Sthitaprajna

Remaining unperturbed- 01

Krishna says Sthitaprajna is one who remains unperturbed and steady in the midst of both happiness and misery. And it makes us to think that if someone does not feel happy in happiness and miserable in misery; will it not destroy his sensitivity? There are two ways of remaining unperturbed in the midst of happiness and suffering. One way is to kill our sensitivity. Then we will cease to be either happy or miserable. If our tongue is burned we will cease to taste both the sweet and bitter. If our eyes are blinded we will neither know light nor the darkness. Insensitivity is the simplest way of achieving evenness of mind in both pleasure and pain. And it is not surprising that by and large Krishna’s followers have chosen the way of insensitivity. Most of those who are known as Sannyasin, renunciate or recluses do nothing but systematically destroy their sensitivity so they become dead to the experience of pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. But this is a travesty of what Krishna really means. 

Krishna’s meaning is very different. He says a Sthitaprajna remains unperturbed in pleasure and pain- he does not say he is insensitive to them. He means to say that a wise man goes beyond happiness and sorrow; he transcends them- not by killing his sensitivity but by attaining to a higher state of consciousness, to super consciousness. An unconscious person, one under the influence of drugs, is insensitive to pain and pleasure but he cannot be said to have transcended to them. He has rather fallen below the normal state of consciousness. In that way every dead person is insensitive. Transcendence is entirely different, profound and meaningful. 

In my view Krishna’s way of transcending happiness & sorrow is different and unique. If we experiences happiness fully, if we are utterly sensitive to pleasure, if we live it so totally that no other thing remains to be lived, we will soon transcend it. Then we will be unperturbed and steady in every situation of pleasure and happiness. Similarly if we experience pain and misery totally, if we go into it with all our being, without trying to escape it in the least, we will go beyond the misery too. We will never again be disturbed by suffering. Krishna is not asking us to kill our sensitivity. On the contrarily, he wants us to heighten our sensitivity to its utmost, so it becomes total. Krishna stands for sensitivity, and total sensitivity at that.  

Let us think, contemplate and analyze this point. More to come next week!

Wishing you good health & happiness,

Dr. Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran foundation- the stress management people