The half-verse beginning 'a well-wisher' is a single phrase. A well-wisher is one who does good without looking for return; a friend is one of affection; a foe is an enemy; the indifferent one takes no side; the one in the middle wishes well to both of two who are at odds; one to be hated is one undear to oneself; a kinsman is a relation. Toward all these, the good, those who follow scripture, and the sinful, those who do what is forbidden, he is of equal mind: his mind is not engaged in asking who is of what sort. There is also another reading, 'he is distinguished' or 'he is released'; the sense is that this one is the best of all those mounted on yoga. So, for the gaining of this highest fruit.

Toward well-wishers regardless of difference of age, toward friends who are well-wishers of one's good and of one's own age, toward foes who from some occasion wish one harm, toward the neutral who, lacking both grounds, are free of both, toward the indifferent who from birth itself are free of both, toward the hateful who from birth itself wish one ill, toward kinsmen who from birth itself wish one well, toward the good who are righteous in conduct, and toward the sinful who are sinful in conduct, he whose understanding is the same, since, having the self alone for his purpose, there is no purpose to be served by well-wishers, friends, and the rest and no ground of opposition with them, is the more distinguished in fitness for the practice of the discipline.

And such a one is more excellent than all. The 'equal-minded' one is so in the jiva-consciousness. Since the supreme Self is the cause of all and is everywhere of one uniform form as consciousness, the living beings are simply of the form of consciousness; the distinction among them is made by the inner organ. The saintliness and the rest of all of them is entirely the Lord's doing; of themselves they are nothing at all. All this has been stated in the Brahma text: 'of themselves all the living beings are of the form of consciousness and free of every fault; the faults that are theirs are held to be made by the limiting adjunct. Everything of theirs is from the Lord, nothing at all of itself; thus all are equal, and the inequality is born of error. Yet, the living beings being thus equal, there is a distinction among the gods and the rest, a natural one, fixed by rule, and for that very reason they are eternal. So too the faults of the demons and the rest are eternal and natural; the virtue and fault of men are held to be eternal and natural; and the gods alone are held to be always of the nature of virtue only'. But there is no equality of worship and the like toward saints and sinners, for a fault is recorded there: 'when an equal worship is given to the unequal, and an unequal worship to the equal, even a god, even a man, falls from his own station' (Brahma text); 'wealth, kinship, age, action, and learning as the fifth, these are the grounds of honour, and each later one is the weightier' (Manava 2.136); 'the man who renders to all beings a worship that follows their qualities, and an equal sight, to him Vishnu is gracious; but he gives inequality and pre-eminence according to the gathering of men. Inequality is in the worship; the equal sight is the sameness free of pain' (Brahma-vaivarta). The doing of the scripturally enjoined worship and the like toward friends and the rest, that worship which is neither less nor more, is itself the equality; and that too they tell of: 'as one should act toward friends, so toward fathers, foes and sons, he who does worship and the like, he is called the equal-minded' (Garuda). He who, looking to the place of distress, gives protection, and does a kindness with no regard for a return, is a 'friend' (suhrd). A 'foe' (ari) is one who does slaying and the like. He who stands indifferent toward a kindness or a harm that is to be done is the 'neutral' (udasina); he who does both is the 'middling' (madhyastha); the doer of what is unsettling is the 'hated' (dveshya). And this is said: 'the doer of the unsettling is the hated; the doer of the mere task is the middling; the doer of what is dear, the dear; he who, looking to the distress, protects, is the friend; and he who does a kindness with no regard for a return is called the suhrd; while the foe is the doer of slaying and the like'.