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Chapter 5 · Verse 7
🪈 Krishna speaks
Illustration for Chapter 5, Verse 7

योगयुक्तो विशुद्धात्मा विजितात्मा जितेन्द्रियः। सर्वभूतात्मभूतात्मा कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते॥

yogayukto viśuddhātmā vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ | sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā kurvannapi na lipyate ||

Word by Word 9 words
योगयुक्तः
yuj to yoke, to join yuj to join, to be united

steady in yoga, joined to selfless action

विशुद्धात्मा
vi fully śudh to be pure, to be clean ātman self

one whose mind is completely pure

विजितात्मा
vi fully ji to conquer, to win ātman self

one who has mastered himself

जितेन्द्रियः
ji to conquer, to win indriya the senses

one who has won command over the senses

सर्वभूतात्मभूतात्मा
sarva all bhūta beings ātman self bhū to become, to be ātman self

one whose self has become one with the self of all beings

कुर्वन्
kṛ to do, to act

while doing, even while acting

अपि
api even

even, although

न
na not

not

लिप्यते
lip to smear, to stick to

is stained, is stuck to, is tainted

describes the calm worker: "Someone who is steady in selfless action, with a clear pure mind, who is master of himself and his senses, who feels every living being as part of his own self — that person acts all day long and yet nothing sticks to him." He stays clean and free even in the middle of work.

कथा

The Lotus Leaf

An original story

pointed toward a still pond that lay just off the edge of the battlefield, half-hidden by reeds. On its surface floated wide green lotus leaves, beaded all over with last night's rain.

"Watch the leaf," he said.

looked. As he watched, a drop of water rolled across one of the leaves — gathering, sliding, gleaming like a little pearl — and then tipped off the edge and vanished into the pond. The leaf stayed perfectly dry.

"All night the rain fell on that leaf," said . "All night the water touched it, ran across it, sat upon it. And yet at dawn the leaf is dry. The water never soaked in. It never stained the green. The leaf lives in the water and is not made wet by it."

watched another drop roll free.

"There is a kind of person who lives like that leaf," went on. "His mind is washed clean. He is master of himself — his temper, his cravings, his restless senses all answer to him like trained horses to the rein. And because he has stopped thinking only of his own small self, he has begun to feel every creature — the soldier, the horse, the bird in the reeds — as part of who he is."

"And he still acts?" asked.

"All day," said . "He fights, he plans, he works, he serves. His hands are never idle. But the worry, the pride, the guilt, the grabbing — none of it soaks into him. It rolls across his heart and slides away, like rain off the lotus leaf. He does everything and is stained by nothing."

A dragonfly skimmed the pond and was gone.

"That is what I am asking of you, . Not to flee the rain. To become the leaf the rain cannot wet. Stand in the middle of all this — and let it roll off you, bright and harmless, into the water below."

चिन्तनम्

Have you ever stayed calm and kind in the middle of something stressful, while it seemed to upset everyone around you? How did you manage to let it roll off?