Chapter 14, Verse 25
मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः | सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते ||१४-२५||
mānāpamānayostulyastulyo mitrāripakṣayoḥ . sarvārambhaparityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate ||14-25||
Meaning
14.25 Who is the same in honour and dishonour, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings he is said to have transcended the alities.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna completes the portrait of the guṇātīta with its final and most demanding marks. Such a one is equal in māna and apamāna — honour and dishonour — and equal toward the camps of friend and foe alike, for his love does not depend on how others treat him. And he is sarvārambha-parityāgī — one who has renounced all egoistic undertakings, no longer launching projects to feed the self's craving for results. With this, Krishna seals the answer to Arjuna's question: 'he is said to have transcended the qualities.'
The renunciation here is inward, not a fleeing from action. The sage still acts, but no longer as the anxious initiator scheming for personal gain; he has surrendered the sense of being the doer. Free of partiality and of the ego's restless ventures, he meets honour and insult, ally and adversary, with the same untroubled heart. This is the living evidence of one beyond the guṇas — recognisable not by withdrawal from the world, but by unshakeable evenness within it.
💡 Key Takeaway
The mark of true freedom is meeting honour and insult, friend and foe, with one steady heart, having released the ego's grasping ventures.
Related Verses
रजस्तमश्चाभिभूय सत्त्वं भवति भारत | रजः सत्त्वं तमश्चैव तमः सत्त्वं रजस्तथा ||१४-१०||
rajastamaścābhibhūya sattvaṃ bhavati bhārata . rajaḥ sattvaṃ tamaścaiva tamaḥ sattvaṃ rajastathā ||14-10||
14.10 Now Sattva arises (prevails), O Arjuna, having overpowered Rajas and Tamas; nor Rajas, having overpowered Sattva and Tamas; and now Tamas, having overpowered Sattva and Rajas.
गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान् | जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर्विमुक्तोऽमृतमश्नुते ||१४-२०||
guṇānetānatītya trīndehī dehasamudbhavān . janmamṛtyujarāduḥkhairvimukto.amṛtamaśnute ||14-20||
14.20 The embodied one having crossed beyond these three Gunas out of which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to immortality.
श्रीभगवानुवाच | प्रकाशं च प्रवृत्तिं च मोहमेव च पाण्डव | न द्वेष्टि सम्प्रवृत्तानि न निवृत्तानि काङ्क्षति ||१४-२२||
śrībhagavānuvāca . prakāśaṃ ca pravṛttiṃ ca mohameva ca pāṇḍava . na dveṣṭi sampravṛttāni na nivṛttāni kāṅkṣati ||14-22||
14.22 The Blessed Lord said When light, activity and delusion are present, he hates them not, nor does he long for them when they are absent.