Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12, Verse 18

Chapter 12 – Bhakti Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

समः शत्रौ च मित्रे च तथा मानापमानयोः ।
शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु समः सङ्गविवर्जितः ॥

Transliteration

samaḥ śatrau ca mitre ca tathā mānāpamānayoḥ .
śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkheṣu samaḥ saṅgavivarjitaḥ ॥

Meaning

One who is equal toward enemy and friend, equal in honour and dishonour, equal in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, and free from attachment (is dear to Me).

Word meanings

समः – equal
शत्रौ च मित्रे च – toward enemy and friend
तथा – and likewise
मानापमानयोः – in honour and dishonour
शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु – in cold, heat, pleasure and pain
सङ्गविवर्जितः – free from attachment

Anvaya (word order)

(यः) शत्रौ च मित्रे च समः, तथा मानापमानयोः (समः), शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु समः, सङ्गविवर्जितः (अस्ति) — (सः मे प्रियः, 12.19)।

Explanation

This is the second of two verses, 12.18 and 12.19, that continue the portrait of the dear devotee, and it speaks of balance in every pair of opposites. "Equal toward enemy and friend, and likewise in honour and dishonour, equal in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, free from attachment." Four pairs are named: enemy and friend, honour and insult, cold and heat, pleasure and pain. The word is "sama", even, evenly poised, at the beginning and end of the list, and again, "sanga-vivarjitah", free from attachment, as the cause of evenness.

The pairs run from the social to the physical. First, relations: how do we treat an enemy and a friend? The devotee treats both with fairness and goodwill, not allowing past hurt to dictate present behaviour, nor friendship to cloud judgement. Second, reputation: in praise and in blame his inner state does not rise or fall, because his worth does not rest on others' opinions. Third, climate: cold and heat, the physical conditions that stir complaints. Fourth, the heart's experiences of pleasure and pain.

The key is "sanga-vivarjitah", free from attachment. Evenness is not forced calm over inner turbulence. It flows from non-clinging. We feel disturbed by cold or insult because we are attached to comfort and reputation. When the attachment loosens, the disturbance recedes. The devotee still feels the weather, but does not make a drama of it.

Shankara explains that the sannyasin is the one equal to enemy and friend, honour and dishonour, cold and heat, pleasure and pain, and without attachment to anything, since he has no sense of "mine". Ramanuja stresses that these are marks of the devotee established in the Lord and thus unaffected by the changes of nature. Madhva adds that such evenness comes from firm knowledge of the Lord as the cause of all that happens.

Imagine a person who works in a difficult office. In the morning a colleague snubs him, at noon his work is praised, in the evening a deal falls through, and at night a friend consoles him. If his mood followed each event, he would have lived many moods in a day. The verse shows another way: the day's events are met fully, with attention and fairness, but the inner centre remains. This is not coldness; it is dignity.

The verse recalls 2.14 and 2.15, which say that the contacts of the senses with heat, cold, pleasure and pain are passing and must be endured, 2.38 on treating gain and loss alike, and 6.7 on the self-controlled person who is calm in cold and heat, joy and sorrow, honour and dishonour. 12.19 completes the portrait with silence, contentment and steady faith.

Context

Verse 12.17 gave freedom from four reactions. Here equanimity in three pairs and its basis, non-attachment; the sentence completes in the next verse (12.19).

Life lesson

Honour and insult, gain and loss will keep coming and going. Do not make your peace depend on them; reducing attachment little by little is the root of equanimity.

Key terms

सम: evenness, equanimity free of likes and dislikes
मानापमान: honour and insult
शीतोष्ण: cold and heat, symbols of the pairs of opposites
सङ्गविवर्जित: wholly free from attachment