2.38 Having made pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat the same, engage thou in battle for the sake of battle; thus thou shalt not incur sin.

2.38 Sukha-duhkhe etc. For you, performing actions as your own duty, never there is any connection with sin.

2.38. Having made victory and defeat, gain and loss, and pleasure and pain equal, then engage in battle. By fighting thus, you will not incur sin. Commentary: Arjuna had this apprehension that by killing relatives in battle, sin would accrue to us. But here the Lord says that the cause of sin is not battle, but rather one's own desire. Therefore, abandoning desire, you stand ready for battle. 'Having made pleasure and pain equal... then engage in battle' — In battle, victory and defeat occur first; the result of victory and defeat is gain and loss; and the result of gain and loss is pleasure and pain. Your aim is not to become happy or sorrowful in victory-defeat and gain-loss. Your aim is to remain equanimous in all these three and perform your duty. In battle, victory-defeat, gain-loss, and pleasure-pain will certainly occur. Therefore, you should first resolve that you have only to perform your duty, and have no concern whatsoever with victory-defeat, etc. Then, by fighting, sin will not accrue, meaning there will be no bondage of the world. It is necessary to perform one's duty-bound action with both attitudes — with desire and without desire. One who has desire should not be at all lazy or negligent in performing duty-bound action; rather, he should perform his duty with diligence. One who has a desireless attitude, who desires his own welfare, should also perform his duty diligently. Pleasure feels good when it comes and bad when it goes; pain feels bad when it comes and good when it goes. So which is good and which is bad? That is, both are equal, the same. Thus, maintaining equanimity of intellect in pleasure and pain, you should perform your duty. In any action of yours, let there be no inclination due to greed for pleasure, and no disinclination due to fear of pain. Your inclination and disinclination in actions should be according to the scriptures only (Gita 16.24). 'You will not incur sin' — Here the word 'sin' denotes both sin and merit, whose fruit is bondage in the form of attainment of heaven and hell, because of which a person remains deprived of his welfare and is born and dies again and again. The Lord says: O Arjuna! By performing the duty-bound action in the form of battle, established in equanimity, neither sin nor merit will bind you. Special Points Regarding the Context: In these eight verses from the thirty-first to the thirty-eighth, the Lord has expressed several profound ideas; such as — (1) If one has to give a discourse and explain a subject, the Lord here teaches the art of it in these eight verses. For example, if one has to give a discourse on injunction and prohibition — such as performing duty-bound action and not performing what is not duty — then one should describe the injunction first, the prohibition in the middle, and again the injunction at the end, and thus conclude the discourse. Here too, the Lord first described the benefit of performing duty-bound action in the thirty-first and thirty-second verses; then in the middle, described the loss from not performing duty-bound action in the four verses from the thirty-third to the thirty-sixth; and finally, described the benefit of performing duty-bound action in the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth verses, and gave the command to perform duty-bound action. (2) The Lord has resolved in these eight verses the arguments Arjuna gave from his perspective in the first chapter; for example: Arjuna says — I do not see any good in fighting (1.31), so the Lord says — For a Kshatriya, there is no other means of welfare greater than a righteous war (2.31). Arjuna says — How shall we be happy by fighting? (1.37) so the Lord says — Those Kshatriyas who obtain such a war are indeed happy (2.32). Arjuna says — The result of war will be the attainment of hell (1.44) so the Lord says — By fighting, heaven will be attained (2.32, 37). Arjuna says — By fighting, sin will accrue (1.36) so the Lord says — By not fighting, sin will accrue (2.33). Arjuna says — By fighting, righteousness will be destroyed as a consequence (1.40) so the Lord says — By not fighting, righteousness will be destroyed (2.33). (3) Arjuna was insistent that abandoning the terrible act of war and sustaining oneself by alms is better for me (2.5), so the Lord commanded him to fight (2.38); and Uddhava had the desire to stay with the Lord, so the Lord commanded him to go to Uttarakhand and perform penance (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.29.41). The implication is that without giving up the insistence of one's own mind, there is no welfare. That insistence, whatever its nature, does not allow liberation. (4) The points the Lord stated briefly in the second and third verses of this chapter, He has elaborated here; for example: There He said 'unbefitting the noble', here He says 'for a Kshatriya, there is no greater good...'. There He said 'not leading to heaven', here He says 'the open gate to heaven'. There He said 'bringing infamy', here He says 'people will recount your perpetual infamy'. There He gave the command to fight — 'Therefore, arise, O scorcher of foes!' — the same command He gives here — 'Then engage in battle.' Connection: In the previous verse, the Lord spoke of equanimity; in the next two verses, commanding to listen to that, He describes its glory.