Bhagavad Gita 15.5

[Paramananda das]

Text 5

nirmana-moha jita-sanga-dosa adhyatma-nitya vinivrtta-kamah dvandvair vimuktah sukha-duhkha-samjnair gacchanty amudhah padam avyayam tat

Translation

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.

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada

The surrendering process is described here very nicely. The first qualification is that one should not be deluded by pride. Because the conditioned soul is puffed up, thinking himself the lord of material nature, it is very difficult for him to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should know by the cultivation of real knowledge that he is not lord of material nature; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Lord. When one is free from delusion caused by pride, he can begin the process of surrender. For one who is always expecting some honor in this material world, it is not possible to surrender to the Supreme Person. Pride is due to illusion, for although one comes here, stays for a brief time and then goes away, he has the foolish notion that he is the lord of the world. He thus makes all things complicated, and he is always in trouble. The whole world moves under this impression. People are considering the land, this earth, to belong to human society, and they have divided the land under the false impression that they are the proprietors. One has to get out of this false notion that human society is the proprietor of this world. When one is freed from such a false notion, he becomes free from all the false associations caused by familial, social and national affections. These faulty associations bind one to this material world. After this stage, one has to develop spiritual knowledge. One has to cultivate knowledge of what is actually his own and what is actually not his own. And when one has an understanding of things as they are, he becomes free from all dual conceptions such as happiness and distress, pleasure and pain. He becomes full in knowledge; then it is possible for him to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

Performing bhakti, what qualities do the people attain, so they can attain that goal? This verse explains. Adhyatma nitya means "those who make a rule of constantly considering about adhyatma; those who are absorbed in reflecting on paramatma."

Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya: Visnuswami Sridhara Swami's Commentary Here Lord Krishna describes other means of attaining the Supreme goal. The  absence of pride, delusion and false identification of the ego. The cessation of  illusionary attachments to sons, family, dynasty, species, planet, etc.  Enthusiasm for spiritual pursuits and knowledge of the atmathe immortal  soul. Free from the pangs of desire and ignorance, surpassing the dualistic  conceptions of pleasure and pain, happiness and unhappiness, heat and cold. Such  a one attains the transcendental spiritual worlds in Vaikuntha and beyond and  attains the eternal association of the Supreme Lord

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya: Madhvacarya Madhvacarya's Commentary In this verse Lord Krishna describes other means of attaining the Supreme  state.

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya: Ramanuja Ramanuja's Commentary Those blessed jivas or embodied beings who have relinquished such  illusions as love for things not related to the atma or immortal soul  attain unto the Supreme Lord Krishna as their saviour. The evils of desire and  attachment captivates one by sense gratification bewilderd by the three gunas or modes of material nature. Those that surmount this are: 1)  nirmana mohan means free from pride and false ego conception of being their  body 2) adhyatma-nityah means those engrossed in the eternal knowledge of  the atma 3) vinivrtta-kamah means totally free from lusty desires  by only desiring the atma 4) vimukta dvandvair means completely  liberated from conceptions of dualities Those that achieve the above attain avyayam padam or the eternal supreme transcendental state by atma  tattvaor realisation of the immortal soul and its unlimited intelligence  characterised by it infinitely expanded consciousness. To those whose faith in the Supreme Lord Krishna is bonafide by acceptance of  a spiritual guru in authorised disciplic succession and whose devotion is  absolute due to the mercy of the spiritual master and receiving knowledge of bhaktior exclusive loving devotion unto the Supreme Lord. Then Lord  Krishna Himself initiates the previously mentioned four attributes and their  success is effected solely by His grace. Then they are all easily traversed  until perfection comes and the goal is reached.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary Anticipating that a spiritually intelligent aspirant would  wish to know what type of jivas or embodied beings are able to attain the  eternal spiritual worlds, Lord Krishna reveals that one who is free from pride  and infatuation, who is undeluded by material nature due to discriminative  knowledge of the atma or immortal soul and the physical body,  understanding that they are distinctly different. Who have conquered the  tenacious vice of attachment. Who have overcome feelings of passion and  repugnance. Who are free from false ego imagining they are the physical body.  Whose mundane cravings and worldy desires have altogether ceased to exist and  who have surpassed the dualities of material existence such as pleasure and  pain, happiness and unhappines, cold and hot attraction and aversion. Who are  situated in atma tattva or realisation of the soul and are in perpetual  communion with the atma. Those possessing all these attributes achieve  the imperishable Supreme state for they perceive the the actual nature of the atmaand receiving unveiled knowledge direct from within they are able to  attain the Supreme Lord Krishna eternally.

Comment: Srila Prabhupadas purport is most significant to this sloka, this is one of the verses of Bhagavad Gita we should try to learn by heart and remember on daily basis 

Srila Prabhupada writes:

"Pride is due to illusion, for although one comes here, stays for a brief time and then goes away, he has the foolish notion that he is the lord of the world. He thus makes all things complicated, and he is always in trouble. The whole world moves under this impression. People are considering the land, this earth, to belong to human society, and they have divided the land under the false impression that they are the proprietors. One has to get out of this false notion that human society is the proprietor of this world"

In the Manah Siksa Srila Raghunath has compared this  pride and desire for fame as the trickling urin from a donkey

are cetah prodyat-kapata-kuti-nati-bhara-khara- ksaran-mutre snatva dahasi katham atmanam api mam   sada tvam gandharva-giridhari-pada-prema-vilasat- sudhambhodhau snatva svam api nitaram mam ca sukhaya

O Mind, why do you burn us both by bathing in the urine trickling from the ass of great deviousness and hypocrisy? Instead, you should delight us by eternally bathing in the glistening nectar-ocean of pure love for Sri Sri Gandharva-Giridhari (Sri Sri Radha-Krsna).

commentary by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura: http://philosophy.ru/library/asiatica/indica/authors/bhaktivinoda/m...

   Text 7   pratisthasa dhrsta svapaca-ramani me hrdi natet   katham sadhu-prema sprsati sucir etan nanu manah   sada tvam sevasva prabhu-dayita-samantam atulam   yatha tam niskasya tvaritam iha tam vesayati sah

as long as the impudent untouchable woman of the desire for fame dances in my heart, why should pure love for Radha-Krsna touch me? O mind, continuously serve my spiritual master, the leader of those who are dear to the Lord. Then my master will quickly kick out that harridan and allow that pure love to enter.

Text 8   yatha dustatvam me darayati sathasyapi krpaya   yatha mahyam premamrtam api dadaty ujjvalam asau   atha sri-gandharva-bhajana-vidhaye prerayati mam   tatha gosthe kakva giridharam iha tvam bhaja manah

So That He will mercifully smash my wickedness (even though I am a great rascal), so that He will give me the splendid nectar of transcendental love, and so He will engage me in Sri Radha’s service, please, O mind, with words choked with emotion, worship Lord Giridhari here in Vraja.

The positive instruction is:

gurau gosthe gosthalayisu sujane bhusura-gane sva-mantre  sri-namni vraja-nava-yuva-dvandva-sarane sada dambham hitva kuru ratim  apurvam atitaram aye svantardhatas catubhir abhiyace  dhrta-padah

O mind, I grasp your feet and beg you with sweet words: Please  cast away all hypocrisy and develop intense, unprecedented love for my spiritual  master, Vrajabhumi, the people of Vraja, the Vaisnavas, the brahmanas,  the Gayatri mantra, the holy name, and the transcendental shelter that is  the fresh young couple of Vraja, Radha and Krsna.