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Equanimity

Keeping the mind level when pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame come and go: the Gita's teaching of evenness on three fronts, and what it is not.

In brief

  • Pleasure and pain come and go; the Gita asks us to bear them and not be carried off (2.14).
  • The steady person, equal in pleasure and pain, is fit for deathlessness (2.15).
  • Act with a level mind in gain and loss, victory and defeat (2.38).
  • The wise see the same Self in all, and stay even toward friend and enemy, honour and dishonour (5.18-20, 6.7-9).

Praise lifts us and a sharp word drops us, and the mind goes up and down with each. The Gita teaches one steadiness for this, called evenness of mind. It has three fronts. We bear what happens to us as it passes (Gita 2.14–15). We act with a level mind in gain and loss (Gita 2.38). And we see the same Self in all people (Gita 5.18–20, Gita 6.7–9).

Evenness is not numbness, not coldness toward people, and not a lack of care for the work. It is a steadier way of feeling and acting.

This topic stands on the path of karma yoga, after Offering All Actions and before Renunciation or Karma Yoga?. It builds on Action Without Claiming the Fruit, and its use on a heavy workday is the subject of Working Under Pressure.

You can read it as a simple reading, a detailed reading, or a deeper reading.

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Simple New to this topic. Plain words, one idea at a time. Praise Lifts You, a Sharp Word Drops You: Keeping the Mind Level, as the Gita Teaches Pleasure and pain, praise and blame come and go like weather; the Gita asks us to bear them (2.14). 5 min · Read → In Depth Know the basics. Verse by verse, with reasons. Evenness of Mind in the Gita: From Bearing Pleasure and Pain to Seeing All Alike (Gita 2.14-15, 2.38, 5.18-20, 6.7-9) Evenness in the Gita has three fronts: what happens to me (2.14-15), how things turn out (2.38), and how I see people and things (5.18-20, 6.7-9). 12 min · Read → Deeper Want the text itself: Sanskrit terms, commentary, close reading. Equal in Joy and Pain, Equal to All: Will the Even Mind Go Numb? A Close Reading of Gita 2.14-15, 2.38, 5.18-20, 6.7-9 Pleasure and pain are named as real and as passing; the Gita asks that they be borne, so evenness is not numbness (2.14-15). 15 min · Read → Quick summary Short on time. The whole topic in a few minutes. Equanimity: Quick Summary Cold and heat, pleasure and pain come from the meeting of senses and objects and pass, so learn to bear them (2.14). 11 min · Read →

Key shlokas

Concepts

Common misreadings

  • Equanimity means suppressing feelings

Part of these learning paths

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