Bhagavad Gita 5.28
Spoken by Krishna · Verse 28 of 29
यतेन्द्रियमनोबुद्धिर्मुनिर्मोक्षपरायणः। विगतेच्छाभयक्रोधो यः सदा मुक्त एव सः॥५-२८॥
yatendriya-mano-buddhir munir mokṣa-parāyaṇaḥ | vigatecchā-bhaya-krodho yaḥ sadā mukta eva saḥ || 5.28 ||
With senses, mind and buddhi controlled, free of desire, fear and anger — the liberation-oriented muni is ever-free.
Word by word (6)
- yata-indriya-mano-buddhiḥ
- — one with controlled senses, mind and discriminating intellect (yata = restrained/controlled; indriya = senses; manas = mind; buddhi = discriminating intelligence — the three levels of inner instrument)
- muniḥ
- — the sage / muni — from mauna (silence); one who is inwardly silent and reflective, not merely outwardly quiet
- mokṣa-parāyaṇaḥ
- — whose highest goal is liberation / devoted to mokṣa (parāyaṇa = that which is one's highest resort and purpose)
- vigata-icchā-bhaya-krodhaḥ
- — one from whom desire, fear and anger have departed (vigata = departed/gone away; icchā = desire/wish; bhaya = fear; krodha = anger — the ego's three primary reactive forces)
- yaḥ
- — who / that one
- sadā muktaḥ eva saḥ
- — that one is ever-free / always liberated (sadā = always, at all times; mukta = freed, liberated; eva = verily/indeed — emphatic)
the sage who has mastered the senses, mind, and intellect, intent on liberation, freed from desire, fear, and anger — he is forever free.
A modern analogy
A person who has genuinely resolved a deep grief no longer has to fight the impulse to cry when reminded of their loss. The grief has vigata — it has gone. Not suppressed, not managed — gone, because the internal condition that generated it (the false sense that something permanent has been lost) has been seen through. This verse's freedom from desire, fear, and anger (vigata icchā-bhaya-krodha) is this same quality applied to the three primary forces of the ego. They don't arise because the ego-ground is no longer solid.
What it does NOT mean
Vigata (departed) does not mean suppressed or forcibly eliminated. The three — desire, fear, and anger — have departed: they are gone, not sitting just below the surface waiting to return. This is the difference between temporary control (willpower) and genuine freedom (vigata). The muni is not fighting these forces; they have simply ceased to arise with the old compulsive power because the ego-ground from which they grew has been seen through.
Take with you
- Three levels of inner control: indriya (senses), manas (mind), buddhi (discriminating intelligence). In the yoga-vedānta model, these are the three layers of the antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument). Controlling only the senses (not eating, not looking) without controlling the mind is withdrawal without focus. Controlling the mind without the intellect is discipline without wisdom. All three together — yata-indriya-mano-buddhi — is the complete inner mastery that this verse names.
- Vigata icchā-bhaya-krodha: desire, fear, and anger are the ego's three primary reactive patterns. Earlier Krishna gave the criterion for desire and anger — withstand their raw force; here he describes the completed state: they have vigata — departed. Bhaya (fear) is new here — the third member of the triad that includes desire and anger. Fear is the ego's response to anticipated loss, just as anger is the response to actual loss and desire is the anticipation of gain.
- Sadā mukta eva saḥ: 'that one is ever-free.' Not freed at death, not freed after long practice, but sadā — always — free. This is liberation-while-living (jīvanmukti) stated in its most direct form. The liberated one does not wait for a future event; liberation is the present-tense condition of one who has completed this inner work.
Public-domain translations (6) compare all →
"The muni with controlled senses, mind and buddhi — devoted to liberation — from whom desire, fear and anger have departed — that one is ever-free." [1]
"The Muni who has controlled the senses, mind and intellect, who has liberation as his supreme aim and from whom desire, fear and anger have fled — he is ever liberated." [4]
"The sage who has subdued his senses, mind and understanding, who is bent on liberation, from whom desire, fear and wrath have fled away — he is ever free." [5]
"The ascetic who has curbed his senses, mind, and understanding, whose highest aim is liberation, who is free from longing, fear, and anger — such a one is forever liberated." [6]
"With senses and mind and spirit bent on Me — the Muni who hath high emancipation for his aim, from whom desire and fear and wrath have passed — he is for ever free." [7]
"He who has restrained his senses, mind and understanding, who is free from desire, fear and anger, who is a sage and devoted to liberation — he is always free." [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Sense contacts excluded, gaze fixed between brows, breath equalized — this is the meditation posture for liberation.
Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.
Withstand desire and anger's force here in this body — that one is yoked, that one is happy.
Peaceful, fearless, vowed to brahmacharya, mind on Krishna — yoked in practice, with the Supreme as the final goal.
He who neither troubles the world nor is troubled by it — free from joy, envy, fear, anxiety — he is dear to Me!
Unmoved in sorrow, ungreedy in joy, free from passion, fear, and anger — that is the steady sage.
Verse 28 of 29 · back to Chapter 5