A core teaching · grounding in mood · easy to enter
“Equanimity turns action into yoga.”
O Dhananjaya, perform actions while established in yoga, abandoning attachment. Remain equal in success and failure, for equanimity is called yoga.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Hover a word to focus on it.
Read literallyestablished in yoga · do · actions · attachment · having abandoned · O Dhananjaya · in success and failure · equal · having become · equanimity · yoga · is called
Keep doing your duty without clinging to results. Stay steady whether things work out or not; that steady balance is yoga.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Sankhya Yoga" (The Yoga of Knowledge).
Verse 48 sits in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita — Sankhya Yoga, "The Yoga of Knowledge". The chapter has 72 verses in total.
You send the message, then stare at the screen waiting for a reply. The mind rises and falls with every notification; this verse teaches you to keep your centre anyway.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts attention from outcome-chasing to steady action, so success and failure stop controlling the mind.
What this verse means
Keep doing your duty without clinging to results. Stay steady whether things work out or not; that steady balance is yoga.
Context & commentary
On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Arjuna is frozen before the war. Krishna has already told him to act without craving results; now he sharpens that teaching: stay balanced in victory and defeat, because that inner evenness is the heart of yoga.
Why this verse still matters
You send the message, then stare at the screen waiting for a reply. The mind rises and falls with every notification; this verse teaches you to keep your centre anyway.
“You can stay calm without stopping action. Inner balance makes effort cleaner and less painful.”
Explore related themes: karma yoga (55 verses), equanimity (23 verses), attachment (20 verses)