Gita 2.38

Sadhak: "Guru, this seems impossible. How can I treat pleasure and pain as equal? They feel fundamentally different—one is enjoyable, one is suffering."

Guru: "You are conflating sensation with reaction. The sensation of pleasure is different from the sensation of pain—this remains true. But your reaction to them can be equalized. When pleasure comes, you can receive it without grasping, without fear of its loss, without building your identity around it. When pain comes, you can experience it without aversion, without dramatization, without the added suffering of 'this should not be happening.' The sensations differ; the equanimity is the same."

Sadhak: "But isn't the desire for victory what motivates warriors to fight? Without wanting to win, why would anyone try?"

Guru: "Excellent question. There is a difference between preference and attachment. You can prefer victory—work toward it, strategize for it, give your full effort for it—without being attached to it. Attachment means your inner peace depends on the outcome. Preference means you work for an outcome while being at peace regardless. The paradox is that non-attachment often produces better results because you are free from the anxiety that impairs performance. The archer who is relaxed shoots straighter than the one who trembles with need."

Sadhak: "'Same kṛtvā'—having made them equal. This implies an effort, something I do. How do I actually do this?"

Guru: "It is indeed something you do, not something that happens to you. Begin with observation: notice how you automatically lean toward pleasure and away from pain. Just noticing this pattern begins to loosen it. Then practice non-reactivity in small things: when you eat something delicious, enjoy it without clinging; when you hit traffic, experience it without dramatizing. These small practices build the muscle of equanimity. Eventually, even major gains and losses fail to shake you—not because you do not feel but because feeling does not own you."

Sadhak: "The verse says I will not incur sin. But Arjuna is about to kill people. How can equanimity make that sinless?"

Guru: "This is the profound teaching: sin (pāpa) in the Gita's understanding is not a stain from specific actions but the karmic residue of attached action. When you kill with hatred, greed, or ego, those emotions create binding impressions (samskāras). When the same action is performed with equanimity, in service of dharma, without personal malice or desire, no such impressions form. The action happens; consequences unfold; but you remain free. This is not a loophole for violence but a high teaching requiring genuine inner detachment."

Sadhak: "Is this equanimity the same as not caring? People might say I have become cold or indifferent."

Guru: "Equanimity and indifference look similar from outside but are opposites inside. Indifference is a withdrawal, a numbing, a refusal to engage. Equanimity is full presence, full feeling, full engagement—without grasping or aversion. The equanimous person may cry at beauty or tragedy, may laugh with joy, may feel the full spectrum of human experience. But they are not tossed by these waves; they remain anchored in a deeper stillness. Care without clinging—that is the state."

Sadhak: "Why are these three pairs specifically mentioned—pleasure-pain, gain-loss, victory-defeat?"

Guru: "They represent ascending levels of temporal investment. Pleasure and pain are immediate, sensory, happening now. Gain and loss involve possessions, relationships, things that accumulate over time. Victory and defeat are about narrative, identity, legacy—the story of your life. By addressing all three levels, Krishna ensures complete coverage: do not be attached to the momentary, do not be attached to the accumulated, do not be attached to the ultimate outcome. Freedom from all three is complete freedom."

Sadhak: "'Yujyasva'—engage yourself, or 'yoke yourself.' Is this the origin of the word yoga?"

Guru: "Yes, exactly. 'Yuj' means to yoke, to unite, to discipline. Yoga in its deepest sense is the practice of uniting the individual self with action, with the present moment, with ultimate reality. When Krishna says 'yujyasva'—engage yourself, prepare yourself, yoke yourself to battle—he is not just telling Arjuna to fight. He is introducing the concept of yoga as engaged action. The battlefield becomes a yoga mat; the fight becomes a practice. This is the heart of karma yoga: any action, fully engaged with equanimity, becomes yoga."

Sadhak: "If I practice this equanimity, will life become flat? Will I stop experiencing highs and lows?"

Guru: "Quite the opposite. When you are not lost in the drama of chasing pleasure and fleeing pain, you actually experience life more fully. The sunset is more vivid when you are not anxious about tomorrow. The taste of food is richer when you are not already planning the next meal. Equanimity clears the fog of constant craving and aversion, revealing life's intensity that was always there but obscured. The highs and lows remain—you simply no longer identify with them."