Equanimity : Its End Result
What do we achieve by remaining equanimous? The Lord comforts us in the following words assuring His grace to those who listen to His nectar-like counsel.
yam hi na vyathayantyete purusham purusharshabha
samaduhkha sukham dheeram so’mritatwaaya kalpate ||(2.15)
The man who is not troubled by these (pairs of opposites) who is even-minded in pleasure and pain, who is of serene mind, he makes himself fit for immortality, O Arjuna.
An even-minded person becomes free from the shackles of birth and death.
aapooryamaanam achalapratishtham
samudram aapah pravishanti yadwat
tadwat kaamaa yam pravishanti sarve
sa shaantim aapnoti na kaamakaami ||(2.70)
Just as river waters enter the full ocean without creating any disorder, one attains peace, within whose mind all desires dissipate without creating any mental distractions and modifications. The idea is that one who always turns his mental antenna towards sense objects can never be at peace with himself.
yadricchaalaabhasantushto dwandwaateeto vimatsarah
samah siddhaavasiddhau cha kritwaapi na nibadhyate ||(4.22)
Satisfied with whatever comes unasked, who is unaffected by pairs of opposites and free from envy, even-minded in success and failure is not bound (by work).
yajjnaatwaa na punarmoham evam yaasyasi paandava
yena bhootaanyasheshena drakshyasyaatmanyatho mayi ||(4.35)
After knowing this transcendental knowledge, O Arjuna, you shall not again become deluded like this. With this knowledge you shall see the entire creation within your own higher Self, and thus within Me.
ihaiva tairjitah sargo yeshaam saamye sthitam manah
nirdosham hi samam brahma tasmaad brahmani te sthitaah ||(5.19)
Everything is accomplished in this very life by the one whose mind sees equality in all. Such a person has realized the Supreme Being, because the Supreme Being is flawless and impartial. Therefore, be established in the Supreme Being.
yo maam pashyati sarvatra sarvam cha mayi pashyati
tasyaaham na pranashyaami sa cha me na pranashyati ||(6.30)
Those who perceive Me in everything, and behold everything in Me, are not separated from Me, and I am not separated from them.
ye twaksharamanirdeshyamavyaktam paryupasate
sarvatragamachintyam cha kootasthamachalam dhruvam ||(12.03)
samniyamyendriyagraamam sarvatra samabuddhaya
te praapnuvanti maameva sarvabhootahite rataah ||(12.04)
But those who worship the unchangeable, the inexplicable, the invisible, the omnipresent, the inconceivable, the unchanging, the immovable, and the formless impersonal aspect of God, restraining all the senses, even-minded under all circumstances, engaged in the welfare of all creatures, also attain Me.
sarvabhooteshu yenaikam bhaavamavyayameekshate
avibhaktam vibhakteshu tajjnaanam viddhi saatwikam ||(18.20)
Such knowledge is Saatvik by which one sees a single immutable Reality in all beings as undivided in the divided.
The notion that all living beings can be classified into ‘I’, ‘You’, ‘This’ and ‘That’ is a mere illusion. It is a divided or fractured view of the world. There is no reality in such a perception because such objects of vision are ever changing, divisible and perishable. But they get their seeming existence only due to the Illuminator who is the Supreme God. This kind of Saatvik knowledge enables us to get a proper focus on life situations.
asaktabuddhih sarvatra jitaatmaa vigatasprihah
naishkarmyasiddhim paramaam sannyaasenaadhigacchati ||(18.49)
The person whose mind is always free from selfish attachment, who has subdued his mind and senses, and who is free from desires, attains the Supreme state of freedom from the bondage of actions by renouncing attachment to the fruits of work.
Such a person, whose intellect is unattached, senses subdued and from whom desires are nowhere to be found attains the Supreme state of God-Realization or Moksha or Liberation from the burden of transmigration.