Chapter 13 Shloka 9

असक्तिरनभिष्वङ्ग: पुत्रदारगृहादिषु।

नित्यं च समचित्तत्वमिष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु।।९।।

Be not attached to nor claim any rights

over son, wife, home, wealth etc.

Maintain your equanimity in the face of

all circumstances, pleasant or unpleasant.

Chapter 13 Shloka 9

असक्तिरनभिष्वङ्ग: पुत्रदारगृहादिषु।

नित्यं च समचित्तत्वमिष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु।।९।।

Lord Krishna says:

Be not attached to nor claim any rights over son, wife, home, wealth etc. Maintain your equanimity in the face of all circumstances, pleasant or unpleasant.

Listen, the Lord says, “Be dispassionate and free of feelings of ‘me and mine’!”

Anasakt (अनासक्त)

In other words, be devoid of attachment, and do not be influenced by anything.

Anabhishvang (अनभिष्वङ्ग)

Do not endeavour to influence or bind others. Excessive attachment and affection are not good. Do not try to fetter others with your own opinions and concepts – grant them freedom. Do not cut others’ wings – let them be free of you. They too, are human beings:

a) Do not endeavour to suppress them.

b) Respect their likes and dislikes.

c) Respect their aspirations.

The goal of their lives may be different from your own. Their purpose in life could differ from yours. Their intellectual convictions may be different from your own. Therefore the Lord says, “Become anabhishvang.”

Otherwise, your influence may have a negative effect:

1. Hatred will rise up in the place of love.

2. Enmity will thrive instead of friendship.

3. Separation will occur instead of support.

4. Negation will take the place of assent.

5. Hard-heartedness will emerge instead of humility.

In other words, attachment will cause qualities to erupt in your family, which are opposed to the ones you were striving for.

Sam chit (समचित्त) – Equanimity

The Lord says, ‘Remain equipoised whatever the situation, good or bad. Learn to maintain your equanimity in all circumstances, no matter if you receive:

a) shreya or preya;

b) congenial or uncongenial;

c) honour or dishonour;

d) what you desire or that which is undesirable;

e) the auspicious or the inauspicious;

f) what you cherish or what is unpalatable for you;

g) that which is good for you or that which is injurious for you.

Just learn to smile at whatever you get in the world.

1. Do not try to attract anyone.

2. Do not try to repel others.

3. Do not endeavour to defeat others.

4. Do not try to influence anyone.

5. Do not hurt or injure anybody, and do not make undue efforts to preserve and protect that which you like.

All that happens should be acceptable to you. Do not bind others. Let everyone be free.

Remember, you are a spiritual aspirant.

a) You are making all efforts to fix your mind on the Lord.

b) You are trying to relinquish your attachment with the mind.

c) You are proceeding towards offering your mind to the Lord.

d) You are about to offer your body in the Lord’s service.

e) You are endeavouring to lay your intellect at the Lord’s feet.

Then of what consequence are the terms ‘favourable’ and ‘unfavourable’? If you have given your body to the Lord, then the Lord is the recipient of all that befalls you, good or bad. Renounce all claims on your body.

The importance of practising divine qualities

Why are divine qualities and the other qualities mentioned here so essential for the spiritual aspirant? Also, how can one know the kshetragya through the practice of these qualities?

Little one, it is the body idea of the individual which distances him from the Atma. When the individual becomes attached to the body, he sees everything through the perspective of his body. The body idea blinds the individual and moha springs forth. Gradually, the individual is so blinded that he perceives the untrue to be true and the truth as untrue. His attachment to the body is so phenomenal, that he can never imagine that he is different from it.

Thereafter, all he does:

a) is done for the establishment of the body;

b) is done for the entertainment of the mind;

c) is done for the establishment of the intellect.

In this blindness of the body idea he gathers many demonic traits which in turn bind him even more irrevocably to the body. Now he has to relinquish the anatma – the body, and merge in the Atma.

1. It is indeed difficult for one who has not lived even for a moment without the support of the ‘I’, to suddenly eradicate that ‘I’.

2. It is difficult for a person who has lived only for himself, life after life, to suddenly forget his ‘I’.

3. For a person who cannot even recognise those who are standing before him as human beings, it is difficult indeed to be able to see the Unmanifest Atma!

4. How can one who is proud of his body and its potential, be ready to renounce it?

5. How can one who considers his own body to be the best of all, ever relinquish it?

6. How can one who cannot perform small, insignificant jobs for others with a selfless attitude, ever hope to become the unconditional benefactor of all beings?

7. If one cannot renounce one’s claims over others, how can one relinquish all rights over one’s own body?

8. How can one who revels in false and arrogant pride ever embrace the Truth?

9. How can one who does not have faith in his spiritual master ever hope to understand or believe in the Atma?

10. How can one who despairs whenever he gets good or bad in life, ever abandon his body to the will of the Lord or to destiny?

11. Little one, if one does not possess positive individual traits, how can they ever become universalised?

12. If you cannot forget yourself in the smallest of events, how will you ever be able to forget yourself when bigger events overtake you?

13. The forgetfulness of the body idea is in fact a complete forgetfulness of one’s individual identity. How can this become possible?

Little one, it is therefore imperative to practice all these qualities elucidated by the Lord in one’s daily life. All these qualities will serve to diminish the ego and will definitely deter the strengthening of egoistic tendencies. All these qualities teach the individual to become indifferent to that which is not the Atma. An individual who inheres these qualities will give to others what is dear to them, and will gradually transcend the body self where he himself is concerned.

Divine qualities – what and why?

Little one, there is a very simple way to ascertain whether a certain quality is divine or demonic: when that particular quality is used in interaction with another being. If that quality is used for the benefit of the other, it is a virtue; if that same quality is not used in the other’s favour, it is demonic.

When one’s individual nature is inscribed with virtuous qualities, they become spontaneous and part of one’s being. Then one becomes the well-wisher of all beings and those individualised traits soon become universalised. It is then that those attributes gain the status of divine qualities.

One attains such divine qualities only when one renounces the body idea.

a) The body devoid of the ‘I’ is divine.

b) The body devoid of the ‘I’ is void of the idea of doership.

c) The body devoid of the ‘I’ is void of the idea of enjoyership.

d) The attributes of the body devoid of ‘I’ are indeed divine.

e) The body devoid of the ‘I’ is extraordinary, yet presents a most ordinary exterior because such a one never seeks to establish himself.

­­–  His apparent foolishness with the foolish is a sign of his divinity.

­­–  His knowledge is divine.

­­–  His confrontation with the other is also divine.

­­–  His love is divine.

­­–  He lives perpetually unconscious and unmindful of his personal body self.