ज्ञानविज्ञानतृप्तात्मा कूटस्थो विजितेन्द्रियः।युक्त इत्युच्यते योगी समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः॥
jñāna-vijñāna-tṛptātmā kūṭa-stho vijitendriyaḥyukta ityucyate yogī sama-loṣṭāśma-kāñcanaḥ
Word by word
The verse says
Filled by knowing and by seeing, standing unmoved, his senses conquered — he is called joined, the one to whom a lump of earth, a stone and gold are the same.
In plain words
Kūṭastha — standing like an anvil. Unmoved, not unfeeling.
And then the test, which is refreshingly concrete.
Earth, stone, gold. Three things in a hand.
Where you've felt this · with money
Your uncle can hold a gold chain and a bus ticket, and you cannot tell from his hands which is which. He is not pretending the chain is worthless. He simply is not handling it differently.
Going deeper
The anvil is a better image than the mountain, and the difference matters.
Kūṭastha names the block a smith works on. Things are struck against it all day. It takes every blow and does not move, and it is not remote from the work — it is where the work happens.
So the steadiness being described is not distance. It is being fully in the middle of things and not being rearranged by them.
Then the practical test: earth, stone and gold handled the same way. Notice this is not a claim that they are worth the same. Gold buys more than a stone, and nothing in the verse denies it.
What has gone is the difference in the grip. The hand does not close harder on one of them, which is a measurable thing about a person and much harder to counterfeit than an opinion about money.