Bhagavad Gita 15.5

nirmāna-mohā jita-saṅga-doṣā

adhyātma-nityā vinivṛtta-kāmāḥ

dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukha-duḥkha-saṁjñair

gacchanty amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṁ tat

 

Fighting off pride and delusion’s veil,

Retiring from attachments that make us fail;

Going Beyond the swings of joy and pain,

That deathless destination—the wise attain.

 

My dear Lord, this world is a tiring place. Whatever I do, draining difficulties come upon me even without my seeking them.

O merciful Lord, help me diagnose the cause of my exhaustion precisely. It is not just due to the nature of the material world; it is much more due to the nature of material desire. Often, the desires that drive me are not for things that are truly valuable or even truly enjoyable in any meaningful or lasting sense. Yet these desires keep pushing and prodding me to the point of breakdown, when I can move no more. Transformative can be these moments—when I become tired not just of mundane endeavors, but of the desires that goad me into them.

O supreme illuminator, for that transformation to be truly liberating, raise me from merely tiring of those trivial and superficial desires to retiring from them. Let me realize that my inability to fulfill those desires is not what puts me into a world of trouble. Rather, it is my inability to turn away from those desires toward something bigger and grander that puts me into trouble.

O infallible Lord, you alone can empower me with the realization of the futility of mundane desires and the resolution to cultivate divine desires—desires to love and serve you, and thereby live for you and with you.

***

15.05 Those who are free from false prestige, illusion and false association, who understand the eternal, who are done with material lust, who are freed from the dualities of happiness and distress, and who, unbewildered, know how to surrender unto the Supreme Person attain to that eternal kingdom.