Chapter 6, Verse 32
आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन | सुखं वा यदि वा दुःखं स योगी परमो मतः ||६-३२||
ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṃ paśyati yo.arjuna . sukhaṃ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṃ sa yogī paramo mataḥ ||6-32||
Meaning
6.32 He who, through the likeness of the Self, O Arjuna, sees eality everywhere, be it pleasure or pain, he is regarded as the highest Yogi.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna crowns this whole movement with a practical, ethical test of the highest yogi — and it turns out to be the Golden Rule, grounded in metaphysics. Atma-aupamyena means 'by comparison with oneself': the realized one feels others' joy and pain as if they were his own, because he truly sees the one Self in all. Having beheld unity, he cannot treat another's suffering as foreign.
This is the moral fruit of the unity-vision and the culmination of the chapter's yoga. The supreme yogi is not merely one who sits unshaken in samadhi, but one whose realization overflows as universal empathy. Whatever brings pleasure or pain to himself, he recognizes the same in every being, and so naturally wishes for all what he wishes for himself. Krishna declares such a one parama — the highest yogi of all. Inner realization and outer compassion are revealed to be one: the deepest meditation flowers as the tenderest love for all that lives.
💡 Key Takeaway
The highest yogi feels others' joy and pain as his own and treats all beings as he would himself.
Related Verses
सुहृन्मित्रार्युदासीनमध्यस्थद्वेष्यबन्धुषु | साधुष्वपि च पापेषु समबुद्धिर्विशिष्यते ||६-९||
suhṛnmitrāryudāsīnamadhyasthadveṣyabandhuṣu . sādhuṣvapi ca pāpeṣu samabuddhirviśiṣyate ||6-9||
6.9 He who is of the same mind to the good-hearted, friends, enemies, the indifferent, the neutral, the hateful, the relatives, the righteous and the unrighteous, excels.
सर्वभूतस्थमात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि | ईक्षते योगयुक्तात्मा सर्वत्र समदर्शनः ||६-२९||
sarvabhūtasthamātmānaṃ sarvabhūtāni cātmani . īkṣate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḥ ||6-29||
6.29 With the mind harmonised by Yoga he sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self; he sees the same everywhere.
यो मां पश्यति सर्वत्र सर्वं च मयि पश्यति | तस्याहं न प्रणश्यामि स च मे न प्रणश्यति ||६-३०||
yo māṃ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṃ ca mayi paśyati . tasyāhaṃ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati ||6-30||
6.30 He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, he never becomes separated from Me, nor do I become separated from him.