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Worksheet 5

Being an Illumined One

(Stithaprajna)

Self-Inquiry – Self-Assessment Exercise:

Consider the following list of qualities to be your life assignment checklist…

(a) Put a 1-9 self-rating (see sample scale) at each of the 25 items

below based on the extent you practice that in your life at this time.

1--------2--------3--------4--------5--------6--------7--------8--------9

Almost Never Seldom Sometimes Frequently Almost Always

(b) Mark ** by any “impossibles” (that now seem unattainable).

(c) Date this sheet and revisit it occasionally to check progress.

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In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna reveals:

“The truly enlightened human (the Sthithaprajna) can be identified by certain qualities. He or she…

_____ 1) abandons all selfish desires, cravings, and torments

of the heart

_____ 2) is satisfied with the True Self Within (Atma)

_____ 3) wants nothing outside of the True Self

_____ 4) knows that real bliss is found only within

_____ 5) is unperturbed by sorrow and adversity

_____ 6) does not thirst for pleasures

_____ 7) is free of the three traits that most tarnish the mind

_____a) greed

_____b) fear

_____c) anger.

_____ 8) is detached from worldly objects of desire

_____ 9) neither rejoices nor gets depressed when faced with

good or bad fortune

_____10) is poised in wisdom above worldly turmoil

_____11) deftly withdraws the senses from attractions of the

world (just as the turtle pulls in its limbs to protect

itself)

_____12) is focused on taming wayward senses

_____13) is ever vigilant against the treacherousness of

the senses

_____14) is measured by the yardstick of how well his or her

greed and desires are controlled

_____15) keeps the mind ever intent on achieving the goal

of life, which is union with Divinity

_____16) The illumined one gets in the habit of substituting divine

thoughts for bad thoughts and sense attractions

_____17) stays free of either attachment or aversion

to the attractions of the sense

_____18) is tranquil of heart

_____19) is absorbed in the peace and wisdom of the

True Self Within (the Atma)

_____20) knows that serenity is the point where all sorrow ends!

_____21) uses the mind’s powers to

_____a) restrain the senses

_____b) steady the mind

_____c) curb both attachment and aversion

_____22) has a sense of values that is like night and day

when compared to ordinary people

_____23) is totally still, never disturbed, despite the constant flow

of desires and attachments

_____24) is free of ego (the sense of “I and mine”)

_____25) lives life devoid of cravings, forgets desire.

Once you achieve this fixed, still state you will never fall back into delusion, and will eventually achieve the goal of life, which is to merge into Me, Divinity.”

– Krishna

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