As the waters, going from every side, enter the ocean, which is filled by the waters yet stands fixed and unmoving, abiding in its own self unchanged: just so, the man into whom all desires enter, all the particular longings that arise even in the nearness of objects, while he, like the ocean filled by the waters, remains unchanged, the desires being dissolved in the Self alone and not making him fall under their sway, he gains peace, liberation; and not the other, the desirer of desires, he whose habit it is to long for the objects of desire. Since it is so, therefore.

Just as the ocean, filled by itself, one in form, into which the waters of the rivers enter, undergoes, whether those waters enter or do not, no change at all, so all desires, the objects sound and the rest, enter that man of restraint, come within range of his senses, and he attains peace. When the objects, sound and the rest, come within range of the senses or do not, the man who, by the contentment of beholding his own self, undergoes no change, he alone attains peace. Not the man who craves desires: he who is altered by sound and the rest never at all attains peace.

With that, Krishna states the manner of the man of knowledge's experience of objects, with 'as the waters fill'. He who, though filled by objects, remains of unmoved foundation, who comes to no swelling, makes no effort, and does not dry up in their absence, is the one meant. For the ocean does not, through the inflow or non-inflow of the rivers, come to any great increase or drying-up, nor does it make any effort. He attains liberation; that is the sense.