Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 15

यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ । समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते

yaṃ hi na vyathayantyete puruṣaṃ puruṣarṣabha | samaduḥkhasukhaṃ dhīraṃ so'mṛtatvāya kalpate

Translation

That wise man whom, verily, these afflict not, O chief of men, to whom pleasure and pain are the same, he for immortality is fit.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

yam

whom

hi

indeed

na

not

vyathayanti

torment

ete

these

puruṣam

man

puruṣarṣabha

of men, O best

samaduḥkhasukham

equal, pain, and, pleasure, and, whose, (to whom), him

dhīram

firm

saḥ

he

amṛtatvāya

for immortality

kalpate

becomes fit

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

That person to whom pleasure and pain are alike — who neither exults in pleasure nor is dejected in pain — who is a man of wisdom; whom heat and cold and the like do not afflict, by virtue of his vision of the eternal Self — that man, firm in his vision and bearing calmly the pairs of opposites, is able to attain immortality (mokṣa). Endurance is here laid down as a condition of right knowledge; coupled with discrimination and indifference to worldly objects, it becomes a means to the knowledge that leads to deliverance.