July 27, 2026

Endure The Seasons

O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Krishna speaks these words to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, moments before a war Arjuna dreads, as grief over the coming death and loss overwhelms him. Krishna reminds him that happiness and distress are not permanent facts but passing sensations, arising and vanishing the way winter gives way to summer and summer to winter again. The teaching is not to deny feeling but to stop mistaking each wave of pleasure or pain for the whole of reality. In the Gita this steadiness is called samatva, evenness of mind, treated as a discipline to be practiced rather than a mood to be waited for. The equanimous person still feels heat and cold, praise and blame, but no longer builds an identity around fighting them off or grasping them tight.

A principle of Eastern Wisdom: Equanimity →