally, mind’s enrichment will irresistibly radiate and reflect in sensory perceptions also. Do not draw a line dividing senses and mind. Throughout life there is close integration of the two.

Be Master of the World

Krishna now links samatva with its comprehensive benefit (5.19), relating it fully to Brahman as well as full abidance in it, which, by all means is the greatest spiritual attainment one can think of. See what Krishna says so categorically.

“By them is this whole world won over, whose mind is well established in equanimity (sāmya). Brahman, the Supreme Reality, is bereft of all taints and also equal. Hence, they are seated firmly in Brahman.” What a conclusive statement, proposition (5.19)!

Win over the world by equanimity

In the 2nd chapter, Krishna had shown that the whole world is perceived and interacted with only through the five senses our body hosts. There is no sixth channel. None of the world objects can make itself felt by us. It is our senses that seemingly contact them. But for our senses, nothing like the world will ever be experienced, hence the world will also be non-existent, non-experiential. Our eyes make the world colourful and shaped. Ears cause sound, nose arouses smell, tongue generates taste, and skin instils touch. But for the senses, nothing would be there at all to be called the world.

What more? Through the senses all that the world can produce for us, is the single pair of opposites called sukha-duḥkha, pleasant-unpleasant, the two mental responses to sensory contacts. In other words, the infinitely various world with all the distances and variety it hosts can cause only sukha-duḥkhas. These are not products of the world, but of the mind, through its responses to sensory inputs. By meeting these two with equanimity, we are virtually winning over the whole world. For, the world has nothing different to generate in us at all.

Brahman is established in samatva

Brahman is equally present in all. For the Knower, there is samatva (equanimity) all around. When the mind rests in samatva, is it not equally resting in Brahman as well? See the equation. Mind’s samatva is Brahman itself. Thus, Brahman is established in those whose mind is established in samatva! What a simplicity! What a short-cut to attain the great spiritual wisdom and magnificent goal it fetches and awards! See the dexterity of Krishna’s gospel!

Krishna now further develops the essence of samatva by applying it effectively to interactional life (5.20) in a very simple, easy to grasp manner. He prescribes a twin pursuit in your daily life, at home as well as in the professional and societal fronts alike. The formula is very simple. All you have to do is to understand samatva well using your intelligence, and then make the mind practise it diligently.

Be equal towards sukha-duḥkhas

Whenever you meet something pleasant – may be in the form of words from someone, a relative, friend or otherwise – do not unduly delight over it. Deliberately choose to be moderate in your reception and response. Replace your attitude of differentiation with the new vision of moderation and equalness. Likewise, when something unpleasant greets you, treat that also without resentment or revolt.

Life and world will always fetch pleasant-unpleasant alternates, just as sense objects arouse sukha-duḥkhas in the mind. Not to unduly exult in the pleasant or resent the unpleasant – this is the sadhana that should run parallel to sukha-duḥkha arrivals, without any conflict, stress or strain. This equanimity, samatva is the only effort to be made wherever you are and whatever you do.

The point to be noted is that you should not expect solely the pleasant; thereby start resenting the unpleasant. Life and world consist of both. How can, therefore, any one think of avoiding them? Learn to treat them with an enlightened, novel attitude and response. Prefer neither, nor have prejudice towards any. Your mind is quite capable of generating a new vision and attitude, of being equal mentally to both.

Ultimate spiritual reward

In summary, meet the pleasant and unpleasant alike. This alikeness is in your mind alone. To practise it, the mind needs no help or assistance from any quarter. Every time either of them comes, the mind will be ready to sublimate its own differential outlook, generate instead the equal disposition towards both. What a wonderful innovation! You do not interfere with the course of life and whatever it brings. You only meet whatever comes with an attitude of evenness, equanimity.

This is actually a sublimation-cum-enrichment process for the mind to pursue and be surely enriched and rewarded with. Ruminate over the message deeply and imbibe it well enough. The whole process is solely a mento-intellectual pursuit. None can put forward any excuse in pursuing this.

How does Krishna describe one given to this pursuit of constant inner evenness? He says (5.20): such a one is a sthira-buddhiḥ (one of firm and stable intelligence). What else? He is also undeluded (asammūḍhaḥ). He has no delusion of any kind to make him weak, unsteady or unstable. He is actually a Brahma-vid, a knower of Brahman. He is unswervingly seated in Brahman (brahmaṇi-sthitaḥ). The means employed in this practice is quite ordinary – interactional and seemingly worldly, related to ordinary persons, places and events. But the outcome is the ultimate spiritual reward and fruition – abidance in Brahman!