Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 2, Verse 15
यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ।
समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते।।
समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते।।
yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha
sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ so ’mṛtatvāya kalpate
also searched as "yam hi na vyathayantyete purusham purusharshabha"
Translation
For, he whom these do not affect, O chief of men, and to whom pain and pleasure are equal - that steadfast man alone is worthy of immortality.
Vāṇi's rendering
The one whom cold and heat, pain and pleasure cannot shake — is ready for what never dies.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| यम्yaṁ | whom |
| हिhi | indeed, for |
| नna | not |
| व्यथयन्तिvyathayanti | shake, torment, distress (joined with the next word as vyathayanty-ete) |
| एतेete | these — the touches of cold and heat, pain and pleasure |
| पुरुषम्puruṣaṁ | the person, the man |
| पुरुषर्षभpuruṣa-ṛṣabha | O bull among men, chief of men (address to Arjuna; puruṣa + ṛṣabha joined) |
| समदुःखसुखम्sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ | the one for whom pain and pleasure weigh the same |
| धीरम्dhīraṁ | the steady one, unshaken |
| सःsaḥ | he, that one (sandhi: saḥ + amṛtatvāya becomes so 'mṛtatvāya) |
| अमृतत्वायamṛtatvāya | for deathlessness, for what never dies |
| कल्पतेkalpate | is fit, is ready, becomes capable |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Verse 15 mean?
It means the one whom pain and pleasure cannot shake is already fit for what never dies. Krishna is not describing numbness. He is describing steadiness — feeling the weather fully and remaining upright inside it. That steadiness, he says, is itself the qualification for amṛtatva, deathlessness.
What does yam hi na vyathayantyete purusham purusharshabha teach us?
It teaches that Krishna addresses Arjuna as a bull among men in the very moment he asks for something harder than courage in battle. Not victory over enemies — steadiness under sensation. The one whom these arrivals do not torment, dhīra, is ready. Strength here means not being moved off your feet.
Does this verse ask me to stop feeling pain?
No. Krishna never says the pain is unreal or that you should suppress it. Sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ means pain and pleasure are given equal weight — both arrive, both leave, neither owns you. You still feel the cut. You simply stop reorganising your whole life around whether it hurts.
How is steadiness connected to immortality?
Because what dies is what can be shaken. Krishna has just said the body ends and the dweller does not. The one who is not thrown by cold and heat has already, in practice, stopped identifying with the part that ends. Kalpate — he becomes ready. Deathlessness is not earned later; it is recognised now.
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Commentary
Krishna gives Arjuna a title before he gives him a demand: puruṣarṣabha, bull among men. Then the demand — not that cold and heat stop coming, but that they stop shaking you. The steady one is not the one who feels nothing. He feels, and is not moved off his feet by it. And what he becomes fit for is strange: amṛtatva, deathlessness. Arjuna is afraid of dying and of killing. Krishna tells him the door out of death is not a place — it is a way of standing when pleasure and pain arrive. You build that standing in ordinary weather: today's small heat, today's small cold.