Gita 02.55 – Rejection of mental desires and satisfaction in the self define the self-realized

Thank you.

This is Krishna speaking in response to Arjuna's question about the enlightened people, characteristics of the enlightened person. So, Krishna is answering Arjuna's first question. So, what are the, such a person is called a Sita Pragya, so it's a one-to-one correspondence between question and answer, at least in the initial part of the question and answer.

Prajahati, Prajahati, one who gives up completely, desires, what kind of desires? Sarvanpartha Manogatan, all kinds of desires which are Manogatan, born of the mind, which are stimulated by the mind. Atmanya, Atmana, Tushtaha. Atmanya in the self, A was certainly Atmana, Tushtaha.

The second Atmana can refer either to the self or the mind. The essential thing is that one finds happiness within, in the self. Atmanya, Tushtaha.

So, one turns in words and finds happiness in words. Such a person is a Sita Pragya. Is called as, that person is called as Sita Pragya.

So, essentially Krishna is giving two characteristics here. One rejects external, one rejects external desires born of the mind, desires for external pleasures born of the mind. Prajahati daakaman, Sarvanpartha Manogatan.

That is A and B of the verse and in C describes, no one can live without pleasure. So, where does one get pleasure? Atmanya, Evatmana, Tushtaha. One turns in words and gets pleasure in words.

So, essentially the point here is that one looks in words and gains happiness in words. So, Prajahat, now all of us are always seeking happiness and where we seek happiness depends on our conception of life. So, if I think of myself as a product of matter, if I think of myself as my body, then naturally I will seek pleasure at the level of the body in matter and matter exists all around us, all around me in attractive forms.

So, it is but a natural consequence of my being situated in matter. In contrast, if I understand myself to be a spiritual being, then I will seek happiness at the spiritual level. The soul exists within and God, the supreme soul also exists within.

So, I will seek happiness within. So, whatever we may speak about who we are, we may call us in the spiritual list, but if we are seeking pleasure in material things, then we are actually materialists and some people we may consider as materialists, but if actually they are seeking about the meaning, thinking about the meaning and purpose of life, because of lack of information, they have come to a conclusion of materialism, then they are much more candidates for spiritual growth than superficial nominal spiritualists also. The point is, of course, that there are subtleties in this discrimination.

But the broad point is that one who seeks happiness internally is a spiritualist, one who seeks happiness externally is a materialist. So, Krishna is telling that the Sita Prajna's characteristics is that the Sita Prajna seeks happiness internally and rejects happiness externally. So, Prajahati da kaman sarvanpartham nogatan.

It's interesting that what are rejected is not actions, but desires. Sarvan, all desires are rejected. Which kind of desires? Not all desires entirely, but desires which are born of the mind.

Nogatan. So, the mind is filled with conditionings, conditionings of lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion and these conditions make us act in various ways. So, these conditionings are actually the source of bondage.

They are the source of illusion and they need to be given up. So, we can act at the material level in this world and we may also have desires to do things in this world. Devotees have so many desires.

Srila Prabhupada had so many desires and those desires were not just in the spiritual world, those desires were for doing things in this material world and building temples, distributing books, sharing Krishna with people. So, it is all in the material world. So, those desires were being enacted at the material level, but they were not originating from the material mind.

They were not manogatan. They were spiritual desires, desires which were of the soul expressing its devotion to Krishna through material things, through achieving things in the material world. So, the self-realized soul doesn't reject everything material, but rejects desires for material things, rejects desires born from the mind that promise happiness at the material level.

Now, it said that normally we think that if we give up desire then what will be the happiness in our life. So, there is an assumption in this sort of argument that desires show the way to happiness. Oh, I desire to eat that particular object.

If I eat it then I will be happy. So, we think that desire shows the way to happiness. But the problem with this reasoning is that often we desire the undesirable.

We desire things that only cause us misery and thus actually we entangle ourselves. So, the way out of this entanglement is by recognizing that only desires will entangle in the world. Although they promise pleasure, they deliver entanglement and misery.

And that is why we need to go beyond such desires towards higher fulfillment. And the way to higher fulfillment is to go inwards. The enlightened person knows I am the soul and so seeks happiness internally.

Now, Krishna has not introduced himself till now. So, he's not talking about the soul seeking happiness in devotion to him. Krishna talks about ātmanya evātmanā tuṣṭaḥ.

So, the mind, the mind that's purified can find happiness in the self. So, the mind is filled with desires for outer pleasures. But when we reject those desires and gradually by that rejection the mind experiences purification.

When we keep saying no again and again to the mind's desires and then gradually the mind becomes silent of its external desires and the mind turns inward because it also needs pleasure. And as our consciousness becomes focused on the inner reality, we start experiencing happiness. Just the awareness that we are satchitananda ātmā that itself gives some pleasure, some fulfillment, some satisfaction.

Further, when we understand that I am a part of Krishna and loving and we start loving and serving Krishna, that gives the supreme satisfaction. So, the test of the self-realized person is rejection of desires born from the mind and satisfaction within the self and these characteristics are what we can aspire for also. In one sense, what is the perfection is also the aspiration of the seeker of perfection.

So, if a particular batsman bats in a particular way and that batsman is a champion, another batsman will also try to bat in that way so that they can emulate. Similarly, within any field a particular speaker speaks in a particular way, the others try to learn from that. Now, they may not exactly imitate the speaker, but they learn the principles and apply them.

So, similarly, what is the perfection of the enlightened person, we can make that our aspiration. That we turn away, we reject the mind's schemes and dreams for pleasure in external things, we reject those kāmān, manogatān and we seek happiness within, we find out what are the things connected with Krishna, connected with our spiritual side that can give us fulfillment and we focus on them, we connect with them more and more and thereby we relish higher happiness and thus by steady practice of rejection of external pleasure and seeking satisfaction in the soul, we can also gradually but certainly progress towards this perfection of self-realization.