5.20 How equanimity empowers amid both failure and success

Do you know people who are prone to emotional extremes:

elation in gain and dejection in loss?

Success gets to their heads;

failure buries them

To avoid such extremes,

the Bhagavad Gita (5.20) recommends equanimity

by shifting our focus from success to service.

Life’s events are not conclusions—they’re chapters.

Cultivating equanimity, we can choose

to write each chapter

with grace and grit.

Life may still knock us down,

but it will never knock us out;

we can recover and resume, knowing that

every day is a fresh opportunity.

Similarly, we can celebrate victories yet stay grounded—

remembering that good fortune isn’t an ego entitlement,

but an invitation to expand our contribution.

Let’s stay strong through life’s traumas and triumphs—

recovering without despair and rising without arrogance.