Sanskrit
यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ । समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते ॥
yaṃ hi na vyathayanty ete puruṣaṃ puruṣarṣabha samaduḥkhasukhaṃ dhīraṃ so'mṛtatvāya kalpate
Translation
The man whom these torment not, O chief of men, balanced in pain and pleasure, steadfast, he is fitted for immortality.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A direct consequence of the previous verse: the person genuinely unmoved by pleasure and pain — not numb to them, but not destabilized by them — is described as “fitted for immortality,” i.e. positioned to actually grasp what Krishna has been arguing rather than just hearing the words. “Sama-duḥkha-sukha” — even in pain and pleasure — is the first appearance of samatva, the evenness that BG 2.48 will define outright as yoga. Here it is stated as a qualification for immortality; there it becomes a method.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yaṃ hiयं हि
- whom indeed (yam + hi)
- na vyathayantyन व्यथयन्त्य्
- do not distress (na + vyathayanti)
- eteएते
- these — the sense-contacts
- puruṣaṃपुरुषं
- the person
- puruṣarṣabhaपुरुषर्षभ
- O bull among men
- samaduḥkhasukhaṃसमदुःखसुखं
- the same in pain and pleasure (sama-duḥkha-sukham)
- dhīraṃधीरं
- the steady one
- so'mṛtatvāyaसोऽमृतत्वाय
- he, for immortality (saḥ + amṛtatvāya)
- kalpateकल्पते
- becomes fit
Commentary
Site Commentary
Verse 14 gave an instruction (endure); this verse quietly supplies the test for whether it’s working — not the absence of pleasure and pain, but no longer being destabilized by them. That’s a meaningfully different bar than “feeling nothing,” and it converts the previous verse’s demand into something checkable: are you still the same person after the good news and the bad news, or not?
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Don't measure your progress toward steadiness by whether good and bad news still register — measure it by whether they still knock you off course. Feeling them is fine; being destabilized by them is the actual thing to work on.
Professional
- When judging whether someone is ready for more responsibility under pressure, don't look for someone who doesn't react to setbacks — look for someone who reacts and still holds their course. That's a meaningfully different, more useful bar.
Family & Social
- Don't expect yourself or someone you love to stop feeling the ups and downs of a hard stretch — the more honest measure of how you're doing is whether you're still functioning the same afterward, not whether you felt nothing.
Ask yourself
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