He whose mind is not stirred, not shaken, when pains come, those pertaining to the self and the rest, is one of unstirred mind. So too, when pleasures come, he in whom the longing, the craving, for pleasures has departed, who does not, like fire fed with fuel, swell up after pleasures, is one whose longing has departed. He from whom passion, fear and anger have gone is one freed of passion, fear and anger. Such a sage, a renouncer of settled insight, is then said to be of settled insight. Further.

When occasions of pain, the parting from the dear and the like, are at hand, he is not troubled in mind, does not become unhappy; amid pleasures he is free of longing, without longing even when dear things are at hand; he is rid of passion, fear, and anger. 'Passion' is longing for things not yet come; he is free of that. 'Fear' is the pain that comes of foreseeing the cause of parting from the dear or the coming of the unwished; he is free of that. 'Anger' is the disorder of one's own mind, a cause of pain, that arises toward another conscious being who is the cause of parting from the dear or the coming of the unwished; he is free of that. Such a man, a sage given to pondering the self, is called of steady wisdom. Next is told a state lower than that.

Krishna makes this very point clear with the next three verses. These very things are the means to knowledge, as it is said, 'that which is to be accomplished by the seekers of knowledge is just what is the mark of the men of knowledge'. 'Raga' is the false superimposition of the agreeable, as the definition runs, 'relish, attachment, fondness, are held to be the false superimposition of the agreeable'.