Without hatred toward any being, friendly and compassionate, without sense of possession or ego, equanimous in pleasure and pain, patient.

Chapter 12 culminates with the description of the ideal devotee. This verse and the following ones (12.13-19) form one of the most beautiful passages of the Gītā about the qualities of the mature yogī.

The qualities listed:

• Adveṣṭā — without hatred toward anyone
• Maitraḥ — friendly
• Karuṇa — compassionate
• Nirmama — without sense of “mine”
• Nirahaṅkāra — without ego (identification with the separate self)
• Sama-duḥkha-sukha — equanimous before pain and pleasure
• Kṣamī — patient, tolerant

Notably, these qualities are relational. Yoga is not just isolated self-transformation but how we treat other beings (sarva-bhūtānām).

Nirmama and nirahaṅkāra are particularly subtle: it doesn’t mean having nothing or being nobody, but not rigidly identifying with possessions or self-image.

These qualities are not imposed; they naturally flourish when practices dissolve internal obstructions.