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The Bhagavad Gita1408
of mind, blessed with spiritual knowledge, and fixed in contemplation, is
worthy of the name of Sage. How sitteth, moveth, or acteth he? How may
he be known to ordinary men?”
Krishna: “Know, O Prince, that when a man freeth himself from the
bonds of the desires of his heart, and findeth satisfaction in the Real Self
within himself—such a one has attained Spiritual Consciousness. His mind is
disturbed neither by adversity nor by prosperity; accepting both, he is tied
to neither. Anger, fear and worry have been cast off by him as discarded
garments. He is worthy of the name of Sage.
“Such a man meets the charges and events of life, be they favorable or
unfavorable, with equanimity—likes and dislikes being foreign to him, for he
is no longer bound by attachments, or things.
“When a man hath attained true spiritual knowledge, he becometh like
unto the tortoise which is able to draw within its shell its limbs, for such
a man may withdraw his faculties of sense-impression from the objects of
sense, and shelter them from the illusions of the sense-world, well protected
by the armor of the Spirit.
“It is true that there are those who are able to refrain from gratification
of the senses, but the desire for gratification still disturbs. But he who has
found the Real Self within and who knoweth what he hath found—even
Desire fadeth away from such a one, and temptation is temptation no more,
but becomes even as a shadow which hath been effaced by the glare of the
noon-sun overhead.
“The abstainer is oft carried away by a sudden rush of tumultuous desire,
which sweeps away his resolutions—but he who knoweth the Real Self to
be the only Reality is master of himself, his desires and his senses. Wrapt in
contemplation of the Real, the unreal, exists not for him.
“The man who allows his mind to dwell closely on the objects of sense,
becomes so wrapped up in the object of his contemplation that he creates
an attachment which binds him to them. From this attachment ariseth Desire;
from Desire springeth Passion; from Passion come Folly and Recklessness;