Samatva (समत्व)
BG 2.48 puts it as plainly as the Gita ever defines a term: “established in yoga, perform actions, abandoning attachment, even (sama) in success and failure — samatva is called yoga.” It is the internal condition karma yoga asks for: not indifference to what you are doing, but a refusal to let the swing between a good and a bad outcome run the mind.
From steady mood to equal sight
The later chapters widen samatva from a stance toward results to a stance toward beings. BG 5.18 — the wise “look equally on a learned brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and an outcaste.” BG 6.9 ranks highest the one who is “even-minded toward well-wisher, friend, enemy, stranger, the hateful, the kin, the good and the bad alike.” BG 6.32 makes it the mark of the best yogi: one who “sees by analogy with the self, everywhere the same, whether in pleasure or in pain.” The two senses are one practice: a mind that has stopped grading outcomes stops grading people.
Related
- Yoga (योग) — samatva is not a result of yoga; BG 2.48 says it is yoga
- Sthitaprajna (स्थितप्रज्ञ) — the person of steady wisdom is drawn as sustained samatva: unshaken in sorrow, without craving in pleasure
- Guṇatraya (गुणत्रय) — the guṇātīta of chapter 14, who “regards pain and pleasure alike … to whom a clod, a stone, and gold are equal,” is samatva carried to completion