II: 57

Chapter 2, Verse 57

“They are not tied down
By anyone or anything.
They are lucky and do not rejoice.
They are unlucky and do not weep.
This is steady wisdom.
I call them illumined.”

Srila Prabhupada:

“As long as one is in the material world, there is always the possibility of good and evil because the world is full of duality. But those who are fixed in Krishna consciousness are not affected by good and evil, because they are simply concerned with Krishna, who is all-good absolute.”

Sri Ramakrishna:

“For those who see from the peak of a mountain…the tall trees, the grass, the ups and downs of the terrain, and everything on the plains below seem the same. In the same way, those with steady wisdom see divinity in everything.

A saint passed along a crowded street. By chance he stepped on the foot of a disgruntled man who became enraged and recklessly assaulted the holy man, until he fainted and fell down. He was forthwith carried to the monastery and tenderly nursed by his brothers. When he regained consciousness, he was asked if he could recognize the one attending him. ‘The hand that beat up this body is now nursing it,’ he replied.”

Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace?

Eckhart Tolle:

"Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not."

Is it not possible to attract only positive conditions into our life? If our attitude and our thinking are always positive, we would manifest only positive events and situations, wouldn’t we?

"Do you truly understand what is positive and what is negative? Do you have the total picture? There have been many for whom limitation, failure, loss, illness or pain in whatever form turned out to be their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of misleading self-images and superficial ego-dictated desires. It gave them depth, humility and compassion. It made them more real.

Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. For instance, an illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn’t.

Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. When you live with complete acceptance of what is…which is the only sane way to live…there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in your life anymore. There is only a higher good…which includes the ‘bad.’ Seen from the perspective of the mind, however, there is good/bad, like/dislike, love/hate, etc. Hence, in the Book of Genesis, it is said that Adam and Eve were no longer allowed to dwell in ‘paradise’ when they ‘ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ ”

Daniel Clark:

“Thanks for your gift of three ways to be stoic. Prabhupad is stoic because everything is Krishna. Ramakrishna is stoic because all is one. Tolle is stoic because whatever is, is.”

[dictionary definition of stoic: “indifferent to pleasure and pain based on the school of Stoicism founded by the Greek Zeno around 300 B.C. which maintained that the wise are submissive to natural law and unmoved by joy or grief.”

I am leery of using the word “stoic” because it is so often tied to the idea of indifference which implies a lack of feeling. The illumined whose wisdom is steady are sensitive to all that happens in their midst; but because they consciously rest on a foundation of inner peace and tranquility, they are not tossed about on the waves of ups and downs like the rest of us. They show us what is possible for humans. They are beacons of hope.]