The Gita on love
What does the Gita say about love?
The short answer
The Gita's love leaves no one out. The one Krishna calls dear hates no being and is friendly and compassionate to all (12.13). The best yogi feels another's joy and pain as their own (6.32), and the wise see the same in a scholar, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste (5.18). God's love is the same for all, and whoever loves him with devotion, he is in them and they in him (9.29).
The verses
अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च ।
निर्ममो निरहंकारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी ॥adveṣṭā sarva-bhūtānāṃ maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca
nirmamo nirahaṃkāraḥ sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣamī
That devotee of mine, who hates no being, who is friendly and compassionate, who is free from egoism and from the idea that this or that is mine, to whom happiness and misery are alike, who is forgiving…
आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन ।
सुखं वा यदि वा दुःखं स योगी परमो मतः ॥ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṃ paśyati yo 'rjuna
sukhaṃ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṃ sa yogī paramo mataḥ
That devotee, O Arjuna, is considered the best who looks on pleasure and pain alike in all creatures, comparing them with one's own.
विद्याविनयसंपन्ने ब्राह्मणे गवि हस्तिनि ।
शुनि चैव श्वपाके च पण्डिताः समदर्शिनः ॥vidyā-vinaya-saṃpanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śuni caiva śvapāke ca paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
The wise look upon a Brāhmaṇa possessed of learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a Śvapāka [outcaste] as alike.
समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योऽस्ति न प्रियः ।
ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम् ॥samo 'haṃ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo 'sti na priyaḥ
ye bhajanti tu māṃ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpy aham
I am alike to all beings; to me none is hateful, none dear. But those who worship me with devotion dwell in me, and I too in them.
More doubts the Gita answers
Sanskrit from our library: GRETIL's text with Śaṅkara's commentary for chapters 1–17 and the BORI critical edition of the Mahābhārata for chapter 18, each verse checked against the critical edition. English: K. T. Telang's translation (1882), in modern English. Tap a verse number to read its whole chapter.