Display
Devanagari is shown only when this page stored it. Harvard-Kyoto and ASCII are generated from the IAST verse.
Vanisource / Original texts
Bhagavad-gītā 2.15
DonateSave this passage to keep a private note on this device. Notes are not sent to Vedawiki.
Cite
The source revision identifier is retained; its timestamp was not separately queried.
Source illustrations remain online: their exact image bytes were verified on 26 October 2026. Linked shared-image description pages have no local Vanisource page record and are not stored here; original links are retained.
Source navigation
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 15
- 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
yamone who—one who; hicertainly—certainly; nanever—never; vyathayantiare distressing—are distressing; eteall these—all these; puruṣamto a person—to a person; puruṣarṣabhais best among men—is best among men; samaunaltered—unaltered; duḥkhadistress—distress; sukhamhappiness—happiness; dhīrampatient—patient; saḥhe—he; amṛtatvāyafor liberation—for liberation; kalpateis considered eligible—is considered eligible.
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.
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 dependants, 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.