Pragmatic Gita
Understanding Sthitaprajna Lakshanani: Symptoms of the one with steady wisdom
Embark on a journey of spiritual evolution with this in-depth exploration of Sthitaprajna Lakshanani, as taught by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. This state of steady wisdom is the cornerstone of self-realization and liberation. Learn how Krishna answers Arjuna’s questions by illustrating the traits of a Sthitaprajna, including the ability to remain undisturbed in sorrow and detached from pleasures.
Drawing upon teachings from Adi Shankaracharya’s Vivekachudamani and stories from the Chandogya Upanishad, this narrative highlights the significance of controlling turbulent senses. Krishna emphasizes that desires, when indulged, grow stronger, much like adding fuel to a fire. Instead, he encourages withdrawal from distractions and aligning with divine will through Bhakti Yoga.
Practical steps include substituting cravings with thoughts of God and engaging in devotional activities like chanting, puja, or singing bhajans. Analogies such as the tortoise withdrawing its limbs and the deer chasing a mirage serve as powerful lessons on avoiding the illusions of maya.
Krishna’s teachings remain ever-relevant, offering guidance for transcending material desires, achieving inner peace, and progressing toward ultimate liberation. Embrace this journey with constant remembrance of the Lord and chanting His holy name.
If you have not already done so, I would request you to review the Chapter 1, Arjuna Vishada Yoga before studying chapter 2 as that would help set the right context.
You can find the explanation of shlokas 51 to 54 here. Please go through that to get better understanding of the context.
You can also listen to all the episodes through my Spotify Portal, Apple Podcast, and on YouTube as well.
Keywords: Sthitaprajna Lakshanani, Symptoms of a Stithaprajna, Stithaprajna – a person with steady wisdom, Transcendental consciousness, Inner contentment, Sense withdrawal techniques, Symptoms of a Stithaprajna in daily life, Stithaprajna a person with steady wisdom meaning, Controlling turbulent senses Bhagavad Gita, Tortoise analogy for sense control, What are the Sthitaprajna Lakshanani, How does a Stithaprajna walk and talk, Why is sense control difficult
Verse 2.55 – 2.60
श्रीभगवानुवाच |
प्रजहाति यदा कामान्सर्वान्पार्थ मनोगतान् |
आत्मन्येवात्मना तुष्ट: स्थितप्रज्ञस्तदोच्यते || 55||
śhrī bhagavān uvācha
prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān pārtha mano-gatān
ātmany-evātmanā tuṣhṭaḥ sthita-prajñas tadochyate
श्रीभगवानुवाच (śrībhagavānuvāca) – Shri Bhagwan said; प्रजहाति (prajahāti) – discards; यदा (yadā) – when; कामान् (kāmān) – desires; सर्वान् (sarvān) – all; पार्थ (pārtha) – Arjuna; मनोगतान् (manogatān) – arising in the mind; आत्मन्येव (ātmanyeva) – in the self alone; आत्मना (ātmanā) – by the self; तुष्ट: (tuṣṭaḥ) – satisfied; स्थितप्रज्ञस्तदोच्यते (sthita-prajñastadochyate) – of steady wisdom is said.
Shri Bhagwan said, “O Partha, when one discards all desires arising in the mind, Arjuna, and remains satisfied by the realization of the self by the self, that person is said to be of steady wisdom (sthita-prajna).”
दु:खेष्वनुद्विग्नमना: सुखेषु विगतस्पृह: |
वीतरागभयक्रोध: स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते || 56||
duḥkheṣhv-anudvigna-manāḥ sukheṣhu vigata-spṛihaḥ
vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ sthita-dhīr munir uchyate
दु:खेष्वनुद्विग्नमना: (duḥkheṣvanudvignamanāḥ) – undisturbed in sorrows; सुखेषु (sukheṣu) – in happiness; विगतस्पृह: (vigataspr̥haḥ) – free from desire; वीतरागभयक्रोध: (vītarāgabhayakrodhaḥ) – devoid of attachment, fear, and anger; स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते (sthita-dhīr muniruchyate) – such a sage is called steadfast in wisdom.
One whose mind remains undisturbed amidst misery, who is free from desire for sensory pleasures, and who is free from attachment, fear, and anger, is called a sage of steady wisdom.
य: सर्वत्रानभिस्नेहस्तत्तत्प्राप्य शुभाशुभम् |
नाभिनन्दति न द्वेष्टि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता || 57||
yaḥ sarvatrānabhisnehas tat tat prāpya śhubhāśhubham
nābhinandati na dveṣhṭi tasya prajñā pratiṣhṭhitā
य: (yaḥ) – who; सर्वत्र (sarvatra) – everywhere; अनभिस्नेहस् (anabhisnehas) – without attachment; तत्तत् (tattat) – to that; प्राप्य (prāpya) – obtaining; शुभाशुभम् (śubhāśubham) – good and evil; नाभिनन्दति (nābhinandati) – does not rejoice; न (na) – nor; द्वेष्टि (dveṣṭi) – detests; तस्य (tasya) – his; प्रज्ञा (prajñā) – wisdom; प्रतिष्ठिता (pratiṣṭhitā) – is established.
Who is without attachment in all circumstances, regardless of whether they are good or bad, who neither rejoices the good nor detests the bad, his wisdom is steady.
यदा संहरते चायं कूर्मोऽङ्गानीव सर्वश: |
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता || 58||
yadā sanharate chāyaṁ kūrmo ’ṅgānīva sarvaśhaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas tasya prajñā pratiṣhṭhitā
यदा (yadā) – when संहरते (samharate) – withdraws च (ca) – and अयं (ayam) – this कूर्मो (kūrmo) – tortoise अङ्गानि (aṅgāni) – limbs इव (iva) – like सर्वशः (sarvaśaḥ) – completely इन्द्रियाणि (indriyāṇi) – senses इन्द्रियार्थेभ्यः (indriyārthebhyaḥ) – from sense objects तस्य (tasya) – their प्रज्ञा (prajñā) – wisdom प्रतिष्ठिता (pratiṣṭhitā) – is firmly established.
When one withdraws their senses completely from sense objects, like a tortoise withdraws its limbs, then their wisdom is firmly established.
विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिन: |
रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते || 59||
viṣhayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasa-varjaṁ raso ’pyasya paraṁ dṛiṣhṭvā nivartate
विषया (viṣayā) – sense objects विनिवर्तन्ते (vinivartante) – recede निराहारस्य (nirāhārasya) – of one who abstains from food देहिन: (dehinaḥ) – the embodied one रसवर्जं (rasavarjam) – devoid of taste रसः (rasaḥ) – taste अपि (api) – even अस्य (asya) – for them परं (param) – higher दृष्ट्वा (dṛṣṭvā) – having seen निवर्तते (nivartate) – ceases
Those who aspire to realize the Supreme may restrain their senses from objects of enjoyment, but the taste for those objects may persist. However, for those who have realized the Supreme, even this taste ceases.
यततो ह्यपि कौन्तेय पुरुषस्य विपश्चित: |
इन्द्रियाणि प्रमाथीनि हरन्ति प्रसभं मन: || 60||
yatato hyapi kaunteya puruṣhasya vipaśhchitaḥ
indriyāṇi pramāthīni haranti prasabhaṁ manaḥ
यततो (yatato) – striving हि (hi) – certainly अपि (api) – also कौन्तेय (kaunteya) – O son of Kunti पुरुषस्य (puruṣasya) – of a person विपश्चितः (vipaścitaḥ) – who is learned इन्द्रियाणि (indriyāṇi) – senses प्रमाथीनि (pramāthīni) – turbulent हरन्ति (haranti) – take away प्रसभं (prasabhaṁ) – forcefully मनः (manaḥ) – mind
O son of Kunti, even though a wise person may strive to control them, the turbulent senses can violently carry away their mind.
What Shri Krishna Actually Answers
Before we begin with 2.55, notice what Arjuna asked in 2.54. He asked how the person of steady wisdom speaks, how such a person remains, and how such a person moves through life. The questions sound outward, as though he wants to recognise a sthitaprajña by looking at one.
Shri Krishna turns the focus inward. He does not describe clothing, posture, personality, or mannerisms. He tells Arjuna what happens to desire, what happens when sorrow and pleasure come, and what happens when the senses meet their objects. A person may speak softly but still burn with resentment. Another may act firmly when dharma requires it and remain inwardly compassionate. Shri Krishna asks us to look deeper inside.
Desire Ends Where Deeper Fulfilment Begins
Shri Krishna begins with प्रजहाति यदा कामान् (prajahāti yadā kāmān), when one gives up desires.
The important word is प्रजहाति (prajahāti). It is stronger than merely delaying a desire. It means giving it up thoroughly. Shri Krishna is not describing a person who has managed a few weeks of self control. He is describing someone in whom the craving itself has finished, the way a child naturally loses interest for their toys when they grow up.
Then He adds सर्वान् पार्थ मनोगतान् (sarvān pārtha manogatān), all those desires that have entered the mind.
This is important. Desire is not only the object sitting outside us. The phone is outside. The promotion is outside. The praise is outside. But the sentence that says, “I must have this in order to be complete,” is inside. That is मनोगतान् (manogatān), lodged in the mind.
Shankaracharya describes it as desires that have entered into the heart. Not the small wishes that come and go in a day, but the sentences we have been repeating to ourselves for years without noticing.
I will be happy when they finally appreciate me.
I will be at peace when I get that position.
I cannot bear it if this particular thing is taken away from me.
That last one especially. Whenever we say we cannot bear it, we have found a mano-gata desire.
Now Shri Vishvanatha Chakravarti raises a beautiful point. How is it even possible to give up all desires? Because they belong to the mind, not to the soul. If desire were the very nature of the ātmā we could never be rid of it, just as fire can never give up its heat. But desire is a visitor, and a visitor can be asked to leave.
We have learned earlier that we cannot force the mind to not desire something. That never works. What works is substitution. And thus, Shri Krishna completes the statement with आत्मन्येवात्मना तुष्ट: (ātmany evātmanā tuṣṭaḥ), satisfied in the Self, by the Self.
तुष्टः (tuṣṭaḥ) means contented, delighted. Shankaracharya says such a person is indifferent to outward gain because he/she has been satiated by the nectar of the highest realisation. Everything else has become unnecessary, because now they are already full of this nectar.
This is a crucial distinction, and it is where many people misunderstand vairāgya. Someone who is deeply depressed will also say, I do not want anything. But that is emptiness, not fullness. In the sthitaprajña the craving has not been suppressed by sadness. Instead, it has been replaced by a quiet and serene contentment.
So we stop saying, I will be happy when. And we begin to say, I am already full, and whatever comes now is extra, not something that has to complete me. I am already complete.
How to apply this today
Before asking Bhagavan for anything today, sit quietly for two minutes and simply be grateful that He is always available to you and you can pray to Him whenever you want. Ask afterwards if you still wish to.
मृगतृष्णा (mṛga tṛṣṇā), the mirage and what is actually real
Why is the ordinary mind so restless? To show us, our teachers give us the picture of मृगतृष्णा (mṛga tṛṣṇā), which means the deer’s thirst, the mirage.
In a blazing desert the heat rises from the sand and bends the light, and far away there appears a shimmering sheet of blue water. A thirsty deer sees it and runs with all its strength. As it comes closer the water moves further away. The faster it runs, the further the water goes. Finally it collapses and dies without one drop, because there was never any water there at all.
Our lives often look exactly like this. I will be happy when I get that promotion. When I move to that city. When I find the right partner. Whenever we seem to get closer to any of these, we begin to realize that they were not what you thought they were. The partner isn’t really that perfect. The promotion isn’t really that empowering. The new job isn’t that fulfilling, etc.
So is anything real at all? Here the Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7 gives us one of the most beautiful conversations in all our scriptures, between Uddālaka and his son Śvetaketu.
Śvetaketu comes home after twelve years of study, quite pleased with himself. His father says gently, my child, have you asked your teacher for that instruction by which the unheard becomes heard and the unknown becomes known?
No, says Śvetaketu. What is that?
So Uddālaka teaches him with a small experiment in the courtyard.
Bring me a fruit from that nyagrodha tree, the banyan. Śvetaketu brings it. Break it. He breaks it. What do you see? Very small seeds. Break one of them. He breaks one. What do you see now? Nothing at all, father.
And Uddālaka says, my child, that subtle essence which you cannot see, from that very essence this great banyan tree has grown. That is the Self of all this. That is the truth.
तत्त्वमसि श्वेतकेतो ।
tat tvam asi śvetaketo
That thou art, O Śvetaketu.
Śvetaketu is still curious. Explain it further, father.
So Uddālaka says, get me a bowl of water. Now, put this lump of salt into the water and come to me in the morning. The boy does so.
In the morning the father says, bring me the salt you put in last night. Śvetaketu looks. There is nothing to bring. The salt has completely dissolved.
Taste the water from the top of the vessel. It is salty. From the middle. Salty. From the bottom. Salty. Throw it away and come and sit with me.
And Uddālaka says, you could not see the salt, but it was there in every part of the water. In just the same way, my child, you cannot see That here, but It is here. That subtle essence is the truth of all that exists.
दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः (duḥkheṣva anudvigna-manāḥ), the weather inside
Now, in 2.56, Shri Krishna tells us what such a person feels inside.
दु:खेष्व अनुद्विग्न मना: (duḥkheṣva anudvigna-manāḥ), which means one whose mind is not agitated in sorrows.
Please notice the exact word. उद्वेग (udvega) means agitation, being thrown up and out of oneself. अनुद्विग्न (anudvigna) is the absence of that agitation. It is not the absence of feeling.
This is where so many people misunderstand the teachings. They think the sthitaprajna is like a stone. Shri Krishna does not say the sthitaprajña feels no sorrow. He says sorrow does not agitate them or take away their inner peace. It touches them but does not disturb them. The waves ripple on the surface of a deep lake, and in the depths the water is still. And remember who is being taught. Arjuna is speaking out of real grief, and Shri Krishna corrects his confusion without asking him to stop feeling.
Then comes सुखेषु विगतस्पृह: (sukheṣu vigata-spṛhaḥ), one from whom the longing for pleasures has gone. स्पृहा (spṛhā) is that leaning forward of the mind towards a pleasure.
They are perfectly able to enjoy it without clinging to it. He enjoys what comes, and calmly lets it go when it goes.
And then वीतरागभयक्रोध: (vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ), one from whom attachment, fear and anger have departed. These three always come together because they are close friends. Where there is rāga, there must be fear of losing what we are attached to, and anger at whoever threatens it. Pull out the first and the other two have nothing to stand on.
Such a person he calls a मुनि (muni), which Shankaracharya describes as one whose nature is manana, deep and continuous reflection. A person whose mind is thinking about the truth rather than chattering about everything else. The silence is a result, not the practice.
And in the very next verse Shri Krishna goes further. य: सर्वत्र अनभिस्नेह: (yaḥ sarvatra anabhisnehaḥ), which means one who is without clinging affection everywhere. Then न अभिनन्दति न द्वेष्टि (na ābhinandati na dveṣṭi), which means, on getting this or that, pleasant or unpleasant, he neither celebrates nor sulks.
Now स्नेह (sneha) literally means oiliness, stickiness, and अनभिस्नेह (anabhisneha) is the absence of it. Here we must be careful, because this can easily be heard as, do not love your family. That is not what he means, and we can prove it from the Gita itself. In the twelfth chapter he describes his dearest devotee as मैत्र: करुण एव च (maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca), friendly and full of compassion. What goes is not compassion or love. What goes is the sticky dependence, the love that says, I need you to behave in a certain way otherwise I cannot feel happy. Take the stickiness out and what remains is warmer, purer love because it is no longer bound by dependence or expectations.
Pause and reflect
In my closest relationship, how much is love and how much is clinging and the fear of losing?
कूर्मोऽङ्गानीव (kūrmo ‘ṅgānīva), the tortoise and the chariot
So how do we protect this steadiness in ordinary life? Now Shri Krishna gives us a picture.
यदा संहरते चायं कूर्मोऽङ्गानीव सर्वश: (yadā saṃharate cāyaṃ kūrmo ‘ṅgānīva sarvaśaḥ), which means, when he withdraws them fully from every side, as a tortoise draws in its limbs.
The tortoise draws its limbs in when there is danger, and after the danger has passed it puts them out again and continues on its way.
Just think about that. It is not permanently shut. It does not hate its own legs. It can close and it can open, and it is the tortoise who decides which. This is प्रत्याहार (pratyāhāra), which Patanjali defines in Yoga Sutra 2.54 and 2.55. Pratyāhāra does not mean becoming dull or shutting the world out. It means we choose when to open and when to close.
Now look where Arjuna is standing while he hears this. He is in a chariot. The horses are in front of him. Someone is holding the reins.
And who is holding them? Shri Krishna himself. The Lord of the universe has taken the seat of the sārathi for his friend. When Arjuna could not hold his own reins, Bhagavan took hold of them.
There is the whole teaching in one picture. The buddhi is meant to drive. When the buddhi is weak, the horses take the chariot wherever they like. We cannot try to control the horses directly without using the reins. That would be foolish as the horses are way stronger than us. And when we are not able to hold the reins ourselves, Shri Krishna will hold it for us. We just need to put our pride aside and surrender.
Pause and reflect
Who is driving my chariot most of the day? The buddhi, or the senses, desires and attachments (horses)?
How to apply this today
Pick one sense and one moment. No screen for the first ten minutes after waking. Draw the limb in, and put it out again afterwards without guilt.
रसवर्जं (rasa-varjam), the taste that stays behind
But there is a real difficulty here, and Shri Krishna names it in 2.59.
विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिन: (viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ), which means, for the embodied one who abstains, the objects turn away. And then, रसवर्जं (rasa-varjam), which means, with the exception of the taste.
रस (rasa) means taste and here it means craving. It is not the object. It is our craving for it, and it stays behind long after the object is gone. Even a foolish person doing painful austerity can keep the objects away, he says. Even a sick man does not eat many types of food. That proves nothing, because the craving still remains.
Then he gives the solution in two words. परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते (paraṃ dṛṣṭvā nivartate), having seen the Supreme, even this turns away. परम् (param) is Brahman, and only with the realization of that Brahman does the seed of craving get destroyed.
The craving goes when one sees that the Self is superior to the sense objects and gives true happiness. Greater happiness. That is the whole thing. You are not being asked to give up all pleasures. You are asked to replace the craving for temporary, inferior pleasures and instead replace it with a craving for that absolute Brahman which will give everlasting bliss and joy.
And since we are speaking of taste, listen to what the Taittirīya Upaniṣad says about the Lord himself.
रसो वै सः । रसं ह्येवायं लब्ध्वाऽऽनन्दी भवति ॥ २.७.१ ॥
raso vai saḥ | rasaṃ hyevāyaṃ labdhvā”nandī bhavati
He is verily Rasa itself. Having obtained this Rasa, one becomes blissful.
Do you see what this does to the whole verse? The problem was never that we have a taste. The problem is that we have been trying to taste shadows. He himself is the Rasa. The essence of and the power behind taste itself.
And here is a living example. Shri Yamunacharya, the paramaguru of Shri Ramanujacharya, was a king before he became a sannyasi and had known every pleasure a king can know. He says that ever since his mind became engaged at the lotus feet of Shri Krishna, the abode of ever new and ever fresh rasa, the pleasures he once ran after hold no charm at all, and he turns away his face at the very thought of them. That is परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते (paraṃ dṛṣṭvā nivartate) in a human life. Not a man clenching his teeth against temptation. A man who has tasted something better and has no appetite for inferior tastes.
Now the other mistake. Many people think, let me fulfill this desire and then the desire will go away. King Yayati, who tried exactly that and took his own son’s youth in order to keep enjoying, gives us the answer in the Bhāgavatam.
न जातु कामः कामानामुपभोगेन शाम्यति ।
हविषा कृष्णवर्त्मेव भूय एवाभिवर्धते ॥ ९.१९.१४ ॥
na jātu kāmaḥ kāmānām upabhogena śāmyati
haviṣā kṛṣṇa-vartmeva bhūya evābhivardhate
Desire is never pacified by the enjoyment of the objects of desire. Like fire fed with ghee, it only grows more when you try to satisfy it.
कृष्णवर्त्म (kṛṣṇa-vartma) is a name for fire, the one whose track is black. Pour ghee on it and see whether it quietens down. Every addicted person knows this from inside. Just one last cigarette. Just one more peg of alcohol. Each last time makes the desire stronger.
And our teachers give us the practice by which that better taste actually grows. श्रवण (śravaṇa) is listening, hearing the teaching again and again. मनन (manana) is reflecting on it until our own doubts are answered and it becomes ours rather than borrowed. निदिध्यासन (nididhyāsana) is dwelling on it until it is no longer something we know but something we are.
Pause and reflect
What have I given up by force that I still secretly crave for?
How to apply this today
Do not only remove something today. Replace it. If you close a shopping page, open a verse. If you skip a tv serial, listen to one bhajan. Put something in the empty place.
If you remove onion from your food, replace it with cabbage. 😄
इन्द्रियाणि प्रमाथीनि (indriyāṇi pramāthīni), the honest warning and the refuge
And then, in 2.60, Shri Krishna says something many teachers would have left out.
यततो ह्यपि कौन्तेय पुरुषस्य विपश्चित: (yatato hyapi kaunteya puruṣasya vipaścitaḥ), O son of Kunti, even of a person who is striving and who is wise. विपश्चित् (vipaścit) means one endowed with discrimination, a person who genuinely knows better. So he is not talking about the careless person. He is talking about someone like us, someone who is trying.
इन्द्रियाणि प्रमाथीनि हरन्ति प्रसभं मन: (indriyāṇi pramāthīni haranti prasabhaṃ manaḥ), which means the turbulent senses forcibly carry away the mind. प्रमाथीनि (pramāthīni) comes from a root meaning to churn, to agitate. And प्रसभम् (prasabham) means by force. The senses do not politely request. They forcefully take control.
He is not trying to frighten us. He wants us to take the senses seriously, the way a sailor takes the sea seriously.
And our scriptures are honest about this in a way that is very comforting. Let me tell you about Saubhari Muni, from the ninth canto of the Bhāgavatam.
Saubhari was a great yogi, doing his austerities submerged deep in the water of the Yamunā, and he had been at it a very long time. One day, sitting there under the water, he saw a pair of fish mating.
That is all. One glance. One sense impression.
And from that, desire awoke in him. He came out of the water and asked King Māndhātā for one of his daughters in marriage. The king had fifty daughters, and looking at this old sage he answered very diplomatically, saying that whichever daughter voluntarily chooses you may marry you. He was quite sure none would. Saubhari understood exactly what the king had done. So he used the yogic power he had earned through all those years and made himself into an extraordinarily handsome and strong young man. And all fifty princesses chose to marry him.
Now watch what happens next. Palaces, gardens fragrant with flowers, lakes of clear water, singers and servants, ornaments and garlands and every kind of delicious food. Māndhātā himself, emperor of the whole earth, came to visit and was so struck by his son in law’s opulence that he gave up his own pride in being emperor. And in each of those fifty wives Saubhari had a hundred sons.
And after all of it, he was still not satisfied. Only then did he see it clearly, that this whole mountain of enjoyment had grown out of one glance at two fish. He left it, took to vānaprastha, and gave himself again to austerity and to the Supreme Lord. And his wives, who had followed him into all that opulence, followed him out of it as well.
Please listen to this carefully. The lesson is not that marriage is a problem or that family life is spiritually inferior. Gṛhastha is a sacred āśrama and the Gita never says otherwise. Saubhari’s mistake was the mistake of 2.59. He believed a desire awakened by sense contact could be satisfied by trying to fulfill that desire. And the craving was still there in spite of his attempts to fulfill the desire as grandly as possible.
And if a sage of that stature could be carried away, what business do we have to sit in judgement over ourselves when we lose a small battle? There is no need for guilt. There is only the need to get up and continue. Spiritual evolution is not a hundred metre sprint. It is a long marathon, and what matters is that we keep running.
Adi Shankaracharya has put our situation very sharply in the Vivekachudamani.
शब्दादिभिः पञ्चभिरेव पञ्च पञ्चत्वमापुः स्वगुणेन बद्धाः ।
कुरङ्गमातङ्गपतङ्गमीनभृङ्गा नरः पञ्चभिरञ्चितः किम् ॥ ७६ ॥
śabdādibhiḥ pañcabhir eva pañca pañcatvam āpuḥ svaguṇena baddhāḥ
kuraṅga-mātaṅga-pataṅga-mīna-bhṛṅgā naraḥ pañcabhir añcitaḥ kim
The deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish and the black bee, these five have met their death, each bound by one of the five, beginning with sound. What then of a man who is bound by all five?
कुरङ्ग (kuraṅga), the deer, through sound. The hunter plays a sweet melody, the deer stands still listening, and the arrow finds it. मातङ्ग (mātaṅga), the elephant, through touch. A tame female is sent to the wild male, and he is so lost in that contact that he does not resist when the chains go on. पतङ्ग (pataṅga), the moth, through sight. Light one lamp and it flies into the flame. मीन (mīna), the fish, through taste. A little bait on a hook is enough. भृङ्ग (bhṛṅga), the black bee, through smell. It enters the flower for the fragrance, the petals close at dusk, and the bee that could bore through hard wood does not chew its way out, because it does not want to damage the flower it loves.
One weakness in one sense costs each of them its life. And here we are, with all five wide open, all day long.
Remember, do not only fight the senses. Give them a higher occupation. Let the eyes see his form, the ears hear nāma and kīrtana, the hands serve. When the mind wants something to hold, give it his name. And our acharyas have given us the simplest form of that refuge, which Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu quoted very often.
हरेर्नाम हरेर्नाम हरेर्नामैव केवलम् ।
कलौ नास्त्येव नास्त्येव नास्त्येव गतिरन्यथा ॥
harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
The name of Hari, the name of Hari, the name of Hari alone. In this age of Kali there is no other way, no other way, no other way.
How to apply this today
Choose one round of japa, or even one minute of the name, at the exact time of day when you are usually weakest. Not when you are calm. When you are weakest.
The One who asks us to master the mind is also the One to whom the mind can be given.
That is the journey from mṛga tṛṣṇā to sthitaprajña. From Arjuna’s trembling hands to Shri Krishna’s steady smile. Because steady wisdom is about becoming more available to Him.
You can find the explanation for the next set of shlokas, 61 to 66 here:
kṛṣṇadaasa
Servant of Krishna