By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Sometimes you can tell what’s going on inside a person by the way they look. Their silly grin or their wrinkled brow tells you what they are thinking and feeling.

Yet someone can be smiling while thinking negative or harmful thoughts. In poker and in politics, the pathway to success is to hide your true feelings. This can sometimes be true in close relationships as well.

Can you look at someone and see that they are enlightened? This is important because you want to study with the best. They can help you make rapid progress toward your own enlightenment. What is enlightenment like, both inside and outside? Fortunately, Arjuna asked this question for us:

Arjuna uvacha, sthita-prajnasya ka bhasha samadhi-sthasya keshava

sthita-dhih kim prabhasheta kim asita vrajeta kim. — Bhagavadgita 2.54

Arjuna asked, “What is the inner experience of an enlightened being? In worldly activities, how do they talk? How do they sit? How do they walk?”

The next eighteen verses are Krishna’s answer. He describes the process of becoming enlightened as well as how the enlightened being lives.

By divine Grace, all his sorrows are destroyed. With a peaceful mind, he abides in a Divine state of inner steadiness. — Bhagavadgita 2.65

Your understanding of this description begins from your own experiences of a peaceful mind. But what is “a Divine state?” These experiences are pivot points in your life.

I remember being a teenager at summer camp in the mountains. I often sat in a sacred grove that had a view of the valley. It was reserved as a silent lookout point. In the beginning, the view transported me. I felt like I could almost fly across the vast terrain. I felt free.

My experience changed as I returned again, sometimes multiple times daily. It became an inner vastness that was much greater than the view. At the same time, I felt…