समत्व

Samatva (समत्व) means being even: the inner axis does not sway between pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, success and failure. Verse 2.48 calls it yoga outright: samatvaṁ yoga ucyate.

The Gita uses the idea in four places. In experience: the contacts that bring pleasure and pain come and go, and the steady person is not disturbed by them (2.14-15). In outcomes: make gain and loss, victory and defeat even, and then act (2.38). In vision: the wise see one reality in all beings (5.18-20). And toward people: the yogi's even intellect toward friend, foe and the neutral (6.7-9).

A common misreading: equanimity is not suppressing feelings, going cold, or treating everyone identically. Verse 2.14 treats the contacts as real, and in 2.15 they simply do not disturb the steady one. The touch arrives; the inner axis stays.

Note also that equanimity is the condition of action, not a substitute for it (2.38): first even, then act. This is why it is linked to nishkama karma, yet it is a different word.

For more, see the topic on equanimity.