Steadiness under pressure

1 · Chapter 2 · Shloka 14

The contacts of matter, O son of Kuntî, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, they come and go, impermanent; endure them bravely, O Bhârata.

Sensation arrives and leaves — heat, cold, pleasure, pain. The instruction is to endure it, not deny it.

2 · Chapter 2 · Shloka 38

Taking as equal pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, gird thee for the battle; thus thou shalt not incur sin.

Hold gain and loss, win and loss, at the same weight — then act.

3 · Chapter 2 · Shloka 48

Perform action, O Dhananjaya, dwelling in union with the divine, renouncing attachments and balanced evenly in success and failure: equilibrium is called yoga.

That evenness inside action is the definition Krishna gives of yoga itself.

4 · Chapter 5 · Shloka 20

With Reason firm, unperplexed, the knower of the Eternal established in the Eternal, neither rejoiceth on obtaining what is pleasant, nor sorroweth on obtaining what is unpleasant.

Don't spike at the pleasant or sink at the unpleasant; a mind that has stopped swinging is already free.

5 · Chapter 6 · Shloka 7

The higher Self of him who is Self-controlled and peaceful is uniform in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as well as in honour and dishonour.

For someone that settled, the opposites lose their grip — cold and heat, honour and insult read the same.

6 · Chapter 12 · Shloka 13

He who beareth no ill-will to any being, friendly and compassionate, without attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving,

Its mature form is not coldness: friendliness without clinging, patience that keeps no score.