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Adhyāyas / Bhakti Yogaḥ / verse 18

Mūla — the verse

Gita Press numbering
समः शत्रौ च मित्रे च तथा मानापमानयोः। शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु समः सङ्गविवर्जितः
samaḥ śhatrau cha mitre cha tathā mānāpamānayoḥ śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣhu samaḥ saṅga-vivarjitaḥ
Anuṣṭubh

Translation

Swami Gambhīrānanda · follows Śaṅkara-bhāṣya

He who is the same towards friend and foe, and in honor and dishonor; who is the same under cold, heat, happiness, and sorrow; who is free from attachment to all.

हिन्दी अनुवाद — Swami Tejomayānanda

जो पुरुष शत्रु और मित्र में तथा मान और अपमान में सम है; जो शीत-उष्ण व सुखदु:खादिक द्वन्द्वों में सम है और आसक्ति रहित है।।

Pronunciation — Vaamshii

from Vaamshii
समश् शत्रौ च मित्रे च
तथा मानाप मानयोः
शीतोष् णसुख दुःखेषु
समस् सङ्ग वि वर्जितः
॥ १८ ॥
Read each split group as one breath-unit; hyphens join pādas kept whole for the meter or a compound word. Symbols: # upadhmānīya (visarga before p/ph), % jihvāmūlīya (visarga before k/kh), ऽ avagraha (an elided a). Full method →

Word by word

padārtha
samaḥalike
śhatrauto a foe
chaand
mitreto a friend
cha tathāas well as
māna-apamānayoḥin honor and dishonor
śhīta-uṣhṇain cold and heat
sukha-duḥkheṣhuin joy and sorrow
samaḥequipoised
saṅga-vivarjitaḥfree from all unfavorable association

Themes

from The Thematic Companion to the Bhagavad Gītā

Meaning — Questions & Solutions

from Q&A with KnA
12.13–12.20The characteristics of the Yogin — and hence of a Guru, an Avadhūta, and the pattern for a seeker.

The chapter closes with the long, tender portrait of the devotee “dear to Me” — a checklist not for testing others but for growing oneself, and a description of what the goal looks like when it walks about in a human body. He is: without hatred toward any being, friendly and compassionate, free of “mine” and of egoism, even in pain and pleasure, forgiving; ever content, self-controlled, of firm resolve, his mind and intellect given to Me (12.13–14). He is one “by whom the world is not agitated, and who is not agitated by the world”, free of elation, impatience, fear and anxiety (12.15). He is unconcerned, pure, capable, indifferent, untroubled, renouncing every undertaking (for its fruit); who neither rejoices nor hates, neither grieves nor craves, renouncing good and evil alike (12.16–17); the same to friend and foe, in honour and dishonour, in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain, free from attachment; to whom blame and praise are equal, content with whatever comes, homeless-hearted, of steady mind (12.18–19). Read the list slowly: it is at once the description of a jīvanmukta, the marks by which one may recognise a true Guru or Avadhūta, and the very qualities a seeker is asked to cultivate. Every trait is a form of samatva — the one equanimity, wearing many faces (recall 2.48, 5.18, 6.32). And K ends: “those who follow this nectar-law of righteousness (dharmyāmṛtam), full of faith, holding Me supreme — those devotees are exceedingly dear to Me” (12.20). The whole of Yoga, in the end, is to become someone God could love in this way.