Answered from scripture
What does the Bhagavad Gita say about success and failure?
In short
The Bhagavad Gita asks you to meet success and failure with the same even mind. In verse 2.48, Krishna calls this evenness — samatva — yoga itself: act steadily, do your work well, and stay balanced whichever way the result falls. Success stops inflating you and failure stops crushing you when your peace no longer depends on the outcome.
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The verse
“yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañjaya”
Bhagavad Gita 2.48 · Chapter 2, Sankhya YogaSteady in spirit, do your work and let go of attachment, calm alike in success and failure. This evenness of mind is yoga.
Spoken by Krishna to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra — the Gita sits within the Mahabharata's Bhishma Parva — as Arjuna, overcome with grief and unwilling to fight his own kin, laid down his bow before the war.
In depth
Most of us ride the swing between elation at success and despair at failure. The Gita offers a steadier place to stand: samatva, evenness — remaining centred through both, because both are passing and neither is the measure of who you are.
Krishna calls this evenness yoga. It is not not caring; you still act, and act well. It is refusing to hand your inner state over to results you cannot fully control. Held this way, success is received with gratitude and failure met with composure, and the next right action is always available to you.
Related questions
What does the Gita say about failure?
To meet it with equanimity rather than despair — failure is a passing outcome, not a verdict on your worth. Even-mindedness through success and failure is called yoga (Gita 2.48).
What is samatva in the Bhagavad Gita?
Equanimity — staying balanced and steady regardless of whether you succeed or fail. The Gita treats it as the essence of a calm, resilient mind.
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