Verse 5.20

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 5.20:

न प्रहृष्येत् प्रियं प्राप्य नोद्विजेत् प्राप्य चाप्रियम् ।
स्थिर-बुद्धिर् असम्मूढो ब्रह्म-विद् ब्रह्मणि स्थितः ॥ २० ॥

na prahṛṣyet priyaṃ prāpya nodvijet prāpya cāpriyam |
sthira-buddhir asammūḍho brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ || 20 ||

na prahṛṣyet–he is not excessively elated; priyam–something pleasant; prāpya–on receiving; na udvijet–he is not disturbed; prāpya–on obtaining; ca–and; apriyam–an unpleasant thing; sthira-buddhiḥ–a person of steady intelligence;asammūḍhaḥ–and not deluded; brahma-vit–a knower of transcendence; brahmaṇi–in transcendence; sthitaḥ–situated.

One who knows brahma–the Absolute Spirit–and who is firmly situated in brahma, has steady intelligence and is not deluded. He neither rejoices upon obtaining something pleasant nor despairs upon receiving something unpleasant.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

(By Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura; the innermost intention of the commentary named ‘the shower of essential meanings’)

Bhagavān speaks this verse beginning with the words na prahṛṣyet to describe the equal vision of the wise in relation to pleasant and unpleasant mundane events. Na prahṛṣyet means that one is not elated, and nodvijet means that one is not dejected. The purport is that one must practise like this in the stage of sādhana. With this intention, the imperative case has been used. Because of the false ego, people become deluded by happiness and lamentation. Being free from such ego, the wise remain undeluded.