15.5

Sanskrit

निर्मानमोहा जितसङ्गदोषाः अध्यात्मनित्या विनिवृत्तकामाः । द्वन्द्वैर्विमुक्ताः सुखदुःखसंज्ञैः गच्छन्त्यमूढाः पदमव्ययं तत् ॥

nirmānamohā jitasaṅgadoṣāḥ adhyātmanityā vinivṛttakāmāḥ dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukhaduḥkhasaṃjñair gacchanty amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṃ tat

Translation

Without pride and delusion, victorious over the vice of attachment, dwelling constantly in the Self, desire pacified, liberated from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, they tread, undeluded, that indestructible path.

Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain

Explanation

This is a qualities-of-the-liberated verse, the same genre as chapter 2’s sthitaprajna passage and chapter 12’s list of the beloved devotee, though shorter: free of pride and delusion, past the fault of attachment, constant in self-abidance, released from the dvandvas — the paired opposites of pleasure and pain the Gita treats throughout as the basic unit of bondage (2.14, 2.45). Worth noticing is the sequencing: the verse names psychological faults before it names the practice that replaces them, suggesting vice-removal is treated as prior to, not simultaneous with, positive absorption in the Self.

Note on the source text: the printed page splits this compound sentence across four lines with a mid-word hyphen break at the page edge (sukhaduḥkhasaṃjñai- / rgacchantyamūḍhāḥ); the word has been rejoined here into its proper position at the end of the third pada.