2-14

मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्ण सुख दुःखदाः ।
आगमापायिनोऽनित्याः तान् तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥ १४ ॥

mAtrAsparzAstu kaunteya zItoSNa sukha duHkhadAH |
AgamApAyino'nityAH tAn titikSasva bhArata || 14 ||

कौन्तेय [kaunteya] O son of Kunti, भारत [bhArata] born in the Bharata clan, मात्रास्पर्शाः तु [mAtrAsparzAH tu] contact with the material world शीतोष्ण सुख दुःखदाः [zItoSNa sukha duHkhadAH] gives rise to feelings of cold, heat, joy and sorrow. आगमापायिनः [AgamApAyinaH] They come and go. अनित्याः [anityAH] They are temporary. तान् तितिक्षस्व [tAn titikSasva] Endure them with patience.

Touch, sound, form, taste and smell - all of them lie in the primary elements of matter. This matter causes many experiences within you, when it comes into contact with your organs. Organs that sense events such as touch and sound give us feelings of cold, heat, hardness, softness and so on. These feelings in turn lead to experiences of joy and sorrow. Words like ‘cold’, ‘heat’, ‘joy’ and ‘sorrow’ are used as examples to illustrate all your different experiences.

Tolerate your experiences. They are effects of past activities that were driven by outcomes.

Till your duties (such as war) are over, tolerate these experiences with courage and patience. Since they come and go, they are definitely tolerable by the courageous who are patient. They are indeed temporary: Your experience of the material world is an effect of your past deeds. Such effect binds you to the experience. As soon as the effect gets spent, the experience disappears. That’s the meaning of the Shloka.

Next, the Lord explains the purpose of tolerating these experiences -