Verse 14

In plain words

Granted: for someone who really knows that the Self is eternal, the delusion of thinking the Self can be destroyed does not arise. Even so, we all see the ordinary human bewilderment that comes when cold and heat, pleasure and pain actually arrive — the confusion of being parted from what felt good, the grief of being stuck with what hurts. Anticipating that Arjuna would say exactly this, the Blessed One speaks —

'Measures' means the senses — hearing and the rest — because it's through them that sound and everything else gets measured, registered. 'Contacts' means the meeting of the senses with their objects — sound and so on. And together, these give you cold, heat, pleasure, pain. Or, put another way, 'contacts' are simply the objects themselves — sound and the rest — the things that get touched. Either way, both the senses and their contacts hand you cold, heat, pleasure, pain. Notice something: cold isn't always unpleasant — sometimes it feels good, sometimes it doesn't. Heat is the same, unpredictable. But pleasure and pain themselves never flip like that — pleasure is always pleasure, pain always pain, which is exactly why Krishna names cold and heat separately from pleasure and pain. And because all of this — the senses, their contacts, everything — keeps coming and going, none of it lasts. So: endure it. Cold, heat, whatever comes — bear it. Don't get swept into elation or despair over any of it. That's the point.

Close to the Sanskrit

Although, for one who knows that the Self is eternal, delusion caused by the destruction of the Self does not arise, even so a worldly delusion caused by the arrival of cold and heat, pleasure and pain is seen — delusion caused by separation from pleasure, and grief caused by union with pain. Having anticipated this statement of Arjuna, the Blessed One says —

'Mātrāḥ' (measures) — [called so because] sound and so on are measured (mīyante) by these — thus [means] the sense-organs, hearing and so on. 'Sparśāḥ' (contacts) [are] the conjunctions of the mātrās with sound and so on. They are cold-heat-pleasure-pain-givers — that is, they bestow cold, heat, pleasure, and pain. Or, alternatively, 'sparśāḥ' (contacts) — [called so because] they are touched (spṛśyante) — [means] the sense-objects, sound and so on. Both the mātrās and the sparśas are cold-heat-pleasure-pain-givers. Cold is sometimes pleasant, sometimes painful; likewise, heat too has an unfixed nature. Pleasure and pain, on the other hand, have a fixed nature, because they do not vary [in this way]. Therefore, apart from these two [pleasure and pain], there is separate mention of cold and heat. Because these senses, contacts, and so on have the nature of coming and going, therefore they are impermanent. Therefore, endure those — cold, heat, and so on — bear up under them. Regarding them, do not indulge in joy or despair — such is the meaning.

In plain words

“Well then, will you say: when the bodies that have lived together in companionship all these days are seen no more, will grief not come? If you set about grieving like that, for how many will you grieve? Pleasure and pain are like night and day. You must bear them with steadiness; for if you say ‘go away’, they will not go, and if you say ‘come’, they will not come. This pleasure and pain belong to those who identify with the body; they do not exist for the Ātma. Only he who has escaped their afflictions is fit for Mokṣa,” so he declared. The first chapter, which gave these teachings, is called “Arjuna Viṣāda Yoga.” This chapter is like the foundation of the mansion of the Bhagavad Gītā. Only if the foundation is secure will the building stand secure. This Gītā mansion was raised five thousand years ago and still stands unshaken today; from that, each of us may ponder for himself how secure its foundation is, and what manner of master-builder laid it.

In plain words

“If the senses stay each in its own place, no fear comes; there is none. Fear comes from their joining with objects; that is, it is the union of the senses with their objects that becomes the cause of pleasure and pain. If someone reviles you and you hear it, it throws you into agitation. But if you do not bring that object to the sense, that is, as long as their abusive words do not fall on your ear, there is no agitation in you at all. Is it not the meeting of objects and senses that causes such agitation?”

“These are simply like cold and heat. Coolness gives pleasure and comfort in the hot season; and in the same way heat gives pleasure and comfort in the cold season. So too with the contacts of objects: as long as the world exists, outer objects cannot be escaped. As long as prārabdha lasts, pleasure and pain cannot be escaped. But one must learn the art and the means of bearing them.”

“But if someone says, 'I will not go to bathe until the waves of the sea die down,' when will the waves ever die down? When will he ever bathe? One must learn how not to be struck down by the waves; to give up bathing altogether instead of learning that, how perverse! So, Arjuna, if you put on the armour of ‘titikṣā’, the pain of pleasure and pain will not touch you.”

“Titikṣā means forbearance amid the pairs of opposites. Forbearance befits only the strong; it is their own possession, their own companion. The weak man, under the blows of the pairs of opposites, is not steady for a minute; he keeps quivering like a peacock's feather. He keeps swinging this way and that like the pendulum of a clock. That is, one moment he looks toward pleasure, the next toward pain.”

In plain words

(Here Viveka means the thought that they are āgamāpāyin. That is, one must think of objects as things that come and go. It means that they are not things that stay. For Viveka, one must take up titikṣā.) “As a rule, people desire only pleasure and happiness; at no time do they desire hardship and sorrow. They look on pleasure and happiness as their dearest friends and on hardship and sorrow as their deadliest enemies. This is a great absence of Viveka! In pleasure there is little joy and much unrest. In hardship there is much reflection! That is, there is not as much sin in hardship as there is in pleasure. Hardships make a man alert and set him reflecting on what lies ahead. Pleasure makes him forget his very humanity and, through absence of Viveka and through Ahaṅkāra, drives him to commit sins. It makes him spend his merits. Hardship, which wears down our sins and grants us alertness, is the true friend. Pleasure, which makes us spend our merits and stirs up our sins, we should regard as our enemy.”