BG 14.24 — Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 14.24Chapter 14 · Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः ।

तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस् तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः ॥

sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ svasthaḥ sama-loṣṭāśma-kāñcanaḥ

tulya-priyāpriyo dhīras tulya-nindātma-saṃstutiḥ

spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip

meaning

Equal in pain and pleasure, settled in himself, seeing clod, stone, and gold as one, the steady one holds the dear and unwanted alike and hears blame and self-praise with the same undisturbed mind.

ekras · bhāṣya

The portrait reels off the equalities.

Krishna lists six equalities. They are not the gunatita's discipline; they are his condition.

Shankara reads sama toward duhkha and sukha as standing svastha — self-abiding — resting in the atman alone, not agitated by external fluctuations because the atman is untouched by them. Loshta, ashma, kanchana are equalized not through indifference but because none holds any claim on one who sees only Brahman. Blame and atma-samstuti alike are seen as speech about what has no fixed locus in the witness; the witness is not the body whose name is praised or blamed.

Madhusudana reads duhkha and sukha equalized threefold: as dvesha-raga-shunya — free from aversion and attachment; as anatma-dharma — qualities of the not-Self; as anrita — unreal in the Advaita sense. Three simultaneous lenses, each making the equanimity available from a different angle. The svastha is dvaita-darshana-shunyatva — absence of dual-vision — making equanimity not a practice but a constitutive feature of the realized state.

Ramanuja reads the gunatita yogi holding his own atman, svayam, as his only priya — dear. The arising and passing of external joy or grief — birth, death, children — touches him as events in a field he does not claim. His equanimity toward gold and clod flows from this single ground: tad-vyatirikta — other than that beloved Self — objects have no purchase. The dhira is prakritya-atma-vyatirikta-anubhava-shila — naturally experiencing the atman as distinct from prakriti.

Madhva reads sama-duhkha-sukhah, sama-loshta-ashma-kanchanah, tulya-priya-apriyo dhirah, tulya-ninda-atma-samstutih as Krishna's compound declaration of sarvatha sukha-adau tulyatva-buddhih — the understanding of complete equality across all modes of pleasure, pain, and the rest.

Jayatirtha flags that anyatha-pratiti — a mistaken reading — would collapse the bheda; the equality here is the gunatita-jiva's accurate seeing that all these dualities belong to the field, not to him. The bheda preserves the seer's structural distinction.

Vallabha reads the equalities as signs that the bhakta lives beyond harsha — joy — and dvesha — aversion — which are merely guna-karya, not Krishna's own nature. The sva-stha is atma-stha, settled in Brahman as Krishna's own essence. The gunatita is not flat but full; the equality is not absence of feeling but the substitution of pushti-rasa for guna-rasa.

Shridhara reads the gunatita recognized by the converging samas: pleasure-pain equal because he abides in his own svarupa; loshta-ashma-kanchana equal as objects that cannot disturb that abiding; priya and apriya equal as causes of pleasure and pain that no longer reach him; and ninda along with atma-stuti equal because his dhirana — steady wisdom — is undisturbed by the speech that names him.

Context

where

Chapter 14 · Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 14.23

He sits like a bystander, undisturbed by the gunas, knowing that the gunas move only among themselves and have nothing to do with him.

What's going on

Equal in pain and pleasure, settled in himself, seeing clod, stone, and gold as one, the steady one holds the dear and unwanted alike and hears blame and self-praise with the same undisturbed mind.

Sūtras through this verse (29)

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesbetween

6.9Devas, asuras, mortals are three native kinds.───→here14.24───→14.27Brahman has gradations within its own form.

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homebetween

12.20These devotees are exceedingly dear.───→here14.24───→14.26Unwavering love fits one for brahman.

VallabhaclassicalB

Grace alone — the technical markbetween

11.54Undivided love — sādhana stripped, grace-clothed.───→here14.24───→14.26Beyond the modes is grace-rooted love.

show all 29

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingstation · anchor

───→here14.24───→

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionbetween

14.2At creation's reissue the released remain free.───→here14.24───→15.6The supreme abode does not return its dwellers.

MadhvaclassicalT6

Citation is the spine — texts carry the loadbetween

14.3Kāṣāyaṇa-śruti gives three goddesses one job each.───→here14.24───→18.14Āyāsya-śruti closes the agency question.

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordbetween

14.3Three goddesses named in a single śruti.───→here14.24───→15.4Cut the world-tree by knowing whose play it is.

MadhvaclassicalT11

Only revealed scripture decides — reason alone cannotbetween

2.72Akṣapāda and Kaṇāda are simply ruled out.───→here14.24───→14.27What stands behind brahman is fixed by named texts.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causeexit

13.25Three classes, one ladder, each class on a different rung.───→here14.24───→

RamsukhdasclassicalG

Equanimity in everythingstation

───→here14.24───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessbetween

12.6Single-aim devotion draws the lifting hand.───→here14.24───→14.26Unswerving devotion crosses the modes.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

14.1Now, the highest of all knowings.───→here14.24───→15.1Dispassion first; else neither knowing nor love.

RamsukhdasclassicalB

This human birth — your one chance to actbetween

14.18The modes decide which womb is next.───→here14.24───→15.7The self wears body as a costume.

RamsukhdasclassicalD

The three modes (sattva, rajas, tamas) at workbetween

14.18Sattva up, rajas mid, tamas downward.───→here14.24───→14.27Beyond the modes is the only ground.

ŚrīdharaclassicalG

Soul as His portion, neither cut nor identicalapproach

───→here14.24───→14.26Fit for the state of brahman, not fused.

ŚrīdharaclassicalI

His evenness as ground for refugeexit

13.10A steady evenness is the seeker's mark.───→here14.24───→

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

14.1Two-verse prelude names guṇa-vibhāga.───→here14.24───→18.1Closing chapter's prelude seals the program.

VallabhaclassicalI

A closed three-source citation gridbetween

11.54Bhāgavata + Brahmasūtra fuse at the vision-verse.───→here14.24───→14.26Brahman dwells in the one beyond the modes.

MadhusūdanaclassicalH

Krishna with form is the ground beneath formless Brahmanbetween

13.13Not a power-of-the-Lord; the Lord himself, formless.───→here14.24───→14.27I am the foundation of formless Brahman itself.

MadhusūdanaclassicalI

Liberation while alive — the body finishes its runbetween

12.20The middle six closes on the fearless ripened one.───→here14.24───→14.27The brahma-ground obtains in this body.

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderexit

13.2The third ṣaṭka is the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here14.24───→

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

Three groups of six: you, the Lord, the joiningexit

13.1The last six work what 'are' really means.───→here14.24───→

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyatebetween

14.22Guṇātīta-lakṣaṇa follows the same rule.───→here14.24───→17.2Threefold faith: tagged at this site.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousbetween

14.1Modes belong to the Lord's prakṛti.───→here14.24───→15.7Aṃśa pinned to the Lord, not free.

RāmānujaclassicalC

Three ṣaṭkas (1–6 / 7–12 / 13–18)between

14.1Beyond sāṅkhya: the modes that bind.───→here14.24───→18.1The closing chapter gathers all questions.

RāmānujaclassicalK

Tri-guṇa diagnostic for the bhaktabetween

14.18Up, middle, downward.───→here14.24───→14.27Even sattva sits inside the field.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalF

Three guṇas: contractions of one consciousnessbetween

14.19Past the modes by recognizing, not replacing.───→here14.24───→17.2Even faith is graded through the three.

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidexit

12.12'Shreyo hi jnanam abhyasaj jnanad dhyanam vishishyate, dhyanat karma-phala-tyaga───→here14.24───→

JayatīrthaclassicalA

Body and embodied — the inference runs on the dehī sideexit

13.5Field and knower: body-self cut returns.───→here14.24───→

Śabda · lemmas (14 unique · 16 occurrences)

स्वस्थः svastha — (sva- + stha: standing) · nominative masculine singular noun · also at 5.13
निन्दा nindā — blame, censure, reproach · compound

show all 14

सम sama ×2 — equal, same, even-minded · compound
तुल्य tulya ×2 — equal, similar · compound
दुःख duḥkha — suffering, sorrow, pain · compound
सुखः sukha — happiness, pleasure, ease · nominative masculine singular noun
लोष्ट loṣṭa — lump of clay, clod · compound · also at 6.8
अश्म aśman — stone · compound
काञ्चनः kāñcana — gold, golden · nominative masculine singular noun
प्रिय priya — dear, beloved · compound
अप्रियः apriya — (a- + priya: dear) · nominative masculine singular noun
धीरः dhīra — steady, wise, resolute (from dhī 'thought') · nominative masculine singular noun
आत्म ātman — the Self, soul; one's own self · compound
संस्तुतिः saṃstuti — praise, eulogy (sam- + √stu) · nominative masculine singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If gold and clod are truly equal to the gunatita, does the tradition expect literal indifference to material loss, or is this a description of the internal state that does not prescribe external behavior?
02Each school grounds equanimity in a different source: Shankara in atman-recognition, Ramanuja in priya-svarupa, Madhva in jiva-dependence, Vallabha in Krishna-grace, Madhusudana in non-dual vision. Do these produce the same lived behavior or genuinely different phenomenologies?

show all 7

03Blame and self-praise (ninda and atma-samstuti) are paired: what does it reveal about this teaching that self-praise is as problematic as blame from others?
04Ramanuja links equanimity to prakrityatma-viveka-kushala — skill at discriminating self from nature. Is equanimity therefore a competence acquired, or a recognition that requires no acquisition?
05Madhva's extremely compressed comment ('tulyatvartham uktah purastat') treats this verse as already explained. What does it mean for a tradition that this verse requires no elaboration beyond what was said before?
06Vallabha connects the verse to the 'Sankhya-Yoga sara' — the essential teaching of both Sankhya and Yoga together. Does the Pushti-marga gunatita arrive at equanimity through analysis (Sankhya) or through grace-yoga, or is that distinction dissolved here?
07All six schools agree that the gunatita is sama in praise and blame. Does this constitute a teaching about how to receive feedback in community, or only about the inner state of an advanced practitioner?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When your annual review delivers mixed feedback, notice which comments trigger a lift and which produce a clench. The equanimous practitioner in Shankara's frame is not the one who has stopped caring about quality; it is the one who recognizes that the reviewer is describing a role-performance, not the atman. Practice: after any evaluation, sit with the compulsion to either argue or feel shame, and ask whether the entity that needs defending is the Self or a constructed professional identity.

Dvaita

When a project you poured effort into is cancelled and another person's lesser work is funded, the Madhva-framed practitioner does not flatten the difference (gold and clod are genuinely different in quality) but releases the sense that the outcome reflects your worth before Hari. The equanimity is not 'it does not matter' but 'it is Hari's arrangement, and I am dependent, not the judge of outcomes.'

show all 4

Bhakti

You are passed over for a speaking role you had prepared for. Sridhara's portrait of the gunatita is useful here not as a demand for stoicism but as a diagnostic: if the setback produces lasting bitterness, you are identifying with the role rather than the svarupa. The everyday practice is to return to the question 'in what am I actually established?' after each episode of disappointment or unexpected recognition.

Advaita-Bhakti

A colleague circulates a harsh critique of your published writing. Madhusudana's triple lens is practically useful: (1) the aversion you feel is dvesharaga — note it without acting from it; (2) the critique is describing qualities of the body-mind-role complex, not the atman — it is anatmadharmata; (3) the authorial identity that is stung is itself anrita, not ultimately real. The synthesis practice is to hold all three framings simultaneously rather than retreating to only the Advaita negation, which can become a bypass, or only the bhakti surrender, which can become passivity.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

substratev2.6-frozen

parserByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)

mūlaBelvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness

show all metadata

weightsa=1 · b=0.01 · e_v=0.005 · z=0.2 · h=0 · th=0.01

anchorfit on Ramsukhdas's Sādhak Sañjīvanī (1980), frozen across the eight-commentator panel; cross-validated R@4 = 71.6% on Śaṅkara

extracted2026-04-21

methodPaper 1, Section II.B

↓ view raw per-verse object (JSON)↗ per-verse-object schema ↗ substrate code (MIT) + data (CC-BY 4.0)

The schema generalizes to any bounded-polysemy corpus with discrete primary text units, attested witness traditions, identifiable schools, and formal substrate. Port the per-verse object; refit weights on a domain-appropriate Layer-3 anchor; ship.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 14, Verse 24: Krishna to Arjuna — Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga