12 shlokas with meaning and life application
Bhagavad Gita shlokas on Qualities of a Sage 12 verses explained with meaning and application.
What is a wise person like? The Gita answers with a portrait, drawn mostly in chapter 2 and sketched again in later chapters. It is not a portrait of someone cold or remote. It is a person who has found a steady center, who treats others with fairness and kindness, and who is not controlled by fortune or craving.
Gita 2.55 says steady wisdom is found when the mind is freed from desires and finds fulfillment within the Self, and Gita 2.56 describes a person who stays composed in sorrow, does not crave pleasure, and is free from attachment, fear and anger. Gita 2.57 adds that such a person does not swing between elation and aversion when fortune turns. Gita 18.54 describes a serene mind, free from grief and craving and equal toward all beings.
The sage is also marked by how they treat people. Gita 6.32 describes the highest yogi as one who regards others' happiness and suffering as his own, Gita 13.29 says seeing the same Lord in everyone ends harming others and oneself, and Gita 14.25 describes impartiality toward honor and insult, friend and foe. Gita 15.5 lists freedom from pride and delusion, quiet desires and steadiness in pleasure and pain, which can serve as a checklist for inner growth. Choose one quality to practise this week.
The greatest yogi empathizes with all beings, regarding their happiness and suffering as no different from his own, and responds with equal concern and compassion.
In your life: Before speaking or acting, consider how you would feel if you were in the other person's situation, and let empathy guide your decisions.
Real steadiness of wisdom is found when the mind is freed from desires and finds fulfillment within the Self.
In your life: Cultivate inner contentment so your happiness does not depend on constantly acquiring more.
A person of steady wisdom stays composed in sorrow, does not crave pleasure, and is free from attachment, fear and anger.
In your life: Practice staying composed in hardship and notice how craving, fear and anger disturb your balance.
Qualities of a Sage
The highest yoga expresses itself through genuine empathy.
Qualities of a Sage
Contentment within the Self is the mark of steady wisdom.
Qualities of a Sage
A serene mind, free of grief and craving and equal to all, is ready for devotion.
Qualities of a Sage
A steady mind is unshaken by sorrow and free from craving, fear and anger.
Qualities of a Sage
Seeing the one Lord everywhere ends the habit of harming others and oneself.
Qualities of a Sage
Wisdom is steady in good and bad fortune alike.
Qualities of a Sage
True freedom shows in how evenly you treat friend and foe.
Qualities of a Sage
Humility, detachment and inner steadiness open the way to the imperishable.
Qualities of a Sage
Wisdom is best understood by how a wise person lives.
Qualities of a Sage
Good questions turn an ideal into a path.
Qualities of a Sage
A steady mind does not hate the unpleasant or cling to the pleasant.
Qualities of a Sage
The wise value what the world overlooks and overlook what the world chases.
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