आपूर्यमाणमचलप्रतिष्ठं समुद्रमापः प्रविशन्ति यद्वत् । तद्वत्कामा यं प्रविशन्ति सर्वे स शान्तिमाप्नोति न कामकामी ॥
āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭhaṃ samudram āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat | tadvat kāmā yaṃ praviśanti sarve sa śāntim āpnoti na kāma-kāmī ||
All desires pour into the sage like rivers into the ocean — the ocean stays unmoved. That is peace.
Word by word (3)
- āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭham samudram
- — the ocean, being filled yet immovably established · Āpūryamāṇam = being filled (present passive participle of ā+pūr, to fill completely). The ocean is perpetually being filled by all the rivers that enter it — yet it is never not-full, and never overflows. Acala-pratiṣṭha = immovably established (acala = unmoving + pratiṣṭha = established, rooted). The ocean is constantly receiving and yet fundamentally unchanged.
- āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat
- — as the waters enter · Yadvat = just as, in the same way as. The simile structure: yadvat (just as) ... tadvat (so too). The waters (āpaḥ) entering the ocean are desires entering the sage. The ocean does not rush to receive them, does not try to stop them — they simply enter into its fullness without disturbing it.
- na kāma-kāmī
- — not the one who desires after desires · Kāma-kāmī = one who desires desires (kāma desired, kāmin = one who desires). The compound is philosophically precise: the sage is not someone with no kāma entering — desires continue to arise. The difference is that the sage does not kāma-kāmi (desire the desires, run after them, identify with them). The desires enter; the sage is unmoved.
As rivers pour into the ocean from all sides — and yet the ocean, ever full, remains immovably still — so the one into whom all desires flow attains peace. Not the one who runs after desires.
A modern analogy
Think of a person who has built deep inner stability over years: offers come in, criticisms arrive, temptations appear, losses occur — all of it flows through their awareness like rivers into an ocean. They are fully aware of everything entering — they are not numb. But the ocean does not overflow when a river enters. Their peace is not the absence of desires — it is the ocean's depth that makes no single river enough to disturb it.
Take with you
- The sage does not have zero desires — desires flow in. The key is ocean-quality: vast enough that no single desire overflows it.
- Running after desires (kāma-kāmī) is the opposite of this: the person who chases each river, never achieving the ocean's stillness.
- Peace comes from depth of being, not from the absence of inputs. Build the ocean, not the dam.
- This is the most hopeful verse in the sthitaprajña portrait: you don't need to eliminate all desires — you need to build enough inner depth that they don't overwhelm.
V70 is the climactic verse of the sthitaprajña portrait — the most celebrated analogy in the entire second chapter. The ocean (samudra) image is philosophically exact in several ways: 1. The ocean receives all rivers without exception — the sage is not protected from desire-inputs but receives them fully. 2. The ocean is āpūryamāṇam (perpetually being filled) — it is never diminished by what it receives. 3. It is acala-pratiṣṭha (immovably established) — its nature does not change despite the constant influx. Shankaracharya reads the ocean as Atman: the infinite, self-complete ground of awareness into which all phenomenal experiences (kāma = desires, experiences, phenomena) arise without disturbing it. The contrast with kāma-kāmī is essential: the peace comes not from the absence of desires but from the vastness that receives them without being defined by them. The kāma-kāmī (desire-chaser) is like a bucket: filled immediately by each small stream, overflowing constantly, never stable. Tilak (Gita Rahasya) loved this verse as the perfect description of the karma-yogi in action: fully engaged with everything the world brings, yet unentangled.
Advaita lens
For Shankaracharya, the ocean is Brahman / Atman — infinite, self-complete, inherently full. The rivers are the play of Prakriti: desires, experiences, phenomena arising in the field of the manifested world. The Advaita reading is that the apparent separation between the ocean and the rivers is māyā — all phenomena are, in truth, modifications of the same ocean-Brahman. The jñāni who has realized this truth embodies the ocean-quality not through achievement but through recognition: 'I am already the ocean, not a bucket waiting to be filled.'
Bhakti lens
The ocean metaphor of V70 has a deep resonance in bhakti: the bhakta IS the ocean. Kāmā yamāṃ praviśanti sarve — desires enter from all sides, like rivers. The ocean remains unchanged because it is full from its own source (āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭham). For the bhakta, the Divine is that inner source of fullness — when the heart is filled with the Beloved, every external desire that enters finds the ocean already full and is absorbed without disturbing it. The bhakta who has tasted Krishna's love does not need the rivers of worldly desire to fill them — not because they have suppressed desire but because they have found a fulfilment that no river of craving can add to or subtract from. V70 describes the state of the mahātmā — and in bhakti, every devoted soul is moving toward this ocean-fullness.
Karma-Yoga lens
Tilak and Vivekananda both cited V70 as the perfect description of karma-yoga in its mature form. The karma-yogi does not withdraw from the world's rivers — work, relationships, demands, responsibilities — but receives them with ocean-equanimity. The key is na kāma-kāmī: not running after each river, not being defined by any of them. This enables the karma-yogi to be fully engaged in all circumstances without exhaustion or accumulation of ego-residue.
Public-domain translations (5) compare all →
He attains peace into whom all desires enter, as waters flow into the sea which, though ever being filled, remains unmoved — not he who hankers after objects of desire. [1]
He attains peace into whom all desires enter as waters enter the ocean, which, though ever being filled, is ever motionless — not he who desires objects of desire. [4]
That man in whom all desires flow and are absorbed, even as the rivers flow into the ocean which is full but remains unmoved — that man attains to peace, and not he who cherishes desire. [6]
He who is the ocean — all the streams Poured into it but can nowise disturb — Whose peace, though all desires flow in, Comes not from craving: such a one hath peace. [7]
He attains peace into whom all desires flow just as the ocean, which is ever full on all sides, receives the waters — not he who is desirous of desires. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.
Move through the world free from longing, free from 'mine,' free from ego — that is how peace is reached.
Knowing Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifice and austerity, Great Lord of all worlds, Friend of all beings — peace comes.
He who neither troubles the world nor is troubled by it — free from joy, envy, fear, anxiety — he is dear to Me!
The self-conquered yogi finds the Supreme Self equally present through cold, heat, joy, pain, honour and dishonour.
Once that joy is found, no other gain seems greater — established in it, even the heaviest sorrow cannot shake you.