Bhagavad Gita 2.56 · BG 2.56
Chapter 2Verse 56
Sankhya Yoga
दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः। वीतरागभयक्रोधः स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते॥
duḥkheṣv anudvigna-manāḥ sukheṣu vigata-spṛhaḥ, vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ sthita-dhīr munir ucyate
Translation
One whose mind is untroubled in sorrow, free from craving amid pleasures, and free from attachment, fear, and anger, is called a sage of steady wisdom.
Not dragged under by sorrow, not strung out by pleasure. That's a steady mind.
What does this mean?
A steady mind isn't one that never feels anything. It's one that doesn't get dragged under by sadness or strung out by pleasure. Attachment, fear, and anger are what usually do the dragging, and loosening their grip is what leaves you actually settled rather than just performing calm.
In simple words
Krishna describes the person of steady wisdom: untroubled in sorrow, not grasping in pleasure, free of the pull of attachment, fear, and anger. It's not someone who feels nothing. It's someone who doesn't get dragged under by sadness or strung out by good feelings.
The deeper idea
This is part of the Gita's portrait of the person settled in wisdom. The point is easy to misread as emotional flatness. What's actually described is non-reactivity: emotions arise, but they don't capture the person. Attachment, fear, and anger are singled out as the specific forces that usually do the capturing, and it's their grip that loosens. What's left isn't numbness. It's someone genuinely settled rather than performing calm.
How it applies to life
There's a difference between a person who's suppressing a hard week behind a tight smile and a person who's actually steady through it. The first is holding a lid down. The second has less pressure under the lid to begin with, because they're not adding fear about the future and anger about the unfairness on top of the plain difficulty. That state is built by loosening those add-ons, not by clamping down harder.