The Bhagavad-gita’s recommendation(02.56) to stay equipoised amidst success and failure puzzles many people. It is antipodal to the modern sporting ethos, wherein the winner is elated and the loser, devastated.

Does the Gita want us to become unemotional? No, it wants us to invest our emotions in something far greater than winning and losing at the material level. Why?Because everything material is temporary. When the material level is all that we see, the difference between success and failure seems to be everything, just as when one is on the ground,the difference between a summit and a valley seems to be everything. But for a bird flying high in the sky, the sights are far grander and higher; the differences between the summits and the valleys, though noticeable, are not life-defining.

Gita wisdom offers us the wings to fly high in the sky of spiritual experience. By providing us the process of devotional service, it enables us to relish emotions far deeper and richer than those experienced at the material level. As souls, we all have an eternal loving relationship with Krishna. Every moment offers us an opportunity to grow in our love for him by remembering him internally and serving him externally. By tapping this opportunity, we fly high in the sky of exhilarating devotional experiences.

But if we get caught in material emotions, then we never take off from the ground or keep landing back. By concentrating our emotions in our relationship with Krishna, we still pass over the summits just as a flying bird passes over them. That is, we attain successes at the material level according to our endeavors and destiny, but we don’t get caught in those successes. We fly on to attain something far greater and stabler: eternal love for Krishna.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02 Text 56

“One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.”