Sanskrit
न प्रहृष्येत्प्रियं प्राप्य नोद्विजेत्प्राप्य चाप्रियम् । स्थिरबुद्धिरसंमूढो ब्रह्मविद्ब्रह्मणि स्थितः ॥
na prahṛṣyet priyaṃ prāpya nodvijet prāpya cāpriyam sthirabuddhir asammūḍho brahmavid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ
Translation
With Reason firm, unperplexed, the knower of the Eternal established in the Eternal, neither rejoiceth on obtaining what is pleasant, nor sorroweth on obtaining what is unpleasant.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This comes close to a direct echo of chapter 2’s sthitaprajna description — unmoved by joy or sorrow — but relocated here as the psychological signature of the brahma-vid, one who knows Brahman, rather than as a portrait of the ideal renunciant in the abstract. Sthira-buddhi, firm intellect, and asammūḍha, unbewildered, name the same steadiness from two angles: one structural, the faculty simply doesn’t waver, and one experiential, confusion doesn’t arise in the first place. The chapter keeps circling back to this same disposition from different entry points — action, the perception of other beings, and now the response to one’s own fortune — as if testing whether it holds up under every kind of pressure. The pairing with BG 2.57’s “neither rejoices nor recoils” is near-verbatim; the addition here is the identification — this steadiness is being a brahma-vid, not merely a mark of one.
Study deeper
Word by word
- na prahṛṣyet priyaṃ prāpyaन प्रहृष्येत् प्रियं प्राप्य
- one should not rejoice on gaining the pleasant (na + prahṛṣyet + priyam + prāpya)
- nodvijet prāpya cāpriyamनोद्विजेत् प्राप्य चाप्रियं
- nor be troubled on meeting the unpleasant (na + udvijet + prāpya + ca + apriyam)
- sthirabuddhir asammūḍhoस्थिरबुद्धिः असंमूढो
- of firm intellect, undeluded (sthira-buddhiḥ + asammūḍhaḥ)
- brahmavid brahmaṇi sthitaḥब्रह्मविद् ब्रह्मणि स्थितः
- the knower of Brahman, established in Brahman (brahma-vit + brahmaṇi + sthitaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verse’s word order puts the behavior before the label: it describes someone who doesn’t rejoice at the pleasant and doesn’t recoil from the unpleasant, and only after that behavior is fully specified does it attach the title brahma-vid, knower of Brahman. That ordering is a quiet claim about what the title actually certifies — not a credential held independent of conduct, but a name earned by, and visible only through, the behavior described first.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- Don't chase a label — enlightened, disciplined, mature — as if it's something granted separately from the behavior; this verse names the behavior first and the title only afterward, as a description of what was already true, not a status to acquire and then act from.
Professional
- Don't let a title — senior, principal — become the thing you're performing; the title is supposed to describe conduct that already exists, and chasing the label before the behavior it names tends to produce exactly the wrong order of operations.
Family & Social
- If you want to be seen as the calm, dependable one in your family, build the actual behavior first rather than adopting the identity and hoping the conduct follows — the name is supposed to describe what's already true, not substitute for it.
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