A man of realization does not grieve over what is lost, nor delight in what is gained, but abides evenly through all change
Extends the chapter's list of marks to cover gain and loss specifically, framing steady equanimity through change as more central to realization than any particular feeling.
Chapter 17 treats reaction to gain and loss as a useful test case because these are among the most universally triggering events in ordinary life — almost everyone grieves what is taken away and celebrates what is acquired. The realized person described here does neither, not because they have trained themselves into stoic suppression, but because gain and loss are changes in circumstance, and the self was never identified with circumstance to start with. Abiding evenly through all change becomes the chapter's shorthand for what stable self-knowledge actually looks like from the outside.
Samatva, evenness of mind through gain and loss, is also central to the Bhagavad Gita's teaching on disciplined action, making this a point of convergence between two otherwise different texts within the same broader tradition.
Ashtavakra Gita
Written about in
- What the Ashtavakra Gita says about grief
Chapter 17 is a list of the marks of realization, and reaction to gain and loss is the test it sets. The realized person is described as neither mourning nor celebrating — not through suppression, but because the self was never identified with circumstance to begin with.