In plain words
Seeing the Lord equally established everywhere, one does not injure oneself through oneself and therefore reaches the supreme goal.
Word for word
For, seeing the Lord as the same, established alike everywhere, he does not slay the Self by the self; therefore he goes to the supreme goal.
समं पश्यन् हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम्न हिनस्त्यात्मनाऽऽत्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम्
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
यथोक्तस्य सम्यग्दर्शनस्य फलवचनेन स्तुतिः कर्तव्या इति श्लोकः आरभ्यते —
समं पश्यन् उपलभमानः हि यस्मात् सर्वत्र सर्वभूतेषु समवस्थितं तुल्यतया अवस्थितम् ईश्वरम् अतीतानन्तरश्लोकोक्तलक्षणमित्यर्थः । समं पश्यन् किम् ? न हिनस्ति हिंसां न करोति आत्मना स्वेनैव स्वमात्मानम् । ततः तदहिंसनात् याति परां प्रकृष्टां गतिं मोक्षाख्याम् ॥
ननु नैव कश्चित् प्राणी स्वयं स्वम् आत्मानं हिनस्ति । कथम् उच्यते अप्राप्तम् ‘न हिनस्ति’ इति ? यथा ‘न पृथिव्यामग्निश्चेतव्यो नान्तरिक्षे’(तै. सं. ५ । २ । ७) इत्यादि । नैष दोषः, अज्ञानाम् आत्मतिरस्करणोपपत्तेः । सर्वो हि अज्ञः अत्यन्तप्रसिद्धं साक्षात् अपरोक्षात् आत्मानं तिरस्कृत्य अनात्मानम् आत्मत्वेन परिगृह्य, तमपि धर्माधर्मौ कृत्वा उपात्तम् आत्मानं हत्वा अन्यम् आत्मानम् उपादत्ते नवं तं चैवं हत्वा अन्यमेवं तमपि हत्वा अन्यम् इत्येवम् उपात्तमुपात्तम् आत्मानं हन्ति, इति आत्महा सर्वः अज्ञः । यस्तु परमार्थात्मा, असावपि सर्वदा अविद्यया हत इव, विद्यमानफलाभावात् , इति सर्वे आत्महनः एव अविद्वांसः । यस्तु इतरः यथोक्तात्मदर्शी, सः उभयथापि आत्मना आत्मानं न हिनस्ति न हन्ति । ततः याति परां गतिम् यथोक्तं फलं तस्य भवति इत्यर्थः ॥ २८ ॥
In plain words
Now, to praise this correct seeing we've just described, the next verse will do it by telling us exactly what fruit it bears.
"Seeing equally" means actually apprehending it: because everywhere, in every being, he sees the Lord equally seated — present in exactly the same way in each, the Lord whose marks were given in the verse just before. And seeing equally, what then? He does not injure. He commits no injury by himself, by his very own self, against his own Self. And so, because he inflicts no harm there, he reaches the supreme goal — the highest of all — the one whose name is mokṣa.
Someone might object: no living being ever actually harms its own self — so why does the verse even bother saying 'he does not harm it', as if that were some real accomplishment? It's a bit like solemnly declaring, 'fire shall not be lit on the earth, nor in the sky' — technically true, but strange to say, since it was never in question anyway. Here's why it isn't strange at all: the ignorant genuinely do set the real Self aside — constantly. Every ignorant person turns away from the Self, even though it is utterly obvious, immediate, right there — and instead picks up something that isn't the Self at all, and starts calling it 'me.' Then he loads that borrowed identity with merit and guilt, wears it out, and when it's spent, discards it and picks up another one, brand new. And then he wears that one out too, and picks up yet another, and another after that — an endless cycle of adopting a false self and then destroying it. That's exactly why every ignorant person can rightly be called a killer of the self — not once, but again and again. And even the real Self, the one that's actually true, might be described as 'killed' by ignorance in a manner of speaking — though nothing real ever actually happens to it, since that apparent killing produces no real effect at all. Either way, everyone still caught in ignorance ends up deserving that name: self-killer. But someone who has truly seen the Self, exactly as it's been described here, doesn't harm or destroy the self by the self — not in either sense. And because of that, he reaches the highest goal there is; the fruit already promised finally becomes his.
Close to the Sanskrit
In order to give praise to correct vision, already described, by stating its fruit, this verse now begins —
Seeing equally — that is, apprehending — for, since he sees everywhere, in all beings, the Lord seated equally, that is, abiding in identical fashion, the Lord whose defining marks were stated in the immediately preceding verse: such is the meaning. Seeing equally, what then? He does not injure — he commits no injury — by himself, by his very own self, upon his own Self. Therefore, from that non-injuring, he reaches the supreme, that is, the most excellent, goal, the one called liberation.
Objection: no living being at all ever, by itself, injures its own self. How then is it stated, of something never even applicable, 'he does not injure'? As in the example, 'fire is not to be kindled on earth, nor in the sky' (Taittirīya Saṃhitā 5.2.7), and so forth. Reply: this is no flaw, because it is established that the ignorant do set aside the Self. For every ignorant person, having set aside the utterly well-known, direct, immediate Self, and having adopted the non-Self as the Self, and having made that adopted self the doer of merit and demerit, having destroyed that adopted self, takes up another, new self; and having likewise destroyed that one, takes up another; and having destroyed that one too, takes up yet another — thus he destroys, one after another, every self he ever adopts. Hence every ignorant person is a 'self-killer'. As for the ultimately real Self, it too is, as it were, always killed by ignorance, because no actual result ever comes of it — so all the unwise are indeed self-killers. But the other one, the seer of the Self exactly as already described, does not, in either sense, injure or kill the self by the self. As a result, he attains the supreme goal; the fruit already described accrues to him: that is the meaning.