In plain words
to whom blame and praise are alike, who is silent, content with whatever comes, without a dwelling, steady in mind and endowed with Bhakti—that person is dear to Me.
Word for word
Alike in blame and praise, silent, content with whatever [comes], without a fixed abode, steady in understanding, full of bhakti, [such] a person [is] dear to Me.
तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिर्मौनी सन्तुष्टो येन केनचित्अनिकेतः स्थिरमतिर्भक्तिमान् मे प्रियो नरः
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
किञ्च —
तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिः निन्दा च स्तुतिश्च निन्दास्तुती ते तुल्ये यस्य सः तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिः । मौनी मौनवान् संयतवाक् । सन्तुष्टः येन केनचित् शरीरस्थितिहेतुमात्रेण ; तथा च उक्तम् — ‘येन केनचिदाच्छन्नो येन केनचिदाशितः । यत्र क्वचन शायी स्यात्तं देवा ब्राह्मणं विदुः’(मो. ध. २४५ । १२) इति । किञ्च, अनिकेतः निकेतः आश्रयः निवासः नियतः न विद्यते यस्य सः अनिकेतः, ‘नागारे’(?) इत्यादिस्मृत्यन्तरात् । स्थिरमतिः स्थिरा परमार्थविषया यस्य मतिः सः स्थिरमतिः । भक्तिमान् मे प्रियः नरः ॥ १९ ॥
In plain words
And there is more —
Blame and praise land the same on him — neither one moves him more than the other. He keeps to silence, his speech held in check. He's content with whatever the barest keeping-alive of the body requires — as the old verse puts it, 'clothed in whatever comes, fed on whatever comes, sleeping wherever he happens to be, that one the gods themselves call a true brahmin.' And more than that, he has no fixed home — no permanent shelter he clings to, as another old teaching says, 'not tied to any house.' His mind stands steady, fixed on nothing less than the highest reality itself. A man like this, devoted besides, is dear to me.
Close to the Sanskrit
And what further —
One for whom blame and praise are alike — blame and praise, these two are equal for him whose [case this is], he is one for whom blame and praise are alike. Silent — possessing silence, one whose speech is restrained. Content — by whatever mere means sustains the body; and thus it is said: 'covered by whatever comes, fed by whatever comes, sleeping wherever it may be, him the gods know as a brahmin' (Mokṣadharma 245.12) — thus. Moreover, homeless — a fixed dwelling, refuge, abode, does not exist for whom, he is homeless — on the authority of another smṛti beginning 'not in a house' [and so on]. Of steady mind — whose mind, steady, has the highest reality as its object, he is of steady mind. Endowed with devotion, dear to me is such a man.