5.23 Withstanding the surge Krishna speaks
शक्नोतीहैव यः सोढुं प्राक्शरीरविमोक्षणात्
कामक्रोधोद्भवं वेगं स युक्तः स सुखी नरः
śhaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ prāk śharīra-vimokṣhaṇāt
kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ
One who can withstand the surge of desire and anger here, before leaving the body, is joined — and that one is happy.
Explanation
The word is a surge, and the practice is standing in it.
vega — a rush, the force of a current. Desire and anger are granted real momentum here.
And the instruction is withstanding, not the absence of feeling. Nothing in the verse suggests the surge stops arriving; what changes is whether it carries you.
Going further
Word by word
- śhaknoti
- is able
- iha eva
- in the present body
- yaḥ
- who
- soḍhum
- to withstand
- prāk
- before
- śharīra
- the body
- vimokṣhaṇāt
- giving up
- kāma
- desire
- krodha
- anger
- udbhavam
- generated from
- vegam
- forces
- saḥ
- that person
- yuktaḥ
- yogi
- saḥ
- that person
- sukhī
- happy
- naraḥ
- person
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The word is vega — a surge, a rush, the force of a current.
It concedes that desire and anger arrive with real momentum, and it puts the practice at withstanding rather than at not feeling. That is a far more usable instruction than purity, and it is available to someone in the middle of the surge rather than only to someone who never had one.