Chapter 2Verse 57 of 72

Bhagavad Gita 2.57

यः सर्वत्रानभिस्नेहस्तत्तत्प्राप्य शुभाशुभम् । नाभिनन्दति न द्वेष्टि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥

yaḥ sarvatrānabhisnehas tat tat prāpya śubhāśubham | nābhinandati na dveṣṭi tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā ||

Translation

Who is without affection everywhere, who, upon meeting the good or the bad, neither rejoices nor hates, his understanding is established.

Anabhisneha. Without clinging affection. Sarvatra. Everywhere. The line is harder than it looks: not affectless, but without the clinging kind. When the good arrives, no celebration that becomes a need. When the bad arrives, no recoil that becomes an aversion. Nābhinandati na dveṣṭi. Does not rejoice, does not hate. The two reflexes the verse refuses are the ones most of us mistake for being alive. Krishna names them as the very ones whose absence marks the established mind.

Reflection

When did you last meet good news without celebration becoming a need?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Two

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