54. sthtaprajnasya kJ bhasa
samddhssthasya kesava
sthitadhih kim prabhaseta
kim dsita vrajeta kim
Arjuna said .
(54) What is the description of the man who has this firmly founded wisdom, whose being is steadfast in spirit, 0 Kesava (Krsna) How should the man of settled intelligence speak, how should he sit, how should he walk ?
In the Hindu scheme of life, there is the last stage of samnyasa where the ritual is abandoned and social obligations surrendered. The first stage is that of student discipleship, the second that of the householder, the third that of retreat and the fourth andthe last is that of total renunciation. Those who abandon the household life and adopt the homeless one are the renouncers. This state may be entered upon at any time, though normally it comes after the passage through the other three stages. The samnyasins literally die to the world and even funeral rites are performed when they leave their homes and become parivrajakasaka or homeless wanderers. These developed souls, by their very example, affect the society to which they no longer belong. They form the conscience of society. Their utterance is free and their vision untrammelled. Though they have their roots in the Hindu religious organization, they grow above it and by their freedom of mind and universality of outlook are a challenge to the corrupting power and cynical compromise of the authoritarians. Their supersocial life is a witness to the validity of ultimate values from which other social values derive. They are the sages, and Arjuna asks for some discernible signs, some distinguishing marks of such developed souls.
sribhagavan uvaca
55. prajahati yada kaman
sarvan partha manogatan
atmany eva 'tmana tussah
sthitaprajnas tado 'cyate
The Blessed Lord said :
(55) When a man puts away all the desires of his mind, o Martha (Arjuna), and when his spirit is content in itself, then is he called stable in intelligence. Negatively, the state is one of freedom from selfish desires and positively, it is one of concentration on the Supreme.
