Even in Gain and Loss
If action without craving is the practice, equanimity is its inner shape — a mind that meets success and failure with the same steady poise.
Having told Arjuna to release the fruit, Krishna names the state that makes it possible: evenness. The yogi is not numb, but balanced — unshaken whether the deed prospers or fails.
So gird yourself to act, he says, “as things alike to thee — pleasure or pain, profit or ruin, victory or defeat” (ch. 2). Meet the pairs of opposites without being thrown by either.
This evenness is not a mood you wait for; it is a discipline you practise. The mind is trained to stop lurching between elation and despair as results roll in.
Krishna gives it a definition worth memorising: “equability is Yog” — skill in action is precisely this poise under outcome.
Keep an even keel
Name the pairs you ride
Notice the swings that rule you — praise and blame, win and loss, gain and lack. See how much of your peace is hostage to which side lands.
- What outcome, arriving today, would swing my mood hardest?
Meet both with one face
When results come, practise the same measured response to the good and the bad. Feel them, but do not be governed by them.
Return to level
After a high or a low, deliberately bring yourself back to center before you act again. The steady hand, not the excited one, does the finest work.
Equability is Yog, is piety!