इहैव तैर्जित: सर्गो येषां साम्ये स्थितं मन: ।
निर्दोषं हि समं ब्रह्म तस्माद्ब्रह्मणि ते स्थिता: ॥ १९ ॥
ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣhāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ
nirdoṣhaṁ hi samaṁ brahma tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ
श्लोक १९: जिन मनुष्यों का मन समता में स्थित है, वे इसी जीवन में जन्म व मृत्यु के चक्र पर विजय प्राप्त कर लेते हैं। वे ब्रह्म जैसे दोष- रहित बन जाते हैं। और इस प्रकार ब्रह्म में स्थित रहते हैं।
Shloka 19: Those whose minds are established in equanimity, conquer the cycle of birth and death in this life itself. They are flawless like Brahman, and thus they are indeed established in Brahman.
In Bhagavad Gita verse 5.19, Lord Krishna reveals a profound spiritual truth: those whose minds are established in equanimity have already conquered the cycle of birth and death in this very lifetime. The Sanskrit verse "ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ" directly translates to this powerful concept - that liberation is possible while still living in this material world.
The verse builds upon the previous teaching about equal vision (samdarshina) and expands on how this equanimity leads to liberation. Krishna explains that when a person's mind is firmly established in sameness (sāmye), seeing beyond the dualities of pleasure and pain, they transcend the ordinary constraints of material existence. This is not a post-death achievement but a present reality - "ihaiva" meaning "in this very life".
Krishna further describes such individuals as flawless like Brahman - "nirdoṣaṁ hi samaṁ brahma." This flawlessness doesn't imply moral perfection but rather indicates that they've transcended the influence of the three modes of material nature. Just as Brahman, the Supreme Reality, remains untouched by material qualities, so too does the consciousness of one established in equanimity remain pure and unaffected by worldly circumstances.
Consider how most people experience life - constantly pulled between elation and depression, success and failure, praise and criticism. Their happiness depends entirely on external events. But the person Krishna describes has developed a different relationship with reality. When praised, they don't become inflated with pride; when criticized, they don't sink into despair. Their inner peace remains steady because they recognize that these dualities belong to the material realm, not to their eternal spiritual essence.
This equanimity isn't about becoming emotionally dead or indifferent. Rather, it's about recognizing the transient nature of all material phenomena while staying connected to the unchanging reality beneath. Such a person still engages fully with life but is no longer enslaved by its ups and downs. They've recognized that both pleasure and pain are temporary visitors, neither defining their true identity nor affecting their inner peace.
The final part of the verse - "tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ" - concludes that such people are already established in Brahman, the absolute spiritual reality. This isn't merely a philosophical understanding but a lived experience. By conquering the dualities of material existence through equanimity, they experience the liberation that others might think only comes after death. They live in the world but are not bound by its limitations.
This verse offers a remarkable promise - that freedom from the cycle of birth and death isn't just a future possibility but can be realized here and now through the cultivation of equanimity. When we train ourselves to remain steady amid life's inevitable fluctuations, seeing beyond surface differences to the underlying spiritual unity, we begin to taste this liberation. We start living from our true nature rather than from our conditioned reactions to external circumstances, experiencing a freedom that transcends the ordinary boundaries of material existence.
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