They are the sages, and Arjuna asks for some discernible signs, some distinguishing marks of such developed souls. When a man puts away all the desires of his mind, O Arjuna, and when his spirit is content in itself, then is he called stable in intelligence. Negatively, the state is one of freedom from selfish desires and positively, it is one of concentration on the Supreme. He whose mind is untroubled in the midst of sorrows and is free from eager desire amid pleasures, he from whom passion, fear, and rage have passed away, he is called a sage of settled intelligence. It is self-mastery, conquest of desire and passion that is insisted on.
Flowers bloom and they fade.
There is no need to praise the former and condemn the latter. We must receive whatever comes without excitement, pain or revolt. The objects of sense turn away from the embodied soul who abstains from feeding on them but the taste for them remains. Even the taste turns away when the Supreme is seen. The author is explaining the difference between outer abstention and inner renunciation.