Samatva

Equanimity — the central psychological posture of karma-yoga, articulated in 2.48 as Krishna’s definition of yoga: samatvaṁ yoga ucyate — “yoga is called samatva.”

Overview

Samatva is evenness of mind toward the pairs of opposites that ordinary life generates. Krishna’s 2.48 list: success and failure (siddhi-asiddhi), gain and loss (lābha-alābha), pleasure and pain (sukha-duḥkha), victory and defeat (jaya-parājaya). Samatva is not indifference and not neutrality; it is the trained stability that lets one act fully within these pairs of opposites without being thrown by them.

The Gita’s key formulation in 2.48: “Established in yoga, perform action, abandoning attachment, O Dhananjaya; treating success and failure alike — this evenness is called yoga.”

Two things to note:

1. Samatva is not pre-action quietism. It applies in action. The karma-yogi is not evenness instead of acting; they are evenness while acting. Arjuna is being told to fight, not to meditate on equanimity.

2. Samatva is a prerequisite, not a product. Krishna’s structure in 2.48–2.50 is: be established in yoga (= samatva) then act; the action thus performed is naishkarmya — action that does not bind.

Swami’s working illustration (Ep 18): the nonprofit founder who cares deeply about the outcomes of his work yet is not shaken by setbacks — “externally, success is good; internally, what matters is that this is the right thing to do.” External motivation (progress, milestones) stays alive; internal motivation (the action itself is right) is the bedrock. Failure does not collapse the bedrock.

Samatva aligns with the metaphysical teachings already given (2.11–2.30): if atman is unshakable, untouched by gain and loss, then samatva is the reflection of that metaphysical fact in the psychological life. The karma-yogi lives the metaphysics by practicing the equanimity, even before full realization. Over time, this produces chitta-shuddhi.

Related concepts

• karma-yoga — the yoga samatva is the signature of
• dvandva — the pairs of opposites samatva stands evenly between
• titiksha — related forbearance; shat-sampatti’s version of this posture
• nishkama-karma — the action-side; samatva is the mind-side
• chitta-shuddhi — what sustained samatva produces
• yogastha — “established in yoga”; 2.48’s opening word for the samatva-state

In the Gita

• 02-48-51 — samatvaṁ yoga ucyate; the formal definition
• 05-18-19 forthcoming — samatva extended to perception of beings
• 06-32 forthcoming — samatva toward all beings as one’s own self

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 18 [11:00–15:00]: 2.48 unpacked; samatva as yoga itself; the nonprofit-founder illustration.
• Ep. 18 [14:44]: “Proof against elation and depression” — samatva as the insulation against ups and downs.