Chapter 6Verse 24 of 47

Bhagavad Gita 6.24

सङ्कल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः | मनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं विनियम्य समन्ततः ||

saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāṁs tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ | manasaivendriya-grāmaṁ viniyamya samantataḥ ||

Translation

Casting off all desires which are produced from fancies, without exception, and restraining by the mind alone the whole assemblage of the senses on all sides,

He is told to drop every appetite that has its root in his own little plans, all of them, without leaving any on the side. The senses, named here as a herd, are reined back in by nothing more than the mind itself. No outer prop. No technique that fixes the work from outside. This is the slow part of the path that nobody enjoys writing about. The appetites have to be inspected one by one. Many of them have been so long in residence that the man does not even notice them as appetites, they feel like preferences, like personality. The work is to see them, to name them, and to let them go.

Reflection

What appetite have you been calling preference that you have not inspected for years?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six

Ask the Gita about this verse →