Sanskrit
इहैव तैर्जितः सर्गो येषां साम्ये स्थितं मनः । निर्दोषं हि समं ब्रह्म तस्माद्ब्रह्मणि ते स्थिताः ॥
ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṃ sāmye sthitaṃ manaḥ nirdoṣaṃ hi samaṃ brahma tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ
Translation
Even here on earth everything is overcome by those whose mind remains balanced; the Eternal is incorruptible and balanced; therefore they are established in the Eternal.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Ihaiva, “right here,” in this very life, matters: the claim is not that equanimity earns a reward later but that it constitutes victory over the cycle of becoming now, while still embodied. The reasoning is almost syllogistic — Brahman is nirdoṣa, flawless, and sama, equal, so a mind established in sāmya, sameness, is by that fact already established in Brahman; equanimity isn’t a virtue leading toward Brahman, it is what being established in Brahman looks like from the inside. Read together, this verse and the one before it are the fullest elaboration since chapter 2’s sthitaprajna portrait of what steady wisdom actually does to perception, and the two passages reward being read side by side.
Concepts