BG Chapter 2 Verse 57

Srimad Bhagavad Gita Chapter two verse57

य: सर्वत्रानभिस्नेहस्तत्तत्प्राप्य शुभाशुभम् |

नाभिनन्दति न द्वेष्टि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता || 57||

yaḥ sarvatrānabhisnehas tat tat prāpya śhubhāśhubham

nābhinandati na dveṣhṭi tasya prajñā pratiṣhṭhitā

One who remains unattached under all conditions, and is neither delighted by good fortune nor dejected by tribulation, he is a sage with perfect knowledge.

Commentary

Rudyard Kipling, a famous British poet, has captured the essence of this verse on  Sage of steady intelligence in his famous poem

 “If.” Here are a few lines from the poem:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same…

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

See the acceptance of this couplet indicates the usual urge in people to grasp the state of enlightenment, which The Supreme Lord defines to Arjuna. 

One may marvel how an English poet uttered the same state of enlightenment that is narrated by the Supreme Lord. 

The proclamation is that the craving for enlightenment is the inherent nature of the soul. 

Hence, perceptively or unknowingly, everyone craves for it, in all cultures around the world. 

The Supreme Lord is defining it here, in answer to Arjuna’s question.

One saint stated in context to same verse (Swami Mukundananda)

A man should never despise himself, for dazzling success never attends on the man who is condemned by himself.

See Sugar and sand may be mixed together, but the ant rejects the sand and carries away the grains of sugar. 

So the holy Paramahamsas and pious men successfully sift the good from the bad.

The water of a rapid stream moves round and round in eddies and whirlpools in some places; but, passing these, it resumes again a straight and swift course.

 So the heart of the devotee is caught every now and then in the whirlpool of despondency, grief and unbelief; but this is only a momentary aberration and does not last long.

The truly religious man or woman she or he who does not commit any sin even, when he is alone, and when no man observes him, because he feels that God sees him even then.

 He, who finds a bag full of gold in a lonely and uninhabited house, and resists the temptation of appropriating it, he is a truly religious man. But he, who practices religion for the sake of show, through fear of public opinion, cannot be called truly religious. 

The religion of silence and secrecy is the true religion, but it is all sham and mockery when attended with vaunting and vanity.