ESTABLISHED IN THE INNER WISDOM

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

ESTABLISHED IN THE INNER WISDOM
After Lord Krishna describes to Arjuna how a person who has become established in the
knowledge of himself is able to maintain an absolutely undisturbed state of serenity amidst the ups
and downs of life, Arjuna asks: “How does this person behave? How does he speak? How does he
deal with others? What is his nature? How does this model person, who can be kept as an adarsa
(ideal) for me, go through life?”
It is here that the Lord has given to us a precious gem, just like the one in the latter part of the
twelfth chapter of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. In the concluding eight verses of the twelfth chapter,
the subtle secret of the Lord’s own concept of what real devotion is, who a true devotee is, is
revealed to us. Even so, in the latter part of the second chapter, there is this classical description of
the person who is firmly and ever established in the inner wisdom. That avastha (state) of being
established in inner wisdom makes one look at the petty, puerile nature of outer things and to feel
that it is not worthwhile to allow these petty outer things to upset one or to allow oneself to run after
them.
It was these concluding verses of the second chapter of the Gita, the sthitaprajna lakshana
slokas, that the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, a living sage of his own era, reverently
listened to throughout his life, without missing one single day. Twice a day, at his prayer meetings,
these verses describing the nature of one who is firmly established in wisdom were recited and
Mahatma Gandhi would sit, all attention, in silence, serene, like a Buddha, absorbing the meaning
of each word. That is how his interior was built up and became what it was. That serenity was never
lost. He was ever established in a higher state of divine consciousness, spiritual consciousness.