The foremost quality of a yogi emphasized in the Bhagavad-gita is equanimity – to be equal, remaining the same, no matter what life throws at you. How is this to be achieved?
The secret for advancing in equanimity is to change the focus of who you are, and what matters to you. Clearly, you cannot experience equanimity if you’re on the “surface” of life. Materially speaking, everything is changing. Ups and downs, day and night, hungry and satiated… superficially speaking, things are just different all the time. If you’re fixed on the idea of how the world should be, how things must turn out and how people around you should behave, there is zero hope for equanimity, zero hope for a peace and well-being.
But we need not be superficial, because we are actually not on the surface. Our existence is not happening skin-deep. Your consciousness is not material. It’s something else entirely.
By focusing on values, purposes and meaning, you are no longer operating on the surface level. The deeper the importance you attribute to your core values, purposes and meaning, the less affected you’ll be by the surface variations life throws at you. What external events bring you and what others do does not affect your core values. Your response will be aligned with your values, and you’ll continue to find purpose and meaning by acting with such integrity. Thus, you remain stable, equal, in all situations.
As you get deeper and deeper into your values, purposes and meaning you’ll enter the stage of transcendence, where pure equanimity can be achieved. Surface variations, variations of external material reality, are ultimately inconsequential for the transcendental soul. The soul, the real you, is operating in another frequency. The more you advance, the more you’ll experience this. What the soul needs to be joyous has no connection with matter.
The Bhagavad-gita also tells us that the yogi has joyous and unlimited happiness. Practicing equanimity means experiencing bliss, no matter the challenges life is bringing to you on the surface.
In fact, the single most important way to gauge your spiritual advancement is to observe your level of equanimity. How stable is your well-being? How long does it take you to regain your harmony and inner peace when you’re confronted with some type of adversity? Are you like a little row boat, thrown every which way by the stormy seas, or like a submarine, indifferent to storms on the surface?
Embrace the challenges life sends you as a golden opportunity to practice equanimity and become stronger and more joyous, more and more focused on what really matters in life.
Check out my video on equanimity here.
What they’re saying about my new book:
“In this book, Giridhari Das offers an invaluable present to humanity. Works such as this are true treasures – manifestations of divine compassion in the service of dharma, the higher purpose. I would also say that The 3T Path is a practical survival guide in difficult times.” – Sri Prem Baba