The Right Balance

P D SHASTRI





The Bhagwad Gita emphasises the importance of serenity even in the thick of action. Krishna discusses the characteristics of the stithaprajna, the person of stable temper, the epitome of human virtue. Arjuna asks Krishna how a stithaprajna conducts himself; he is told that such a person's conversation is joy to the ears; that he speaks the truth yet does not hurt anyone's feelings; that he does not bring an illusory pleasure through flattery .The stithaprajna is stable: he is not prey to random gusts of passion but sticks to righteous behaviour, having overcome all desires. At the same time, he does not surrender himself to inertia or inactivity but throws himself into action; he is not driven by the psychological burden of the goal, but rather by the imperative of effort.
Since he is nishkama, without desire, he is neither shattered by failure nor elated by success. To him, victory and defeat, pleasure and pain, honour and dishonour, friend and enemy are all alike -he judges himself, not by the fickle opinions of others, but by whether or not he has fulfilled his dharma, the ethical path that he has laid down for himself.
To strain every nerve in the cause of right effort, but never to be attached to its fruit, is the Gita's preferred way for there is no happiness for one whose mind is disturbed by fears, anxieties and tensions. The stithaprajna, having rid his mind of blind craving, is no slave of passion. The Gita says that happiness runs away from one who desires it; happiness runs after him, who wants nothing.