BG 05.21 bahya-sparsesv asaktatma... cited

Expressions researched:
"bahya-sparsesv asaktatma" |"sa brahma-yoga-yuktatma" |"sukham aksayam asnute" |"vindaty atmani yat sukham"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 5.21, Translation and Purport:

Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme.

Śrī Yāmunācārya, a great devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, said:

yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-pādāravinde

nava-nava-rasa-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt

tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne

bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca

"Since I have been engaged in the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa, realizing ever-new pleasure in Him, whenever I think of sex pleasure I spit at the thought, and my lips curl with distaste." A person in brahma-yoga, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is so absorbed in the loving service of the Lord that he loses his taste for material sense pleasure altogether. The highest pleasure in terms of matter is sex pleasure. The whole world is moving under its spell, and a materialist cannot work at all without this motivation. But a person engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can work with greater vigor without sex pleasure, which he avoids. That is the test in spiritual realization. Spiritual realization and sex pleasure go ill together. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person is not attracted to any kind of sense pleasure, due to his being a liberated soul.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 5.14-22 -- New York, August 28, 1966:

Na prahṛṣyet priyaṁ prāpya nodvijet prāpya ca apriyam (BG 5.20). This is our disease. In the material conception of life we do not want what is unfavorable, but we want simply favorable. But the laws of nature, they are so cruel that they enforce upon us unfavorable things. But one who is transcendentally realized, he does not care for the unfavorable or the favorable. He knows that "When the time will come, either the favorable things will come or unfavorable things will come in the law of nature. Let me be engaged in my own business, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Yes." Sthira-buddhir asammūḍhaḥ brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ. Sthira-buddhiḥ. He is steady. He is steady in his conclusion. He is not changing, steady in his conclu... Asammūḍhaḥ. Asammūḍhaḥ means he is not bewildered, brahma-vit, because he knows what is Brahman and brahmaṇi sthitaḥ, and he is situated in Brahman. Sthira-buddhir asammūḍhaḥ brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ.

bāhya-sparśeṣv aksaktātmā

vindaty ātmani yat sukham

sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā

sukham akṣayam aśnute

(BG 5.21)

Now, the one who is situated in that transcendental position, he is not attached... Bāhya-sparśeṣu asaktātmā. Now, those who are materially situated, they take pleasure outside, which is in contact with my senses. In contact with my senses. And the highest contact of senses in the material world is the sex contact. So one who is situated in this Brahman, so he has no connection with the external things and enjoy with the sense attachment, bāhya-sparśa. Sparśa means touch, and bāhya means external. So he is not interested in such sort of happiness. Bāhya-sparśeṣu asakta. He is detached. He is detached from. His ātmā, his, I mean to say... Ātmā means mind, ātmā means body, and ātmā means soul. So you take either way, either body, soul, or mind, he is detached from such external. He is not attached to that external happiness. Vindaty ātmani yat sukham: "He enjoys within himself." Enjoys within him... That is real happiness. This word rāma... We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. This rāma... he rāma means that unlimited enjoyment in real happiness. There is another meaning of rāma. Rāma, Lord Rāma, that is all right. And also some grammatical meaning that rāma means ramante. Ramante means to enjoy.

Lecture on BG 5.14-22 -- New York, August 28, 1966:

So ramante yoginaḥ anante satyānande. Satyānanda means real happiness. Satyānande. And what is that satyānande? Cid-ātmani. Cit. Cit means knowledge. And ātmā. When the ātmā is developed in full knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that sort of happiness is real happiness. Now, bāhya-sparśeṣu asakta, asaktātmā vindaty ātmani. Ātmani means with the soul, with the Supersoul, the relation between the soul and the Supersoul. That is called ātmā. That is called rāsa dance. You have heard about Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance. That is happiness. In the field of spiritual platform that happiness is realized. So sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā sukham akṣayam aśnute. Akṣayam means that does not pass away, not flickering, not flickering. Here in the material world all happiness, the so-called happiness, they are all flickering. They come and go. Therefore one who is transcendentally situated, he does not care for happiness or distress because he knows, "Either this happiness or this distress, it has appeared and it will go. It will go. So why I shall be disturbed in distress also?" Because this nature of this world... Just like snowfall in your country. Snowfall... Now we are expecting snowfall. Last year there was snowfall. It has gone away. Again they are coming. So anything of this world, they come and go. They come and go. So we shall not be disturbed.

Lecture on BG 5.14-22 -- New York, August 28, 1966:

Even there are distress in this material world, we should learn to tolerate because these are ephemeral. They are not neither real distress, neither real ha... We should be callous either of this happiness or distress. So one who is like that, he... Sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā sukham akṣayam. Akṣayam means "which does not deteriorate." That sort of happiness he enjoys. Ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā duḥkha-yonaya eva te (BG 5.22). And one who is attached with the touchstone, I mean to say, sense touch, he must know that he is inviting miseries of life. He's inviting miseries of life. Ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogāḥ. Any enjoyment which is derived out of the touch of the senses, we should know that is meant for our miserable life. Ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā duḥkha-yonaya eva te. Duḥkha-yonayaḥ means that in future I'll have to suffer for that. Therefore sense control is very essential in the material advance, er, in the spiritual advancement of life. Saṁsparśajāḥ. The happiness derived, material happiness derived out of the touch of senses, oh, it is clearly stated here that duḥkha-yonayaḥ: "They are the mother of all miseries. Mother of all miseries." There are so many instances.

Lecture on BG 5.17-25 -- Los Angeles, February 8, 1969:

Revatīnandana: "He thus knows his constitutional position perfectly well without falsely trying to become one with the Supreme in all respects. This is called Brahman realization or self-realization. Such steady consciousness is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Go on.

Revatīnandana: "Verse 21: Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness for he concentrates on the Supreme (BG 5.21)."

Prabhupāda: There is a word, ātmārāma, in Sanskrit. Ātmārāma means one who is satisfied with his self. He is called ātmārāma. Because self is the basic principle of this body, the soul. So one who is satisfied with his soul, he is called ātmārāma, or self-realized person. One who seeks pleasure externally, he is materialist, and one who seeks pleasure internally, he is spiritualist. That is the difference. Yes.