Sanskrit
मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः । सर्वारंभपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते ॥
mānāpamānayos tulyas tulyo mitrāripakṣayoḥ sarvārambhaparityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate
Translation
The same in honour and ignominy, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings—he is said to have crossed over the qualities.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The portrait’s closing line, adding honor/dishonor and friend/foe to verse 24’s list and finishing with the abandonment of all initiating of new undertakings — before naming the state outright: guṇātīta, “beyond the qualities,” Arjuna’s original question from verse 21 finally answered by name. Verse 26 then does something the sthitaprajna portrait in chapter 2 never did: it names the actual means of getting here, and that means turns out to be devotional rather than purely intellectual.
Concepts