Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Verse 38
भगवद् गीता अध्याय 2 श्लोक 38

सुखदुःखे समे कृत्वा लाभालाभौ जयाजयौ।
ततो युद्धाय युज्यस्व नैवं पापमवाप्स्यसि।।2.38।।



English Translation - Swami Gambirananda
2.38 Treating happiness and sorrow, gain and loss, and conest and defeat with eanimity, then engage in battle. Thus you will not incur sin.


English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary
2.38 Thus, knowing the self to be eternal, different from the body and untouched by all corporeal alities, remaining unaffected by pleasure and pain resulting from the weapon-strokes etc., inevitable in a war, as also by gain and loss of wealth, victory and defeat, and keeping yourself free from attachment to heaven and such other frutis, begin the battle considering  it merely as your own duty. Thus, you will incur no sin. Here sin means transmigratory existence which is misery. The purport is that you will be liberarted from the bondage of transmigratory existence.

Thus, after teaching the knowledge of the real nature of the self, Sri Krsna begins to expound the Yoga of work, which, when preceded by it (i.e., knowledge of the self), constitutes the means for liberation.


Transliteration Bhagavad Gita 2.38Sukhaduhkhe same kritwaa laabhaalaabhau jayaajayau;
Tato yuddhaaya yujyaswa naivam paapamavaapsyasi.


Word Meanings Bhagavad Gita 2.38sukha—happiness; duḥkhe—in distress; same kṛitvā—treating alike; lābha-alābhau—gain and loss; jaya-ajayau—victory and defeat; tataḥ—thereafter; yuddhāya—for fighting; yujyasva—engage; na—never; evam—thus; pāpam—sin; avāpsyasi—shall incur