Bhagavad Gita 6.32
आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन | सुखं वा यदि वा दुःखं स योगी परमो मतः ||
ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo 'rjuna | sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ ||
Translation
He, O Arjuna! is deemed to be the highest devotee, who looks alike on pleasure or pain whichever it be, in all creatures, comparing all with his own self.
Reflection
Whose pain today would you take more seriously if you compared it to your own instead of to other people's?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six
The yardstick the supreme yogi uses is his own self. What he would not want done to himself, he does not impose. What gives him joy, he can recognise as joy in another. The comparison sounds simple and turns out to be very rare. Most people compare laterally, by status, by deservedness, by category. The man Krishna names compares inward. From that comparison he sees that another's pain is structurally the same as his own pain, and another's pleasure is structurally the same as his own pleasure. The seeing levels the field. The highest yogi, the verse says, is the one in whom this leveling has happened all the way through.