Sthitaprajna

The compound joins sthita, "standing, settled, firm", from the root sthā, "to stand", with prajñā, "wisdom, insight". It describes a person, the one whose understanding no longer moves; 2.72 later names the state. Arjuna uses it in 2.54 beside two near synonyms, samādhistha, "established in samādhi", and sthitadhī, "of steady thought". His question is practical: "How should one of steady mind speak, how sit, how move?" It follows 2.53, where Krishna said Arjuna would reach yoga when his buddhi stood unmoving in samādhi.

Krishna answers first from the inside. In 2.55 a man is called sthitaprajña when he "abandons all the desires of his heart, and is pleased in his self only and by his self". In 2.56 the sthitadhī sage is not agitated in sorrows, has no craving amid pleasures, and is free of passion, fear and anger. In 2.57 he neither rejoices nor hates on meeting what is pleasant or unpleasant.

In 2.57 the compound is opened into a clause, tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā, his wisdom is established, which returns in 2.58, 2.61 and 2.68. In those three the condition is the senses. They are drawn in "as the tortoise (withdraws) its limbs from all sides" (2.58), held under control by one who sits disciplined and intent on Krishna (2.61), restrained on all sides from their objects (2.68). The verses between show the opposite: dwelling on objects breeds attachment, desire, anger, confusion and the loss of buddhi (2.62 to 2.63), and a mind that follows the roaming senses carries prajñā away "as the wind leads a boat astray upon the waters" (2.67).

The section closes by naming the state. After the image of the ocean that stays unmoved while waters pour in (2.70) and the man who lives without craving, without "mine" and without ego (2.71), verse 2.72 calls it brāhmī sthitiḥ, "the Brahmic state", using a noun from the same root sthā. One who reaches it is not deluded, and holding to it even at the end reaches brahmanirvāṇa.