Bg 5.21

bāhya-sparśeṣv asaktātmā
vindaty ātmani yat sukham
sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā
sukham akṣayam aśnute

Word for word: 

bāhya–sparśeṣu — in external sense pleasure; asakta–ātmā — one who is not attached; vindati — enjoys; ātmani — in the self; yat — that which; sukham — happiness; saḥ — he; brahma–yoga — by concentration in Brahman; yukta–ātmā — self-connected; sukham — happiness; akṣayam — unlimited; aśnute — enjoys.

Translation: 

Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme.

 

bāhya-sparśeṣv, external contacts which could be pleasurable and sometime miserable but either way the person is asaktātmā, which means the person is detached, Aasaktā is attached asaktā is detached, so when a person is detached, for everyone the happiness should come from somewhere so from where the happiness will come? vindaty ātmani yat sukham. Vindaty means delight, delight in what? ātmani yat sukham, in the atma one delights, so inner happiness and such a person is sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā, sa brahma-yoga is not like other yogas Karma-Yoga, Gyana-Yoga, Dhyana-Yoga etc. here yoga means not sadhana but connection, here Sri Krishna is talking about generic description, such a person is connected with Brahm, yuktātmā, is connected well situated and that person eventually sukham akṣayam aśnute, attains happiness aśnute, aśnute means to gain or enjoy. So it is significant Sri Krishna is using word to enjoy twice over here. Vindaty and aśnute. Kshaya is that which will exhaust or deteriorate Akshaya means that will never get exhausted, sukham akṣayam aśnute.

This verse has an interesting progression each of the line can be thought of into progression::

  1. Detached from external stimuli – don’t get too much excited about sensual pleasures.
  2. Seek happiness within – Turn inward and start seeking happiness within
  3. Concentrate on the Supreme – When we start seeking happiness within then we will learn to concentrate on Supreme. If our vision is outwards then we cannot focus inwards, therefore we need to turn inwards. 
  4. Relish imperishable happiness. When we concentrate on Supreme then we will relish imperishable happiness. sukham akṣayam aśnute

Sri Krishna is within out heart and Sri Krishna is ocean of happiness and also it is not Finite Ocean it is Infinite Ocean of happiness. So when we will turn inward towards Sri Krishna we can connect with that ocean. 

So first step is external there is nothing great to experience in this world so I will not look outside and then gradually we will start turning inwards that means we start seeking pleasure in our inner connection, so initially vindaty means we have little happiness, we chant Hare Krishna, We remember Sri Krishna, we are experiencing a little bit happiness, initially when we chant Hare Krishna we are not able to concentrate but as we start practicing spiritual life we started to concentrate more and more and we start going deeper in our connection with Sri Krishna and what happen at that point of time? bāhya-sparśeṣv asaktātmā, we become situated in our connection with Brahm, then as we become strongly situated in that connection then there is sukham akṣayam aśnute, one experiences aksayam sukam. Unlimited happiness. So that is how we come to level of Supreme Happiness. sukham akṣaya, 

Srila Prabhupada: The highest pleasure in terms of matter is sex pleasure. The whole world is moving under its spell, and a materialist cannot work at all without this motivation. But a person engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can work with greater vigor without sex pleasure, which he avoids. That is the test in spiritual realization. Spiritual realization and sex pleasure go ill together.

Why is it so? Because sexual pleasure is physical and spiritual pleasure is transcendental, non-physical, so to the extent we are identifying with the body to that extent we cannot find spiritual happiness. And to the extent we are attracted towards soul we will not be attracted to bodily happiness. So there is a diff between the two which makes them anti-polar, in general at the level of Karma-Kanda, Dharma-Artha-kama-Moksha, so it is considered when one gets a happy family life, fulfilment of Kama that is also considered a blessing of God, that is true but that doesn’t mean that one get completely caught in gratifying ones senses, kama doesn’t refer to sense gratification it refers to all round material wellbeing and Artha doesn’t refer to just the bank balance in a person’s account or the cash available with the person it refers to all round material prosperity. All round material prosperity and all round material satisfaction, so these two are referred by Artha and Kama. So in Karma Kanda these are also referred to Dharmic. They are considered religious. When a person becomes serious spiritual seeker that time he doesn’t get caught in these things, the person will understand that Dharma, Artha, Kama are important at one level but far-far more important is Moksha, and Moksha ultimately means how mukti rupen yatha rupam it means to become situated with our relationship with Sri Krishna. So when a devotee become situated with Sri Krishna very strongly, the devotee doesn’t get so caught up in the pleasures of this world and we keep on steading our relationship with Sri Krishna. So Srila Prabhupada says this is the test of spiritual realization, what does it mean? That means we sometimes feel very good, Oh I am making spiritual advancement, I get great satisfaction when I take darshan of Sri Krishna when I chant Sri Krishna’s holy name and when coming in the association of devotees, sometimes we feel like that, sometimes we don’t feel like that, so this feeling will come and go but if we are following regulative principles steadily which is at gross level and at subtle level, so as we move forward in following the regulative principles, so as we keep experiencing inner happiness, we start giving outer happiness, as we keep giving up outer happiness we start experiencing inner happiness.

Now we wanted to know which starts first. Do I first give up outer happiness and then experience inner happiness or do I first experience inner happiness and then give up outer happiness? Actually first come hearing as Sri Krishna will tell in starting of Ch07.01, Tat Srunu, first we hear and understand, how outer happiness is temporary it will ultimately leads to misery as Sri Krishna will tell in the next verse, on the other hand inner happiness keeps growing and growing akṣaya sukham. So it begins with hearing and from hearing we try to move away from outer happiness and we try to move towards inner happiness and by this we experience inner happiness and then we get inspired that OK let me further move away from outer happiness. And even by hearing when we seek outer happiness or we get outer happiness, we understand that this leads to so much of misery so much of agitation so much of irritation and at the end of it there is so much tiny pleasure. It is not worth it. Therefore the person feels that let me not pursue this pleasure, this is how gradually a person becomes detached, so first we should always focus on hearing, we will see that if we are not hearing regularly our Krishna Consciousness will become weak, we will not be attentive in our chanting we will not be serious in our cultivation of Bhakti, when we are not feeling inner happiness naturally we will be dragged to outer happiness and then we will collapse, in the sense that we will be dragged outwards away from Sri Krishna, so how far we will go away we can’t say so better we will not take that risk. Therefore we understand that it all begins with hearing.