After seeing the stages of preparation for self-knowledge to take place, now the expression of the one who has jñānam - self knowledge is described again after chapter 2-55. Jñānam itself is moksa and giving the characteristic - laksana of a jñānī - one who has jñānam. It has nothing to do with his/her appearance or style of talking etc. but there are certain characteristics of his/her interaction with the world in terms of his/her attitude towards people and situations. The way in which he/she interacts, not only with people but all other beings, becomes sādhana - the means which are to be understood and pursued by mumuksu - who desires for moksa.
adveṣṭā sarvabhūtānāṁ maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca |
nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ samaduḥkhasukhaḥ kṣamī ||12.13||
The one who has no hatred for all beings, who has the disposition of a friend, who is compassionate, free from possessiveness, free from doer-ship, equal in pleasant and unpleasant (situations), and indeed, one who is naturally accommodative...
Starting from this verse till the last verse of this chapter, it talks about the person who is a jñānī, often stated as a sannyāsī who has renunciate all his/her ahankārah - self-identification, who has found fulfilment through knowing that by nature he/she is free from any limitation. Because of self-knowledge he/she is spontaneously free from hatred, etc. Though these qualities describe a wise man, they are not meant to judge whether a person is wise or not. They are purely a description of those values and attitudes that a seeker should cultivate.
adveṣṭā sarvabhūtānāṁ - the one who is free from hatred towards all beings, even though a person may cause him/her some pain, jñānī doesn't entertain any hatred or ill-will towards that person. For him/her it is very natural because seeing all creatures as himself/herself. If one depends upon the world to fulfil one's rāga dvesa - likes and dislikes, naturally those which causing dislikes will become objects of hatred.
For a mumuksu it is important to be physically and mentally independent, then his/her well being doesn't depend that much on others. But in the transactional world, more or less we need to interact with others, therefore granting freedom to others "being how they are" is important in every interaction. By granting them freedom, we are granting freedom for ourselves as well.
Such a person (jñanī) will naturally have the disposition of a friend - maitraḥ. A friend is not just a person that we know, but one who has the quality of being a friend. He/she shouldn't have ill-will towards anyone, and also approachable. karuṇaḥ - one who has compassion and sympathy for those who are in pain. nirmamaḥ - one who is free from the sense of mine-ness, the sense that something belongs to him/her. This is a virtue one started to grow on the first stage of sādhana on verse 11, then will cultivate into full measure as a jñānī. As long as the sense of I is placed in this body-mind-sense-complex, there is the notion of oneself as an isolated individual. Once that is there, the idea of "mine" is impossible to avoid. One can give up as many things as one likes, but mine-ness will not totally go until the ahankāra goes. Therefore jnānī is a person whose mine-ness is not there - nirahaṅkāraḥ. What goes, in fact, is not the ahankāra but the notion of the reality of the ahankāra.
samaduḥkhasukhaḥ - the one for whom sukha (pleasant situation) and dukha (unpleasant situation) are equal. A person doesn't get elated or depressed which is possible only when one doesn't depend upon situations in order to be happy and seeing the self being of the nature of ānanda - happiness. It is easy to say you should be equal to sukha and dukha but this is not a piece of advice. The points that one who is dependent upon situation for one's well being, will be subject to emotional ups and downs. Knowing that the self is pūrnaḥ - fullness which can't be improved upon and absolutely secure, even in unpleasant situation, a jñānī doesn't become duhkhī - one who is in sorrow. It is not merely enduring a difficult situation, but a fact that I am pūrnaḥ to be understood and quietly recognised which is gained through inquiry. But sukha-duhka situation can be faced with relative equanimity by living a life of karma-yoga attitude, and the culmination of totally free from dependence on situations is the result of self-knowledge.
Therefore jñanī is kṣamī - one who has forbearance, forgiveness and can retain his composure in spite of hostile situations. This again is not an ideal, but rather certain things to understand in life. What does it take to remain compose under all hostile situation? Only when one understands that everything is depended on me the satyam to be exist. nāsato vidyate bhāvaḥ nābhavo vidyate sataḥ (Gītā chapter 2-16), there is no independent existence for the apparent, and ātmā which is sat - existence never ceases to be. Every situation is true to me only if I give the status of reality to it. For a mumuksu who is still working on this value can try to see every unpleasant situation "that shall pass".
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