Sage Remains Inwardly Undisturbed

Sage Vasishtha

He who is endowed with desirelessness (hope-lessness) treats the whole world as if it were the footprint of a calf, the highest mountain as the stump of a felled tree, space as a small box and the three worlds as a blade of grass. He laughs at the activities of the worldly-minded persons. How can we compare such a person, and to what? How can anyone disturb his equanimity when he is totally free from thoughts like "I wish this had happened to me"? O Rama, it is desire or hope that makes one revolve, bound to the wheel of world-illusion. 

When you perceive the truth that the self alone is all this and that diversity is just a word without substance, you will become totally free from desire or hope. Such a hero who is endowed with supreme dispassion drives away the goblin of illusion by his very presence. He is not pleased by pleasure, he is not troubled by troubles. Attractions do not distract him anymore than wind can uproot a mountain. The twin-forces of attraction and aversion do not even touch him. He looks upon all with equal vision.

Free from the least attachment he enjoys whatever comes to him unsought, even as the eyes perceive their without desire or hate. Such experiences do not therefore produce either joy or sorrow in him. Even though he appears to be engaged in the performance of appropriate actions in this world, his consciousness is not distracted in the least. Whatever may befall him in accordance with the laws of time, space and causation, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, he remains inwardly undisturbed.
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"I (the Self) do naught, only the senses are occupied with their objects .. this should be the conviction of one who is detached in action and established in the truth (that he is the Atman), even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, conversing, holding, walking, giving up, winking and even sleeping." - Chapter 5 , Srimad Bhagavad Gita