Chapter 6Verse 18 of 47

Bhagavad Gita 6.18

यदा विनियतं चित्तमात्मन्येवावतिष्ठते | निःस्पृहः सर्वकामेभ्यो युक्त इत्युच्यते तदा ||

yadā viniyataṁ cittam ātmany evāvatiṣṭhate | niḥspṛhaḥ sarva-kāmebhyo yukta ity ucyate tadā ||

Translation

When the regulated mind is fixed exclusively on the self, then a man, indifferent to all objects of desire, is said to be devoted.

The marker of arrival is given precisely. The mind, which has been brought under rein, no longer wanders out. It rests on the self. From that resting place a second thing follows on its own: the appetites that used to run the day no longer pull. He is not white-knuckling against them. He is simply no longer interested in what they were promising. The order matters. The man does not first kill desire and then settle the mind. He settles the mind, and the desires, having no one to chase them, fall quiet. The discipline is upstream of the freedom it gives.

Reflection

Which appetite are you trying to break by force that might fall quiet on its own if the mind were settled?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six

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