VI: 7

Chapter 6, Verse 7

"That serene one,
Rooted in the Self,
Has mastered the will.
There is no disquiet
In heat nor cold,
In pleasure nor pain,
And in honor nor disgrace."

Swami Shivananda:

Yogis who are rooted in the Self keep poised amidst the pairs of opposites.  Having mastered the senses, with the mind balanced and peaceful under all conditions and ever tranquil, they remain serene in the face of the ebb and flows of Nature's ways.

Father Bede Griffiths:

The word for "rooted in the Self" is samagita, which has the same Sanskrit root as samadhi.  Sri Shankaracharya translates it as "concentrated and gathered into the Self."  So this state of the soul is tranquil and gathered into unity.  The root of samagita is sama, which means "same," so that we could translate, "Such a soul, in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain and in honor and dishonor is always the same."  There is this sense of equilibrium.

To realize the one Self, manifested in the whole of creation, including every human being, and to maintain that awareness uninterruptedly is the whole aim of life.  This is the key to everything.  When we do that, we know ourselves in God, and God in us, once and for all.

Sri Krishna Prem:

When exclusive identification with the ego is dissolved, then the Self will be felt always as a calm background to all the activities of the mind.  The pairs of opposites which torment so many will have no power to disturb this inner serenity.  The gratification of honor and the death-like sting of dishonor can have no effect on those whose only honor is the approval of the inner guide and whose only dishonor is the subordination of Self to self.  Wealth is nothing to those who experience within the living waters of this sacred wisdom.

Eckhart Tolle:

Misery on our planet arises due to a personalized sense of "me" and "us."  It covers up the essence of who you are.  Unaware of this inner essence, you create misery in the end.  It's that simple.  When you don't know who you are, you create a mind-made self as a substitute for your beautiful, divine Being and cling to that fearful and needy self.  Protecting and enhancing that false sense of self then becomes your primary motivating force.