Gita verses for stress and anxiety

People look to the Gita when a result they cannot control weighs on them: an exam, a job, a health report. The teaching is not "do not care". It separates what you can do from what you cannot. The verses below speak to that moment: the feelings that arrive and pass (2.14), the right to act but not to the fruit (2.47), the evenness of mind in success and failure (2.48), and the equal mind that goes into the fight without dread (2.38).

The verses

Bhagavad Gita 2.14

मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत

mātrāsparśāstu kaunteya śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkhadāḥ / āgamāpāyino'nityāstāṃstitikṣasva bhārata

Meaning: Contacts of the senses with their objects, O son of Kunti, bring cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go and do not last; bear them, O Bharata.

The word used for "bear" is titiksha, steady endurance, not suffering in silence for its own sake. Read the full explanation

Bhagavad Gita 2.38

सुखदुःखे समे कृत्वा लाभालाभौ जयाजयौ
ततो युद्धाय युज्यस्व नैवं पापमवाप्स्यसि

sukhaduḥkhe same kṛtvā lābhālābhau jayājayau / tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṃ pāpamavāpsyasi

Meaning: Treating pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat alike, get ready for the fight. Doing so, you will not incur sin.

The same attitude is called samatva, equanimity. Read the full explanation

Bhagavad Gita 2.47

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि

karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana / mā karmaphalaheturbhūrmā te saṅgo'stvakarmaṇi

Meaning: You have a right to action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruit of action be your motive, and do not be attached to inaction.

This is the most quoted verse of the Gita. Read the full explanation

Bhagavad Gita 2.48

योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनंजय
सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते

yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṃ tyaktvā dhanaṃjaya / siddhyasiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṃ yoga ucyate

Meaning: Established in yoga, perform actions, O Arjuna, giving up attachment and remaining the same in success and failure. This evenness of mind is called yoga.

The previous verse gave the instruction; this one defines the word yoga. Read the full explanation

Meanings and explanations are our own wording, not an authorised translation. Readers of the Gita follow different traditions and teachers; please ask yours about what you read here.