"how do they talk?"

here is an excerpt from my morning's reading of the gita (v. 54-65 from chapter 2, which may be my favorite). also, if you're interested in procuring a translation that is easy to read and quick to understand (103 pages instead of 1252, albeit not in all of the allegorical glory) i encourage you to take a look at eknath easwaran's.

Arjuna:

Tell me of those who live established in self-wisdom, ever aware of the Self, O Krishna. How do they talk? How sit? How move about?

Sri Krishna:

They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.

Neither agitated by grief nor hankering after pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger. Established in meditation, they are truly wise. Fettered no more by selfish attachments, they are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.

Even as a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise can draw in their senses at will. Aspirants abstain from sense pleasures, but they still crave for them. These cravings all disappear when they see the highest goal. Even of those who tread the path, the stormy senses can sweep off the mind. They live in wisdom who subdue their senses and keep their minds ever absorbed in me.

When you keep thinking about sense objects, attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire, the lust of possession that burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgment; you can no longer learn from past mistakes. Lost is the power to choose between what is wise and what is unwise, and your life is utter waste. But when you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end, and you live in the wisdom of the Self.

not that i am likely to have readers who don't realize this, but it is important to keep in mind that the goal is not to abandon our fundamental personality and try to replace it with what we imagine sages to be like. that would be a futile attempt, in all likelihood. it is important to always keep in mind what gilbert says in that book that i (eat, pray,) love (and quote because i cannot say it half as well):

God dwells within you, as you. If there is one holy truth of this Yoga, that line encapsulates it. God dwells within you as you yourself, exactly the way you are. God isn't interested in watching you enact some performance of personality in order to comply with some crackpot notion you have about how a spiritual person looks or behaves. We all seem to get this idea that, in order to be sacred, we have to make some massive, dramatic change of character, that we have to renounce our individuality. This is a classic example of what they call in the East "wrong-thinking." Swamiji used to say that every day renunciants find something new to renounce, but it is usually depression, not peace, that they attain. Constantly he was teaching that austerity and renunciation - just for their own sake - are not what you need. To know God, you need only to renounce one thing - your sense of division from God. Otherwise, just stay as you were made, within your natural character.

yes, that about sums up the picture in my head. for now.