Sanskrit
मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः । सर्वारंभपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते ॥
mānāpamānayos tulyas tulyo mitrāripakṣayoḥ sarvārambhaparityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate
Translation
The same in honour and ignominy, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings—he is said to have crossed over the qualities.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The portrait’s closing line, adding honor/dishonor and friend/foe to verse 24’s list and finishing with the abandonment of all initiating of new undertakings — before naming the state outright: guṇātīta, “beyond the qualities,” Arjuna’s original question from verse 21 finally answered by name. Verse 26 then does something the sthitaprajna portrait in chapter 2 never did: it names the actual means of getting here, and that means turns out to be devotional rather than purely intellectual. Sarva-ārambha-parityāgī — “having given up all [self-interested] undertakings” — is BG 12.16 again. The portrait ends by naming its subject: guṇātīta, “one who has gone past the strands,” and BG 14.26 names how he got there.
Study deeper
Word by word
- mānāpamānayos tulyasमानापमानयोस् तुल्यस्
- the same in honour and dishonour (māna-apamānayoḥ + tulyaḥ)
- tulyo mitrāripakṣayoḥतुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः
- the same to the sides of friend and foe (tulyaḥ + mitra-ari-pakṣayoḥ)
- sarvārambhaparityāgīसर्वारंभपरित्यागी
- who has given up all undertakings [for gain] (sarva-ārambha-parityāgī)
- guṇātītaḥ sa ucyateगुणातीतः स उच्यते
- he is said to have transcended the guṇas (guṇa-atītaḥ + saḥ + ucyate)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Every item before this one in the portrait is an attitude — staying even toward honor, friendship, censure. The last item switches registers entirely: abandoning all undertakings is a behavior, not a disposition, and it’s aimed precisely at rajas’s defining compulsion from verses 7 and 12 — the itch to keep starting new things. The portrait doesn’t end on one more feeling to hold evenly; it ends on the one compulsive action pattern that finally has to stop.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice that becoming even-tempered about outcomes isn't the finish line by itself — at some point the actual compulsive habit, the itch to keep starting new projects before finishing the last one, has to stop as a behavior, not just soften as a feeling.
Professional
- Notice that a calmer attitude toward wins and losses doesn't by itself fix a habit of chronically launching new initiatives — at some point the behavior of over-starting has to stop directly, since equanimity about outcomes and discipline about commitments are two different fixes.
Family & Social
- Notice that feeling less reactive to family conflict isn't the same as actually stopping a pattern of over-committing to obligations you can't sustain — the attitude can improve while the behavior driving your exhaustion keeps running until you address it directly.
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