In all circumstances keep awareness fixed in the Absolute.

Karma Sanyasa Yoga

Chapter 5, Verse 20

 

na prahṛṣyet priyaṁ prāpya 

nodvijet prāpya cāpriyam 

sthira-buddhir-asaṁmūḍho 

brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ

 

With intelligence stable, unbewildered, the knower of Brahman, living in the Brahman, neither rejoices on obtaining what is pleasant, nor sorrows on obtaining what is unpleasant.

 

Here again Krishna says that one who is absorbed in the Divine does not rejoice or get disturbed when he receives something pleasant, nor does he feel sorrow when he receives that which is unpleasant.

 

In the eyes of the sage, the yogi, the paṇḍitāḥ who has realised the Truth, nothing is real except the One Absolute, God, Narayana. The one who has full Realisation perceives Narayana everywhere and for such a realised soul, the pleasant and the unpleasant become equal. You see this in the lives of saints. People can give them either honour or dishonour. People can criticise them because of lack of understanding. But to the saint, it doesn’t make any difference. For the one who is seated in God Consciousness, it doesn’t matter if life brings joy or sorrow. His faith is never shaken! Like Christ says in the Bible, “Build thy faith on a rock” so that nothing can shake it. This is the state of a saint or a realised soul. In all circumstances, his awareness remains fixed in the Absolute.

Bhagavad Gita