समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः ।तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस् तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः ॥
samaduḥkhasukhaḥ svasthaḥ samaloṣṭāśmakāñcanaḥtulyapriyāpriyo dhīras tulyanindātmasaṁstutiḥ
He who regards happiness and suffering alike, gold and mud and stone as of equal value, to whom the pleasant and the unpleasant, praise and blame, honour and insult, the faction of his friends and the faction of his enemies are equal; who is steadfast in a wise imperturbable and immutable inner calm and quietude; who initiates no action (but leaves all works to be done by the gunas of Nature)—he is said to be above the gunas.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
AI translation
Essays on the Gita
But what, asks Arjuna, are the signs of such a man, what his action and how is he said even in action to be above the three gunas? The sign, says Krishna, is that equality of which I have so constantly spoken; the sign is that inwardly he regards happiness and suffering alike, gold and mud and stone as of equal value and that to him the pleasant and the unpleasant, praise and blame, honour and insult, the faction of his friends and the faction of his enemies are equal things. He is steadfast in a wise imperturbable and immutable inner calm and quietude. He initiates no action, but leaves all works to be done by the gunas of Nature. Sattwa, rajas or tamas may rise or cease in his outer mentality and his physical movements with their results of enlightenment, of impulsion to works or of inaction and the clouding over of the mental and nervous being, but he does not rejoice when this comes or that ceases, nor on the other hand does he abhor or shrink from the operation or the cessation of these things. He has seated himself in the conscious light of another principle than the nature of the gunas and that greater consciousness remains steadfast in him, above these powers and unshaken by their motions like the sun above clouds to one who has risen into a higher atmosphere. He from that height sees that it is the gunas that are in process of action and that their storm and calm are not himself but only a movement of Prakriti; his self is immovable above and his spirit does not participate in that shifting mutability of things unstable. This is the impersonality of the Brahmic status; for that higher principle, that greater wide high-seated consciousness, kūṭastha, is the immutable Brahman.14·21, 14·21–26, 14·22, 14·23
The Synthesis of Yoga
And so too we shall have the same equality of mind and soul towards all happenings, painful or pleasurable, defeat and success, honour and disgrace, good repute and ill-repute, good fortune and evil fortune. For in all happenings we shall see the will of the Master of all works and results and a step in the evolving expression of the Divine. He manifests himself, to those who have the inner eye that sees, in forces and their play and results as well as in things and in creatures. All things move towards a divine event; each experience, suffering and want no less than joy and satisfaction, is a necessary link in the carrying out of a universal movement which it is our business to understand and second. To revolt, to condemn, to cry out is the impulse of our unchastened and ignorant instincts. Revolt like everything else has its uses in the play and is even necessary, helpful, decreed for the divine development in its own time and stage; but the movement of an ignorant rebellion belongs to the stage of the soul’s childhood or to its raw adolescence. The ripened soul does not condemn but seeks to understand and master, does not cry out but accepts or toils to improve and perfect, does not revolt inwardly but labours to obey and fulfil and transfigure. Therefore we shall receive all things with an equal soul from the hands of the Master. Failure we shall admit as a passage as calmly as success until the hour of the divine victory arrives. Our souls and minds and bodies will remain unshaken by acutest sorrow and suffering and pain if in the divine dispensation they come to us, unoverpowered by intensest joy and pleasure. Thus supremely balanced we shall continue steadily on our way meeting all things with an equal calm until we are ready for a more exalted status and can enter into the supreme and universal Ananda.
Writings in Bengali
samaduḥkhasukhaḥ svasthaḥ samaloṣṭāśmakāñcanaḥ
tulyapriyāpriyo dhīrastulyanindātmasaṃstutiḥ (14.24)
“When the soul becoming a witness sees the three modes, that is God’s Power of the three modes as the sole doer of all works and also knows the Lord who is even beyond the modes and is the mover of Shakti, then he attains the status and nature of the Divine. The embodied soul then transcends the three modes born of the two types of body, namely, the gross and the subtle, and becoming free from birth and death and decay and suffering enjoys immortality. He does not abhor knowledge produced by sattwa or impulsion caused by rajas or the clouding of the mind and body created by tamas, resulting in sloth, torpor and delusion; he remains steadfast like one seated high above maintaining equilibrium in face of the appearance and disappearance of the three modes which cannot disturb him and firm because all these are the modifications born of the intrinsic character of the modes. He to whom happiness and unhappiness, the pleasant and the unpleasant, praise and blame are the same, gold and mud are both like a piece of stone, who is calm and quiet and unshaken within himself, to whom honour and insult are alike and friend and enemies are equally dear, who does not do anything by his own initiative, but does all works surrendering them to the Divine and only under His inspiration, is described as one above the modes. He who worships Me by the yoga of faultless love and devotion becomes fit to attain the Brahman by going beyond the three modes.”
নান্যং গুণেভ্যঃ কর্ত্তারং যদা দ্রষ্টানুপশ্যতি।
গুণেভ্যশ্চ পরং বেত্তি মদ্ভাবং সোঽধিগচ্ছতি॥
গুণানেতানতীত্য ত্রীন্ দেহী দেহসমুদ্ভবান্।
জন্মমৃত্যুজরাদুঃখৈর্বিমুক্তোঽমৃতমশ্নুতে॥
প্রকাশঞ্চ প্রবৃত্তিঞ্চ মোহমেব চ পাণ্ডব।
ন দ্বেষ্টি সংপ্রবৃত্তানি ন নিবৃত্তানি কাঙ্ক্ষতি॥
উদাসীনবদাসীনো গুণৈর্যো ন বিচাল্যতে।
গুণা বর্ত্তন্ত ইত্যেব যোঽবতিষ্ঠতি নেঙ্গতে॥
সমদুঃখসুখঃ স্বস্থঃ সমলোষ্টাশ্মকাঞ্চনঃ।
তুল্যপ্রিয়াপ্রিয়ো ধীরস্তুল্যনিন্দাত্মসংস্তুতিঃ॥
মানাপমানয়োস্তুল্যস্তুল্যো মিত্রারিপক্ষয়োঃ।
সর্ব্বারম্ভপরিত্যাগী গুণাতীতঃ স উচ্যতে॥
মাঞ্চ যোঽব্যভিচারেণ ভক্তিযোগেন সেবতে।
স গুণান্ সমতীত্যৈতান্ ব্রহ্মভূয়ায় কল্পতে॥
“যখন জীব সাক্ষী হইয়া গুণত্রয় অর্থাৎ ভগবানের ত্রৈগুণ্যময়ী শক্তিকেই একমাত্র কর্ত্তা বলিয়া দেখে এবং এই গুণত্রয়েরও উপর শক্তির প্রেরক ঈশ্বরকে জানিতে পারে, তখন সে-ই ভগবৎ-সাধর্ম্ম্য লাভ করে। তখন দেহস্থ জীব স্থূল ও সূক্ষ্ম এই দুই প্রকার দেহসম্ভূত গুণত্রয়কে অতিক্রম করিয়া জন্ম মৃত্যু জরাদুঃখ হইতে বিমুক্ত হইয়া অমরত্ব ভোগ করে। সত্ত্বজনিত জ্ঞান, রজোজনিত প্রবৃত্তি বা তমোজনিত নিদ্রা নিশ্চেষ্টা ভ্রমস্বরূপ মোহ আসিলে বিরক্ত হয় না, এই গুণত্রয়ের আগমন নির্গমনে সমান ভাব রাখিয়া উদাসীনের ন্যায় স্থির হইয়া থাকে, গুণগ্রাম তাহাকে বিচলিত করিতে পারে না, এই সবই গুণের স্বধর্ম্মজাত বৃত্তি বলিয়া দৃঢ় থাকে। যাহার পক্ষে সুখদুঃখ সমান, প্রিয়াপ্রিয় সমান, নিন্দাস্তুতি সমান, কাঞ্চন লোষ্ট্র উভয়ই প্রস্তরের তুল্য, যে ধীরস্থির, নিজের মধ্যে অটল, যাহার নিকট মান-অপমান একই, মিত্রপক্ষ ও শত্রুপক্ষ সমান প্রিয়, যে স্বয়ং প্রেরিত হইয়া কোন কার্য্যারম্ভ করে না, সকল কর্ম্ম ভগবানকে সমর্পণ করিয়া তাঁহারই প্রেরণায় কর্ম্ম করে, তাহাকেই গুণাতীত বলে। যে আমাকে নির্দ্দোষ ভক্তিযোগে সেবা করে, সে-ই এই তিন গুণকে অতিক্রম করিয়া ব্রহ্মপ্রাপ্তির উপযুক্ত হয়।”
