Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13, Verse 10

Chapter 13 – Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

असक्तिरनभिष्वङ्गः पुत्रदारगृहादिषु ।
नित्यं च समचित्तत्वमिष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु ॥

Transliteration

asaktiranabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putradāragṛhādiṣu .
nityaṃ ca samacittatvamiṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu ॥

Meaning

Non-attachment, freedom from clinging identification with son, wife, home and the like, and constant even-mindedness whether the desirable or the undesirable comes to pass — these too are marks of knowledge.

Word meanings

असक्तिः – non-attachment; absence of binding fondness
अनभिष्वङ्गः – absence of intense clinging or self-identification
पुत्र – son, children
दार – wife
गृह – home, house
आदिषु – and the rest (wealth, relatives, possessions)
नित्यम् – always, constantly
च – and
समचित्तत्वम् – evenness of mind, equanimity
इष्ट – the desired, the pleasant
अनिष्ट – the undesired, the unpleasant
उपपत्तिषु – in the occurrence or attainment of

Anvaya (word order)

असक्तिः, पुत्र-दार-गृह-आदिषु अनभिष्वङ्गः, च इष्ट-अनिष्ट-उपपत्तिषु नित्यम् समचित्तत्वम् ।

Explanation

Continuing His list of the twenty marks of knowledge, Krishna names three closely linked virtues here: asakti, anabhishvanga and samachittatva. They move from the outer to the inner, each subtler than the last. Asakti is the absence of that fondness for things and people which ties the mind down. Anabhishvanga goes deeper: it is freedom from the kind of identification with son, wife, home and the like in which another person's joy and grief become, unexamined, one's own, and judgment is lost.

Shankara draws the distinction carefully. Asakti is the mere absence of liking; abhishvanga is an intense attachment in which a man feels happy when his family is happy and miserable when they suffer, as though he and they were one self. That borrowed identity is a fine but strong form of bondage. The verse does not ask Arjuna, a householder and a warrior, to abandon his family. It asks that duty be done fully and love be real, but without the web of infatuation that hides the Self. Ramanuja connects the teaching with self-knowledge: one who sees that the atman is distinct from the body and its relationships naturally relates to kin without the anxious grip of ownership.

The third mark is constant equanimity in the face of the wanted and the unwanted. The word nityam, always, is important: not an occasional calm but a settled disposition. It echoes the earlier teaching to treat pleasure and pain alike (2.38) and the definition of yoga as evenness (2.48). To soar when the pleasant arrives and collapse when the unpleasant comes is the sign of one who believes himself owned by circumstances.

Madhva sees this evenness as flowing from trust in the Lord's ordering of events: whatever comes is His dispensation, and the devotee receives it with peace. Thus in Advaita equanimity springs from knowing the Self as untouched, and in the devotional schools from surrender to God; both arrive at the same steady mind.

Notice that Krishna calls these qualities knowledge, though they are traits of character. They are both the means to knowledge and its visible evidence. Where they have not entered life, knowledge remains only words.

Context

From 13.8 to 13.12 Krishna enumerates the qualities called ‘knowledge’, the inner fitness for knowing the knower of the field. The previous verse (13.9) spoke of dispassion toward sense objects, absence of ego and reflection on the pain of birth, death, age and disease; this verse extends that detachment to family ties and life's events. The next verse (13.11) adds single-minded devotion and love of solitude.

Life lesson

Love and serve your family and home wholeheartedly, but do not let your inner peace rise and fall with every turn in their fortunes. Practising a balanced acceptance of whatever life brings, welcome or unwelcome, is itself the substance of wisdom.

Key terms

असक्ति (asakti): non-attachment; freedom from binding fondness
अनभिष्वङ्ग (anabhishvanga): absence of the identification that makes another's joys and sorrows one's own
समचित्तत्व (samachittatva): steady evenness of mind in pleasant and unpleasant events
इष्टानिष्टोपपत्ति: the arrival of what is desired and what is undesired