Bhagavad-gītā 2.15

Explain simply

Speaker: Śrī Kṛṣṇa

यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ ।
समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते ॥१५॥

yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete
puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha
sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ
so 'mṛtatvāya kalpate

Word for word (synonyms)

yam
one who
hi
certainly
na
never
vyathayanti
are distressing
ete
all these
puruṣam
to a person
puruṣarṣabha
is best among men
sama
unaltered
duḥkha
distress
sukham
happiness
dhīram
patient
saḥ
he
amṛtatvāya
for liberation
kalpate
is considered eligible

Translation

O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation.

Defined in the Gītā

Happiness

What is real happiness?

O best of the Bhāratas, now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness which the conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes to the end of all distress. That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.

Bhagavad-gītā 18.36–37

See the definition

Purport

Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation. In the varṇāśrama institution, the fourth stage of life, namely the renounced order (sannyāsa) is a painstaking situation. But one who is serious about making his life perfect surely adopts the sannyāsa order of life in spite of all difficulties. The difficulties usually arise from having to sever family relationships, to give up the connection of wife and children. But if anyone is able to tolerate such difficulties, surely his path to spiritual realization is complete. Similarly, in Arjuna's discharge of duties as a kṣatriya, he is advised to persevere, even if it is difficult to fight with his family members or similarly beloved persons. Lord Caitanya took sannyāsa at the age of twenty-four, and His dependents, young wife as well as old mother, had no one else to look after them. Yet for a higher cause He took sannyāsa and was steady in the discharge of higher duties. That is the way of achieving liberation from material bondage.

What this verse teaches

Tolerate dualities; equanimilty is eligibility for liberation

Gita for Life
Success and failure
In thematic compilations 1

Equanimity and Satisfaction

  • An equipoised devotee is eligible for liberation (2.15 yaṁ hi na vyathayanty..., 5.25)
Śrīla Prabhupāda lectures 4

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.