Shloka 11
Chapter 54
भो भोः पुरुष-शार्दूल दौर्मनस्यम् इदं त्यज ।
न प्रियाप्रिययो राजन् निष्ठा देहिषु दृश्यते ॥
bho bhoḥ puruṣa-śārdūla daurmanasyam idaṃ tyaja / na priyāpriyayo rājan niṣṭhā dehiṣu dṛśyate //
O tiger among men, cast off this dejection. O King, among embodied beings no lasting steadiness is seen toward what is pleasing or displeasing.
In this moment of the Rukmiṇī-haraṇa narrative, the speaker urges a kṣatriya to rise above emotional collapse. The verse points to a sober observation: as long as one identifies with the body and mind, one’s attachments and aversions keep shifting—today’s joy becomes tomorrow’s sorrow, and today’s insult becomes tomorrow’s forgotten memory. Therefore lamentation over changing outcomes is misplaced. Bhāgavata dharma repeatedly trains the hearer to distinguish between the temporary waves of priyā–apriyā (pleasant and unpleasant experiences) and the enduring duty of the soul: to act with steadiness, honor, and devotion to Bhagavān. For a ruler especially, emotional instability can distort judgment; hence the counsel is practical as well as philosophical. The deeper devotional implication is that true niṣṭhā (steadiness) matures not in bodily identification but in bhakti—fixed remembrance of Kṛṣṇa beyond success and failure.
FAQs
This verse advises giving up dejection by remembering that embodied life has no lasting stability in pleasure or pain—so lamentation over changing conditions is unnecessary.
After the conflict surrounding Rukmiṇī’s marriage, Kṛṣṇa addresses the king to stop brooding and to understand that worldly honor and dishonor, happiness and distress, are unstable for those identified with the body.
Treat praise and blame, gain and loss as temporary; make decisions from duty and devotion rather than mood, and cultivate steadiness through remembrance of God and disciplined practice.