असक्तिर् अनभिष्वङ्गः पुत्रदारगृहादिषु / नित्यं च समचित्तत्वम् इष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु
asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu / nityaṃ ca sama-cittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu
Non-attachment + no identity-fusion with son/wife/home — and constant equanimity in good fortune and bad: this is jñāna.
Word by word (5)
- asaktiḥ
- — non-attachment — the quality of not clinging to persons, outcomes, or objects · Asakti = absence of sakti (attachment, sticking). This is the positive freedom-state, not the negative 'I must not attach.' The kṣetrajña naturally experiences asakti because relationships and outcomes are kṣetra events — watched, not owned. Different from indifference: the jñānī loves without possessiveness.
- anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ
- — non-identification, non-self-entwining — not wrapping one's identity around beloved people or things (abhi = toward + svaṅga = embrace/self-entanglement) · Deeper than asakti: while asakti = not holding on, anabhiṣvaṅga = not merging identity with. 'My son, my wife, my home' — the svaṅga (embrace) that says 'their fate IS my fate.' Anabhiṣvaṅga is freedom from this identity-fusion. The loving parent who is not destroyed by their child's suffering has anabhiṣvaṅga — not cold distance but un-fused love.
- putra-dāra-gṛha-ādiṣu
- — toward son, wife, home, and so forth — the primary attachments of householder life · Putra (son) + dāra (wife) + gṛha (home) = the three anchors of gṛhastha (householder) identity in Vedic society. 'Ādi' = et cetera — the list expands to everything we call 'mine.' These are named not to devalue them but as examples of the kṣetra-relationships that can become identity-traps.
- nityam ca sama-cittatvam
- — constant equanimity — the mind (citta) remaining the same (sama) always (nitya), not swinging between elation and dejection · Sama-cittatva = the even-minded state (sama + citta + tva). 'Nityam' = always, continuously — not just in meditation but in the midst of life. This is the most demanding quality: not occasional composure but structural stability. The Gita's ideal throughout (see Ch.2 V15, 48, 57; Ch.6 V7).
- iṣṭa-aniṣṭa-upapattiṣu
- — on the occurrence (upapatti = arriving, happening) of the desirable (iṣṭa) and the undesirable (aniṣṭa) · The qualifier that makes this quality real: equanimity specifically when good things and bad things happen. Not equanimity in a vacuum but equanimity in the moment of gain and loss, praise and blame, health and sickness. Iṣṭa-aniṣṭa-upapatti = the full range of fortune's swings.
Qualities 13-14 of the jñāna portrait: (13) Asakti + anabhiṣvaṅga — not clinging AND not fusing identity with loved ones and home. The difference matters: you can love deeply without wrapping your selfhood around another's fate. (14) Sama-cittatva — the mind staying even-keeled when good things arrive AND when bad things arrive. Both conditions tested, both passed.
A modern analogy
Think of the ocean and its waves. The ocean (sama-citta) does not rise and fall with each wave (iṣṭa-aniṣṭa events) — the waves are entirely the ocean's own motion, yet the ocean's depth is undisturbed. Sama-cittatva is being the ocean, not the wave-rider.
What it does NOT mean
Many people read asakti as emotional coldness or family neglect. The Gita nowhere asks us to stop loving or serving family. It asks us not to lose our identity into them ('my child's success is my success'). The anabhiṣvaṅga-parent loves just as fully but without the terror of losing self if the child fails.
Asakti (quality 13a) and anabhiṣvaṅga (quality 13b) form a subtle pair: asakti is not holding on; anabhiṣvaṅga is not fusing. Śaṃkara reads anabhiṣvaṅga as the subtler inner corruption: the parent who says 'I am not attached' but internally defines themselves through their children's achievements has asakti on the surface, anabhiṣvaṅga missing underneath. Both must be present. Sama-cittatva (quality 14) is the test: if the mind swings wildly at a child's failure, anabhiṣvaṅga is absent.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Non-attachment, non-identification of self with son, wife, home, and the rest, and constant even-mindedness in the occurrence of the desirable and the undesirable [4]
[Arnold full chapter text; verse covers non-attachment and constant equanimity] [7]
Absence of attachment, absence of self-identification with son, wife, home, and the like, and constant equanimity on attainment of good and evil [9]
Absence of attachment (for worldly objects), absence of affection for son, wife, house, and the like; constant equanimity of mind in the occurrence of what is wished for and what is not wished for [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
One who — given the five causes — sees the self alone as doer due to unrefined intellect sees not; that is durmati.
Arjuna asks: what does the truly wise person look like? How do they speak, sit, and move?
Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.
Once that joy is found, no other gain seems greater — established in it, even the heaviest sorrow cannot shake you.
Satisfied by knowledge and realisation, senses mastered, gold and mud equally seen — this is the true steadfast yogi.
No sticky attachment anywhere — meeting good or bad without rejoicing or hatred. Wisdom firmly rooted.