Treating pleasure and pain as equal, as alike, that is, without feeling passion and aversion, and likewise treating gain and loss, victory and defeat, as equal: so engage yourself in the battle. Acting in the war thus, you will not incur sin. This teaching is incidental. The worldly reasoning, for the removal of sorrow and delusion, was given in the verses 'looking to your own duty too' and the rest, but not as the main point. The supreme vision is the matter in hand; that, having been stated, is now summed up, 'this has been told to you' (Gītā 2.39), so as to show the division of the scripture's subject-matter. Once that division is shown here, the scripture, dealing later with the two steadfastnesses, 'by the path of knowledge for the Sāṅkhyas, by the path of action for the yogins', will proceed easily, and the hearers will grasp it easily through the division of subject-matter. With this in view He says.

Knowing thus the self to be eternal, distinct from the body, and untouched by every nature of the body, and keeping your understanding unchanged amid the pleasure and pain, the gain and loss of goods, the victory and defeat that come, in war, of the unavoidable falling of weapons and the like, undertake the war with the bare thought 'this is to be done', with no eye to heaven or any such fruit. Doing so, you will not incur sin: you will not incur the painful round of transmigration, but will be freed from the bondage of transmigration. Having thus taught the knowledge of the self as it truly is, the Lord begins to speak of the discipline of action which, grounded in that knowledge, is the means to liberation.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Madhvacharya does not comment on this verse.