Evenness in success and failure, held while acting, is called yoga.
Established in yoga, do the work fully; what is released is not effort but the inner grip on its outcome, and the swelling sense that you alone are the doer. Let the even mind, the same in success and failure, be the steady ground you act from.
Established in yoga, perform your actions, Arjuna, letting go of attachment, the same in success and failure. This evenness of mind is called yoga.
Having given the first instruction of acting without claim on the fruit, Krishna now tells Arjuna how to hold himself while acting: established in yoga, letting go of attachment, and he closes by defining what that yoga is.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
Stay rooted in yoga and do the work fully, while letting go of the craving for its fruit and the swelling sense that you are its doer; carry it as an offering to the Lord, not as private gain.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Baladeva · Jñāneśvar · Sivananda · Tilak · RamsukhdasIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 13 others’ words
The verse is Krishna's direct instruction on how to act: stay established in yoga, perform your actions, and let go of attachment. 'Attachment' (sanga) here is not just liking the work; the commentators read it specifically as the craving for the fruit of the action and the conceit that 'I am the doer.' So the instruction is to do the work fully while releasing the inner grip on its outcome and the swelling sense of personal agency behind it. Most commentators add that the action is to be done for the Lord's sake, as worship or offering, rather than for private gain.
Evenness of mind is the yoga being named: balanced in success and failure, neither lifted up when the work bears fruit nor cast down when it does not.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Jayatīrtha · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Jñāneśvar · Sivananda · Tilak · RamsukhdasIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 15 others’ words
The heart of the verse is its own definition: 'samatvam yoga uchyate', evenness of mind is what is called yoga. This is the climax that the whole verse builds toward. Concretely it means staying balanced in success and failure (siddhi and asiddhi): not elated when the work bears fruit, not dejected when it does not. The commentators are unanimous that this calm, settled poise of mind, free of both joy at gain and gloom at loss, is itself the yoga the verse names.
And the yoga you stand in to act is not action itself but exactly this evenness; you act while resting in equanimity, and that equanimity is the yoga.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, BhaktiMadhusūdana · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Jayatīrtha · Dhanapati · BaladevaIn Madhusūdana, Rāmānuja, and 4 others’ words
A careful point the commentators raise: the word 'yoga' is being used in two different senses, and this verse settles which one is meant. In the previous verse Krishna seemed to equate yoga with action itself, yet here he says 'established in yoga, perform actions,' which would sound circular if yoga still meant action. The resolution they give is that in 'established in yoga,' yoga does not mean action but means precisely this evenness of mind; the verse's own closing line defines it that way. So there is no contradiction: you act while standing in equanimity, and that equanimity is the yoga.
At the deepest level the success here is the knowledge that rises from a purified mind, and its failure the opposite, so the steadiness reaches even toward the highest inner attainment.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Śrīdhara · Sivananda · ViśvanāthaIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 5 others’ words
Several commentators specify what the 'success' and 'failure' in this verse actually point to at the deepest level. The real fruit of acting without craving is the rising of knowledge (jnana) born from purity of mind, and that inner attainment is the true 'success'; its opposite, born of an impure, fruit-seeking motive, is the 'failure.' On this reading the verse is not only about staying calm over worldly wins and losses, but about a settled inner steadiness even toward the highest spiritual result. Some also note this yoga of desireless action matures into the yoga of knowledge.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Advaita Vedānta, in their fuller words
Yoga here is squarely the evenness of mind, and the verse's purpose is to make action a purifier that leads to knowledge. These commentators take 'success' to be the knowledge born of purity of being and 'failure' its opposite, so the very aim of desireless action is inner purification ripening into liberating knowledge. A fine point they press: even when acting 'for the Lord,' one should drop the subtler attachment of wanting 'let the Lord be pleased with me'; the action is to be emptied of every craving for fruit, seen and unseen. One of them adds a sharpening of scope: an earlier verse spoke of evenness in pleasure and pain only to establish the duty of war, the topic at hand, whereas here, by demanding the surrender of all fruit whatever, the verse establishes the obligatoriness of all action.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
This reading keeps the verse close to Arjuna's concrete situation. 'Giving up attachment' means giving up clinging to kingdom and kinsmen, and the action to be performed is war and the like; the success and failure to be met with evenness are the victory and defeat actually contained in that action. Yoga is then defined plainly as 'the settling of the mind in the form of equanimity toward success and failure.' The accent is on a stabilized, composed mind held steady within real duty, rather than on action as a route to a separate inner knowledge-fruit.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators read 'established in yoga' as established in the means, and they make a precise logical point about the verse's two phrases. Abandoning attachment to the fruit is the cause; becoming even in success and failure is its effect. The two are not separate, independent qualities but stand in a cause-and-effect relation, so naming the evenness alone as yoga is enough: the abandoning of attachment is grasped along with it, because grasping an effect carries its cause. One of them argues at length against treating 'free of attachment' and 'even in success and failure' as two loose modifiers; the dull may imagine them as separate, but the Lord, asked 'what is yoga,' answers with exactly these, identifying the evenness as the yoga and including its cause within it.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
Here the verse is read through loving dependence on Bhagavan. To be 'established in yoga' is to have a mind whose sole end is the Lord, and the works are to be done as forms of His command; because the work is His command, evenness toward its fruit or non-fruit naturally arises, and that very evenness makes one's dependence on the Lord manifest. One of them then offers a distinctly devotional turn: read 'established in yoga' as union with Bhagavan, and read 'success' as continuous union and 'failure' as the separation the Lord himself grants after union. Even that separation, on this reading, is itself supreme bliss for one who knows its taste, since it comes from the Lord, falls within union, and is an aid to union; so one is to stay even and let no dejection set in even there.
Kashmir Śaiva, in their fuller words
The focus falls on why fruitless-seeming action is not fruitless and on exposing a hidden trap. Be engaged in mere action, not in its fruits; the objection that fruit inevitably follows any action is answered by saying that action becomes a cause toward binding fruit only when one is pervaded by the turbidity of craving for fruit. To one free of such wishing, the fruit that was not prayed for, namely knowledge, is not denied. Sharper still: the attachment that takes the form of non-action, a tight, grasping refusal to act, is itself of the nature of false knowledge and is simply to be given up.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
For these commentators yoga is single-pointedness on the Supreme Lord, and the practical key is to act by way of refuge in and offering to him. One defines yoga as single-pointedness on the Supreme Lord and says to abandon the inner insistence on agentship and perform purely by taking refuge in the Lord, offering even the fruit of knowledge to him; another says whatever is attained by one's duty should be dedicated to the primeval Supreme Being, and only then is it truly complete, even when outwardly incomplete. One reads the verse as the desireless action that ripens into the yoga of knowledge. The most developed in this group gives a two-fold reason both attachments must go: longing for the fruit is only a sinking into Maya, while insisting 'I am the doer' is a theft of the Lord's own property, his characteristic of independence, and so a disturbance of his Maya; therefore both are to be abandoned.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
These modern voices restate the verse as the core of Karma-Yoga in plain terms. One names the path directly: to act steadfast in Karma-Yoga is to perform action while looking on its being fruitful or unfruitful as alike, and that equable mental state is what is called yoga. Another fills in the inner mechanics: in any action, any result, any time, place, circumstance, or instrument, one must hold no attachment, for only then can action be done in non-clinging, and only such non-clinging action becomes liberating; and from giving up attachment, evenness in success and failure arises. A third keeps the Advaita gloss of the fruit: the success is attainment of Self-knowledge through purity of heart won by acting without expectation, and failure is the non-attainment of that knowledge when one acts with expectation.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
For a second sitting
Carry this with youwhat stays
Bring this verse down to your own next task. Before you act, look at everything you are tempted to lean on: the action itself, its result, the time and place, the circumstances, even the body and mind doing the work. The instruction is to set down your inner grip on every one of these and act without clinging. The reasoning is simple and practical. If you cling to the work or to its outcome, non-clinging cannot remain, and without that non-clinging the action loses its power to free you. So the letting-go is not coldness; it is what keeps the work clean. And notice the order: equanimity is not something you have to manufacture by force. When attachment is genuinely released, evenness in success and failure arises on its own as the natural result. Do the work fully, give up the grip, and let the calm follow.
Evenness does not have to be forced; when the grip on the next task is set down, the calm comes of its own accord.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
he verse is Krishna's direct instruction on how to act: stay established in yoga, perform your actions, and let go of attachment. 'Attachment' (sanga) here is not just liking the work; the commentators read it specifically as the craving for the fruit of the action and the conceit that 'I am the doer.' So the instruction is to do the work fully while releasing the inner grip on its outcome and the swelling sense of personal agency behind it. Most commentators add that the action is to be done for the Lord's sake, as worship or offering, rather than for private gain.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
The heart of the verse is its own definition: 'samatvam yoga uchyate', evenness of mind is what is called yoga. This is the climax that the whole verse builds toward. Concretely it means staying balanced in success and failure (siddhi and asiddhi): not elated when the work bears fruit, not dejected when it does not. The commentators are unanimous that this calm, settled poise of mind, free of both joy at gain and gloom at loss, is itself the yoga the verse names.
Braided from 17 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A careful point the commentators raise: the word 'yoga' is being used in two different senses, and this verse settles which one is meant. In the previous verse Krishna seemed to equate yoga with action itself, yet here he says 'established in yoga, perform actions,' which would sound circular if yoga still meant action. The resolution they give is that in 'established in yoga,' yoga does not mean action but means precisely this evenness of mind; the verse's own closing line defines it that way. So there is no contradiction: you act while standing in equanimity, and that equanimity is the yoga.
Braided from 6 commentators
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīla Baladeva
Several commentators specify what the 'success' and 'failure' in this verse actually point to at the deepest level. The real fruit of acting without craving is the rising of knowledge (jnana) born from purity of mind, and that inner attainment is the true 'success'; its opposite, born of an impure, fruit-seeking motive, is the 'failure.' On this reading the verse is not only about staying calm over worldly wins and losses, but about a settled inner steadiness even toward the highest spiritual result. Some also note this yoga of desireless action matures into the yoga of knowledge.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Śrīla Viśvanātha
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Yoga here is squarely the evenness of mind, and the verse's purpose is to make action a purifier that leads to knowledge. These commentators take 'success' to be the knowledge born of purity of being and 'failure' its opposite, so the very aim of desireless action is inner purification ripening into liberating knowledge. A fine point they press: even when acting 'for the Lord,' one should drop the subtler attachment of wanting 'let the Lord be pleased with me'; the action is to be emptied of every craving for fruit, seen and unseen. One of them adds a sharpening of scope: an earlier verse spoke of evenness in pleasure and pain only to establish the duty of war, the topic at hand, whereas here, by demanding the surrender of all fruit whatever, the verse establishes the obligatoriness of all action.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
This reading keeps the verse close to Arjuna's concrete situation. 'Giving up attachment' means giving up clinging to kingdom and kinsmen, and the action to be performed is war and the like; the success and failure to be met with evenness are the victory and defeat actually contained in that action. Yoga is then defined plainly as 'the settling of the mind in the form of equanimity toward success and failure.' The accent is on a stabilized, composed mind held steady within real duty, rather than on action as a route to a separate inner knowledge-fruit.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
These commentators read 'established in yoga' as established in the means, and they make a precise logical point about the verse's two phrases. Abandoning attachment to the fruit is the cause; becoming even in success and failure is its effect. The two are not separate, independent qualities but stand in a cause-and-effect relation, so naming the evenness alone as yoga is enough: the abandoning of attachment is grasped along with it, because grasping an effect carries its cause. One of them argues at length against treating 'free of attachment' and 'even in success and failure' as two loose modifiers; the dull may imagine them as separate, but the Lord, asked 'what is yoga,' answers with exactly these, identifying the evenness as the yoga and including its cause within it.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
Here the verse is read through loving dependence on Bhagavan. To be 'established in yoga' is to have a mind whose sole end is the Lord, and the works are to be done as forms of His command; because the work is His command, evenness toward its fruit or non-fruit naturally arises, and that very evenness makes one's dependence on the Lord manifest. One of them then offers a distinctly devotional turn: read 'established in yoga' as union with Bhagavan, and read 'success' as continuous union and 'failure' as the separation the Lord himself grants after union. Even that separation, on this reading, is itself supreme bliss for one who knows its taste, since it comes from the Lord, falls within union, and is an aid to union; so one is to stay even and let no dejection set in even there.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Kashmir Shaivism
The focus falls on why fruitless-seeming action is not fruitless and on exposing a hidden trap. Be engaged in mere action, not in its fruits; the objection that fruit inevitably follows any action is answered by saying that action becomes a cause toward binding fruit only when one is pervaded by the turbidity of craving for fruit. To one free of such wishing, the fruit that was not prayed for, namely knowledge, is not denied. Sharper still: the attachment that takes the form of non-action, a tight, grasping refusal to act, is itself of the nature of false knowledge and is simply to be given up.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
For these commentators yoga is single-pointedness on the Supreme Lord, and the practical key is to act by way of refuge in and offering to him. One defines yoga as single-pointedness on the Supreme Lord and says to abandon the inner insistence on agentship and perform purely by taking refuge in the Lord, offering even the fruit of knowledge to him; another says whatever is attained by one's duty should be dedicated to the primeval Supreme Being, and only then is it truly complete, even when outwardly incomplete. One reads the verse as the desireless action that ripens into the yoga of knowledge. The most developed in this group gives a two-fold reason both attachments must go: longing for the fruit is only a sinking into Maya, while insisting 'I am the doer' is a theft of the Lord's own property, his characteristic of independence, and so a disturbance of his Maya; therefore both are to be abandoned.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These modern voices restate the verse as the core of Karma-Yoga in plain terms. One names the path directly: to act steadfast in Karma-Yoga is to perform action while looking on its being fruitful or unfruitful as alike, and that equable mental state is what is called yoga. Another fills in the inner mechanics: in any action, any result, any time, place, circumstance, or instrument, one must hold no attachment, for only then can action be done in non-clinging, and only such non-clinging action becomes liberating; and from giving up attachment, evenness in success and failure arises. A third keeps the Advaita gloss of the fruit: the success is attainment of Self-knowledge through purity of heart won by acting without expectation, and failure is the non-attainment of that knowledge when one acts with expectation.
Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If I am supposed to feel the same whether my action succeeds or fails, how is that not just resigned indifference that drains the drive to do anything well?
The verse does not ask you to stop acting or to act half-heartedly; its very command is 'perform actions.' What it asks you to release is not effort but the inner grip on the result and the swelling sense of 'I am the one making this happen.' You still do the work, and do it fully. What changes is that elation and dejection are no longer riding on the outcome.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas
Far from being a loss, this evenness is itself named as yoga and is the high attainment the verse points to. The commentators say it is a settled composure of consciousness, not a dull blankness. And the practical claim is that letting go of attachment is exactly what keeps action effective and clean; clinging to the fruit, not releasing it, is what muddies the work and binds you.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Ramsukhdas · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
There is also a deeper success the verse has in view that this calm does not abandon at all. Acting without craving purifies the mind, and from that purity knowledge of the Self arises; that inner knowing is the true 'success,' and acting with grasping expectation is the real 'failure.' So evenness toward worldly winning and losing is not indifference to what matters most; it is what clears the way to the one result genuinely worth wanting.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Swami Sivananda · Śrīla Viśvanātha
Contemplation
Bring this verse down to your own next task. Before you act, look at everything you are tempted to lean on: the action itself, its result, the time and place, the circumstances, even the body and mind doing the work. The instruction is to set down your inner grip on every one of these and act without clinging. The reasoning is simple and practical. If you cling to the work or to its outcome, non-clinging cannot remain, and without that non-clinging the action loses its power to free you. So the letting-go is not coldness; it is what keeps the work clean. And notice the order: equanimity is not something you have to manufacture by force. When attachment is genuinely released, evenness in success and failure arises on its own as the natural result. Do the work fully, give up the grip, and let the calm follow.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, tap a name in The seating.