Now, while passing on the bank of the river, there are so many things which pains his, I mean to say, sole. So he is thinking that "When I shall be very rich man, then I shall cover this bank of the river with, I mean to say, soft pillows, so that when I shall go by the pillows, dragging this boat, I shall have no pain."
Now, our position is like that, that the foolish boatman, thinking that "When I shall be very rich man, still I shall be pulling on this business." He does not know that, "If I at all become rich man, then where is the necessity of my pulling this boat in this way?" (chuckles) So similarly, we want to be happy in the same way that, "When I shall be able to cover the whole world with cushions and soft pillows to travel over it, then I shall have no pain of working like this." You see? This is our plan.
So this plan has to be rejected. The Lord says that, "Your plan, so many plan, foolish plan, you should reject." Prajahāti. Now, He says . . . what . . . Arjuna inquired that, "What is the sign of a person who has already dovetailed his consciousness with the supreme consciousness, sthita-prajñaḥ?" Sthita-prajñaḥ means steady, steady in consciousness. So "What are the signs?" Now, those signs are being explained by the Lord like this. Now, prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān pārtha mano-gatān. Now, we plan like that boatman.
For our happiness, we make multi-plans that, "I shall do this, then I shall be happy. If I shall have it, then I shall be happy." In this way. But all . . . we do not know that, "I am pure consciousness. Any amount of my plan on this bodily conception of life, I'll never be happy." He does not know it. He does not know it. He simply makes plans. You see?
Because the platform on which you are standing, that platform itself is tottering. Is tottering. You cannot make it stop tottering. This, this body . . . we have already discussed that all the miseries of our life, it is due to this body. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Mātrā-sparśās tu. All the distress and happiness that we feel in this material world, that is due to this skin, this body. Otherwise, the things as they are, they are neither miserable nor source of happiness.
The example is given: just like water. Water now, in this season, the summer season, you will find very pleasant. The same water, in the winter season, it becomes pinching. So water as it is—neither pinching nor the source of pleasure. But it is due to this body: under certain circumstances it feels pleasure, and under certain circumstances it feels distress. So pleasure and distress, these dual forms of our existence, is going on. Now, if we want to transcend above this material plane, then our . . . we'll have to completely reject the bodily conception of life. We have to stand on the spiritual consciousness of life. That is being taught.
The whole scheme of Bhagavad-gītā is like that, that we have to stand on the spiritual consciousness of life. And what is that spiritual consciousness of life? Now, some philosophers . . . just like Śaṅkarācārya. There are many philosophers in the world. I . . . we may cite some of the authorities. Just like Lord Buddha. Then Śaṅkarācārya. Then Rāmānujācārya, Lord Caitanya. They're all big, stalwart authorities, authorities. They have given different views.
Lord Buddha's views is that you can be happy only when you are free from this consciousness. Lord Buddha says that consciousness is the production of this combination of matter. So therefore if, if you dismantle this material body, then there will be no consciousness, and thus there will be no feeling of distress or happiness. That is called nirvāṇa, stopping, stopping the feelings of.