SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
na prahrushyEth priyam prApya nOdhvijEth prApya chApriyam |
sthirabudhdhir asammUdO brahmavith brahmaNi sthitha: ||
word-by-word meaning
sthira budhdhi: – focussed on the eternal AthmA
asammUda: – not deluded thinking the temporary body as AthmA
brahmavith – (through instructions from preceptors) knowing about the pure AthmA which is known as brahmam
brahmaNi sthitha: – fully focussed on such brahmam
priyam prApya – while attaining his dear (materialistic) objects
na prahrushyEth – does not rejoice
apriyam prApya cha – while attaining his unfavourable (materialistic) objects
na udhvijEth – does not fear.
Simple Translation
The one who is focussed on the eternal AthmA, who is not deluded thinking the temporary body as AthmA, (through instructions from preceptors) knowing about the pure AthmA which is known as brahmam will be fully focussed on such brahmam. Such person does not rejoice while attaining his dear (materialistic) objects and does not fear while attaining his unfavourable (materialistic) objects.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘He shall not exult, attaining the ‘agreeable,’ nor grieve, encountering the ‘disagreeable’. The steady-willed, undeluded, brahma-knower, remains in brahma itself.’
‘Agreeable’ and ‘disagreeable’ things happen according to the body in which one may dwell, and according to the past karma-instincts. (These are accidents of embodied existence).
He who would scale the heights of wisdom, shall not evince joy or sorrow, when the ‘agreeables (priyam) or the ‘disagreeables’ (apriyam) may happen, (respectively).
How is this possible? It is, if he is: sthira-buddhiḥ= steady-willed, or he who plants his will in the stable (sthira) ātma. If he is: a-sammūdhah. I.e, moha is the delusion or the confounding the stable ātma with the unstable body. Asammūdhaḥ is he who is free from such delusion. How is he to be this? If he is brahma-learned (brahma-vit) and brahma-stationed (brahmaṇi sthitaḥ). That is, by learning or knowing what brahma (ātma) is, from instruction, and to remain steadily practicing in brahma (i.e., constant spiritual culture).
The tenor of the verse is this:—
From instruction received from truth-seers (i.e., spiritual preceptors), one shall learn the exact nature of ātma (brahma-vit). He shall then practice the same. He shall then abjure the ātma-love which he places in the body, and employ himself in blissful contemplation of the would-be eternal ātma-intercourse. And then he shall neither rejoice over ‘agreeables’ nor tremble against ‘disagreeables’.
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