November Gītā: 12.15

yasmān nodvijate loko lokān nodvijate cha yaḥ
harṣhāmarṣha-bhayodvegair mukto yaḥ sa cha me priyaḥ

‘Those who are not a source of affliction to the world and who in turn are not afflicted by the world, who are equal in pleasure and pain, and free from hopes and fears, such devotees of Mine are very dear to Me.’
Bhagavad Gītā 12.15

The first line of this verse is very powerful at a time when humanity faces a reckoning with nature. The sanskrit word used to describe 'the world' here is Lokan which is familar to us from the last line of our closing prayer:
Lokah, Samastah sukino bavantu (may all the world be happy). That’s not just everybody on the planet, that includes the planet itself. We have to stop being an affliction to the world in which we live and find harmony with nature.

The second part of the verse is easily misunderstood. what are we without our emotions? Are Krishna’s devotees supposed to become devoid of feelings in order to please him? Of course not. In the Gita, freedom from hopes and fears, pleasure and pain means seeing them for what they are… pain is as transitory as pleasure is elusive. We cling to the ‘good' feelings like pleasure and reject the ‘bad' ones like pain. But if we can recognise them as two sides of the same coin, as inevitable aspects of our existence, then we are slaves to neither.

– Tom Norrington-Davies