Sanskrit
यः सर्वत्रानभिस्नेहस्तत्तत्प्राप्य शुभाशुभम् । नाभिनन्दति न द्वेष्टि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥
yaḥ sarvatrānabhisnehas tat tat prāpya śubhāśubham nābhinandati na dveṣṭi tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā
Translation
He who on every side is without attachments, whatever hap of fair and foul, who neither likes nor dislikes, of such a one the understanding is well poised.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Extends verse 56’s inner calm to how a person meets outward events: not reacting with delight or aversion regardless of whether things turn out well or badly. “Well poised” (pratiṣṭhitā) becomes this portrait’s refrain — it recurs verbatim in verses 58 and 61 as the marker of steady understanding. The two rejected responses — abhinandana (greeting with delight) and dveṣa (recoil) — are the outward face of rāga and krodha from the previous verse. The sage’s neutrality is not coldness; it is the absence of the hook that the chain of BG 2.62 needs to start.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yaḥयः
- one who
- sarvatrānabhisnehasसर्वत्रानभिस्नेहस्
- is unattached everywhere (sarvatra + anabhisnehaḥ)
- tat tat prāpya śubhāśubhamतत् तत् प्राप्य शुभाशुभं
- on meeting this or that, good or bad (tat + tat + prāpya + śubha-aśubham)
- nābhinandatiनाभिनन्दति
- neither rejoices (na + abhinandati)
- na dveṣṭiन द्वेष्टि
- nor recoils (na + dveṣṭi)
- tasyaतस्य
- his
- prajñā pratiṣṭhitāप्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता
- wisdom is well established (prajñā + pratiṣṭhitā)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Equanimity here doesn’t erase the categories fair and foul — the verse still names them as such. What changes is only the automatic reaction of liking or disliking that follows; the perceiving stays honest while the reacting drops out. That’s a narrower, more usable claim than blank indifference to outcomes.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- You don't need to pretend a bad outcome isn't bad to stay steady — name it accurately, just without needing an automatic surge of aversion to accompany the naming.
Professional
- You can call a failed launch a failure in the postmortem, in full honesty, without needing anger or defensiveness to color the assessment — accurate naming and emotional reactivity are separable.
Family & Social
- You can acknowledge that something a family member did was genuinely hurtful without needing anger to prove you noticed — clear naming doesn't require an emotional reaction attached to it.
Ask yourself
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