Sanskrit
यदृच्छालाभसन्तुष्टो द्वन्द्वातीतो विमत्सरः । समः सिद्धावसिद्धौ च कृत्वाऽपि न निबद्ध्यते ॥
yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ samaḥ siddhāv asiddhau ca kṛtvāpi na nibaddhyate
Translation
Content with whatsoever he obtaineth without effort, free from the pairs of opposites, without envy, balanced in success and failure, though acting he is not bound.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Continues the portrait with the classic marks of equanimity — content with whatever comes unsought, past the pairs of opposites, free of envy, balanced in success and failure — language that echoes 2.48’s “samatvaṃ yoga ucyate” almost exactly. Chapter 2 established this ideal in the register of consciousness; here it’s the same figure applied specifically to the doing of action. The source text marks a printing correction in the final word (निबध्यते corrected to निबद्ध्यते), reflected above. Yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭa — “satisfied with what arrives by itself” — is the practical form of samatva: not indifference to outcomes but the absence of a grip on which one arrives.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭoयदृच्छा-लाभ-सन्तुष्टो
- content with what comes unsought (yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭaḥ)
- dvandvātītoद्वन्द्वातीतो
- beyond the pairs of opposites (dvandva-atītaḥ)
- vimatsaraḥविमत्सरः
- free of envy
- samaḥ siddhāv asiddhau caसमः सिद्धाव् असिद्धौ च
- the same in success and failure (samaḥ + siddhau + asiddhau + ca)
- kṛtvāpi na nibaddhyateकृत्वापि न निबद्ध्यते
- though he acts, he is not bound (kṛtvā + api + na + nibadhyate)
Commentary
Site Commentary
yadṛcchā-lābha, “gain that arrives unsought,” is a narrower test than it first sounds — it says nothing about how hard someone works or what they pursue, only about how they receive whatever lands in front of them. The discipline this verse describes lives entirely on the receiving end, not the effort end, which is a version of equanimity easy to skip past because it asks nothing of your ambition, only of your reaction to how the outcome actually turns out.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice that this verse doesn't ask you to stop wanting things or working for them — it only asks how you receive whatever actually lands, wanted or not. Practice staying level when an outcome you didn't engineer shows up, rather than waiting for a bigger renunciation you may never get around to.
Professional
- When a project succeeds partly through circumstances you didn't create — a market shift, a colleague's assist, plain timing — resist the urge to either overclaim credit or downplay the win out of guilt; receive it evenly, the way you'd want to receive an unplanned setback.
Family & Social
- When family circumstances hand you something you didn't ask for — an inheritance, a favor, an unplanned opportunity — how you receive it says more about your character than how hard you worked for it; practice taking it without either guilt or entitlement.
Ask yourself
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