Bhagavad Gita 2.48 · BG 2.48
Chapter 2Verse 48
Sankhya Yoga
योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय। सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते॥
yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañjaya, siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate
Translation
Established in yoga, perform your actions, abandoning attachment, and remain even-minded in success and failure. This evenness of mind is called yoga.
Do your work in balance. That steadiness of mind is the real practice.
What does this mean?
The Gita defines yoga here not as a posture but as balance of mind: the ability to give real effort without being thrown off by whether it succeeds or fails.
In simple words
Krishna defines yoga here, and it isn't a posture. It's doing your work while staying even, letting go of the grip on results, and staying level whether things succeed or fail. That evenness of mind, he says, is what the word actually means.
The deeper idea
This is one of the Gita's working definitions of yoga: samatva, evenness or balance of mind. It reframes the practice away from ritual or physical discipline and toward an inner stance you hold while acting. Letting go of attachment is the mechanism, and staying even-minded in success and failure is the visible result. The verse pairs full engagement with non-attachment on purpose. You're meant to do the work completely, just without your stability riding on how it lands.
How it applies to life
Two people can do the same job to the same standard. One is wrecked by every setback and inflated by every win, so their focus is always half on the scoreboard. The other does the work just as hard but doesn't hand their mood to the result, so all of their attention stays on the task. The Gita calls that second stance the actual practice, and you build it by noticing, each time, where your calm is currently anchored.