Chapter 5 · Verse 20 · Karma Sanyasa Yoga
Bhagavad Gita 5.20
Sanskrit
न प्रहृष्येत्प्रियं प्राप्य नोद्विजेत्प्राप्य चाप्रियम्। स्थिरबुद्धिरसम्मूढो ब्रह्मविद्ब्रह्मणि स्थितः।।5.20।।
Transliteration
na prahṛiṣhyet priyaṁ prāpya nodvijet prāpya chāpriyam sthira-buddhir asammūḍho brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ
In plain words
You are not broken because you still feel the sting of loss or the rush of good news — but you are suffering because you believe your peace depends on these feelings staying or changing. Krishna says: the deepest strength is not numbness, but the quiet knowing that the real you stands apart from this storm of circumstance, untouched and whole. When you can hold both joy and sorrow in open hands without grabbing or pushing away, you've found the ground beneath all ground.
Word by Word
This verse unveils the hallmark of a realized soul — the equipoise that transcends the dance of pleasure and pain. When you truly know Brahman, the eternal substratum of existence, you no longer contract with joy or expand with sorrow, because you recognize both as fleeting movements in the unchanging Self.
The sage stands rooted in this knowing, unmoved by life's oscillations. In modern life, this means developing the inner stability to respond to success and failure, gain and loss, with the same centered presence — not through suppression, but through understanding that your true nature is untouched by circumstance.
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Bhagavad Gita 5.20 — BG 5.20
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