सुखदुःखे समे कृत्वा लाभालाभौ जयाजयौ। ततो युद्धाय युज्यस्व नैवं पापमवाप्स्यसि॥
sukha-duḥkhe same kṛtvā lābhālābhau jayājayau / tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṃ pāpam avāpsyasi
Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as equal — then engage. No sin follows from this.
Word by word (4)
- sukha-duḥkhe same kṛtvā
- — having made pleasure and pain equal · Three pairs of opposites: sukha-duḥkha (pleasure-pain), lābhālābha (gain-loss), jayājaya (victory-defeat). Treating these as equal is the entire practice of Karma Yoga in miniature.
- lābhālābhau jayājayau
- — gain and loss, victory and defeat
- tato yuddhāya yujyasva
- — then engage in battle / yoke yourself to battle
- naivaṃ pāpam avāpsyasi
- — thus you will not incur sin · The pivot of Ch.2: action done with equanimity does not generate binding karma. This is the Karma Yoga principle in its seed form.
'Having treated pleasure and pain as equal, gain and loss as equal, victory and defeat as equal — then engage in battle. You will not incur sin.'
A modern analogy
A surgeon who treats a patient: they act with full skill and care regardless of whether the patient lives or dies. The outcome doesn't change the rightness of the action. V38 asks Arjuna to bring this quality to battle: full engagement, no attachment to whether he wins or loses, lives or dies. The action is right regardless of the result.
Take with you
- Three pairs of opposites made equal: sukha-duḥkha (pleasure-pain), lābhālābha (gain-loss), jayājaya (victory-defeat).
- This is not indifference — it is the freedom to act rightly without the distortion of attachment to outcome.
- 'Naivaṃ pāpam avāpsyasi' — you will not incur sin. The freedom from sin (karmic consequence) follows from freedom from attachment.
Verse 38 is the hinge of Chapter 2 — the moment where the conventional argument (fight to win) is replaced by the Karma Yoga teaching (act rightly regardless of outcome). The three pairs of opposites — pleasure/pain, gain/loss, victory/defeat — cover the entire range of outcomes that Arjuna could care about. By treating these as 'sama' (equal), Arjuna is freed from the outcomes themselves and can engage from duty alone. The statement 'naivaṃ pāpam avāpsyasi' (you will not incur sin) is startling: action done with equanimity and from duty does not generate the binding karma that ego-motivated action generates. This is the karmic foundation of Karma Yoga.
Karma-Yoga lens
Tilak: V38 is the most compact statement of Karma Yoga's central principle. The action (fight) is the same; the inner orientation (equanimity, non-attachment) is what makes it a yoga rather than mere action. The instrument (the bow, the sword) is picked up again — but held differently.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Having made pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat the same, engage yourself in battle for the sake of battle; thus you shall not incur sin. [4]
Holding pleasure and pain, gain and loss, conquest and defeat to be the same, engage then in battle; for thus thou shalt not incur sin. [6]
Set pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, all the same; then brace to battle! So doing, thou canst not sin! [7]
Treating alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, conquest and defeat — then engage in battle. So shalt thou not get sin. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Your right is to act — never to the fruits. Don't act for results. Don't hide in inaction.
Therefore: do your required action without attachment — this is the path that leads to the Supreme.
Rājasic food: bitter, sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry, burning — loved by the rājasic; yields pain, grief, disease.
Even yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed having abandoned attachment and fruits — my settled, highest opinion.
Once that joy is found, no other gain seems greater — established in it, even the heaviest sorrow cannot shake you.
Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.