Bhagavad Gita 6.7 · Krishna
Steady through praise and blame
जितात्मनः प्रशान्तस्य परमात्मा समाहितः।
शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु तथा मानापमानयोः॥
jitātmanaḥ praśāntasya paramātmā samāhitaḥśītoṣṇasukhaduḥkheṣu tathā mānāpamānayoḥ
For one who has mastered the self and found peace, the highest Self stays steady in cold and heat, joy and pain, honour and insult.
Words
- ātman
What it means
Krishna lists life's pairs of opposites. Cold and heat. Pleasure and pain. Praise and blame. A person at peace still feels them all. But the deepest Self, the atman within, is not knocked over by them. The surface weather changes. Something underneath stays still.
The story
Arjuna has known both extremes. He was cheered in the tournament hall, then lived years in exile, disguised as a dance teacher in a king's palace. Honour and humiliation came and went. Krishna asks him to rest in what never changed.
In your life
Ava's post gets forty warm comments and one cruel one. She has read the cruel one ten times. Today she closes the app after one read, and goes back to her work, unshaken.
Let the weather pass. Stay rooted.