A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, who is unbewildered, and who knows the science of God, is already situated in transcendence.
Commentary by Srila Prabhupada
The symptoms of the self-realized person are given herein. The first symptom is that he is not illusioned by the false identification of the body with his true self. He knows perfectly well that he is not this body, but is the fragmental portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is therefore not joyful in achieving something, nor does he lament in losing anything which is related to his body. This steadiness of mind is called sthira-buddhi, or self-intelligence. He is therefore never bewildered by mistaking the gross body for the soul, nor does he accept the body as permanent and disregard the existence of the soul. This knowledge elevates him to the station of knowing the complete science of the Absolute Truth, namely Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. He thus knows his constitutional position perfectly well, without falsely trying to become one with the Supreme in all respects. This is called Brahman realization, or self-realization. Such steady consciousness is called Krishna consciousness.
Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur
Such persons are equal in the face of objects both dear and not dear in this world. Attaining dear objects they do not rejoice and attaining unwelcome objects they do not become disturbed. The potential mood of prahrset and udvijet stands for the indicative present in this verse, or can mean that these persons should practice that mood during the stage of sadhana. (Attaining dear objects, they should not rejoice and attaining unwelcome objects they should not become disturbed.) They are not bewildered (asammudhah), since bewilderment arises only from identification with joy, lamentation and other emotions.
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