Bhagavad Gita 6.24
Spoken by Krishna ☆ Key verse · Verse 24 of 47
सङ्कल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः | मनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं विनियम्य समन्ततः ||२४||
saṅkalpaprabhavān kāmāṃs tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ | manasaiveindriyagrāmaṃ viniyamya samantataḥ || 24 ||
Abandon all desires born of mental planning — without remainder — and restrain the senses completely, by the mind alone.
Word by word (3)
- saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmān tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ
- — having abandoned, without remainder, all desires born of saṃkalpa · saṅkalpa = mental resolve, intention, plan, imagination — the mind's projecting, planning, desire-generating function. prabhava = born of, arising from. kāmān = desires, cravings. sarvān = all. aśeṣataḥ = without remainder, completely (a-śeṣa = leaving no residue). The root instruction: desires don't arise from the external world — they arise from saṃkalpa, the mind's own projecting and planning function. Cut the source (saṃkalpa), not the objects. This is why renouncing objects doesn't work — the saṃkalpa simply finds new objects. V24 goes to the root.
- manasā eva indriya-grāmaṃ viniyamya samantataḥ
- — and having completely restrained the multitude of senses on all sides by the mind alone · manasā eva = by the mind alone (not by physical force or external constraint). indriya-grāma = the multitude/collection of senses (grāma = village, collection). viniyamya = having restrained, regulated. samantataḥ = on all sides, completely, from all directions. The method: the mind — which generates desires through saṃkalpa — is the same instrument that must restrain the senses. The mind is both the problem and the solution. The key word: 'eva' (alone) — no external constraint, no physical force. Inner direction only.
- saṅkalpa / kāma / indriya-grāma (key terms)
- — mental resolve / desire / the collected senses — the three rungs of V24's teaching · The logic of V24 moves through three levels: (1) saṅkalpa — the mind's projecting-planning function that generates desire-images; (2) kāma — the desires those images produce; (3) indriya-grāma — the senses that chase those desires into the world. To free the senses, restrain the desires; to free the desires, release the saṅkalpa. Work from the root. This three-rung structure makes V24 the Gita's most analytically precise instruction on the mechanics of desire — and its solution.
Abandoning, without exception, all the desires born of willful imagining, and reining in the whole throng of the senses on every side with the mind alone —
A modern analogy
A garden constantly produces weeds. You can spend all day pulling individual weeds — or you can change the soil conditions that make weeds grow. Saṃkalpa is the soil of desires: the mind's habitual projecting, planning, fantasising that generates one desire after another. This verse says: change the soil (the saṃkalpa function), not just the individual weeds (specific desires).
What it does NOT mean
This verse does NOT say to suppress or destroy desires by willpower. It says: abandon desires born of saṃkalpa — cut the root, not the branches. The mind that generates desires through imagination and planning is the same mind that, when redirected, restrains the senses. This is inner work, not external asceticism.
Take with you
- The practice of noticing saṃkalpa: in meditation, when a desire arises, trace it back. 'I desire X' — but before the desire, there was a mental image (saṃkalpa): 'If I had X, things would be better.' Catch the image before the desire. That is this verse's root-work.
- Aśeṣataḥ (without remainder) is demanding but important: partial abandonment of desires leaves the root intact. The saṃkalpa will simply generate new desires. Complete release — even if temporary, even just for the duration of this meditation session — is what this verse calls for.
- This verse and the next form a sequence: this one is the cutting (of desires and sense-pulling); the next is the quieting — gradual, gentle, settling the mind into the Self by degrees with patience gripping the intellect. Don't try to do that gentle settling without first doing this verse's cutting work.
Public-domain translations (6) compare all →
Having abandoned all desires born of saṃkalpa — without remainder — and having completely restrained on all sides the multitude of senses by the mind alone. [1]
Abandoning without reserve all desires born of Sankalpa, and completely restraining, by the mind alone, the whole group of senses from their objects in all directions. [4]
Having abandoned all imagination-produced desires without reserve, with the mind having curbed the collection of the senses on every side. [5]
Let him forsake all desires whose origin is in the imagination, and let him use his mind to restrain his senses on all sides. [6]
Let him forsake all wishes arising from the will, without reserve; and let him by the mind control all of the senses on every side. [7]
Abandoning without reserve all desires born of resolves, and controlling the whole multitude of senses by the mind on all sides. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Yoga is the disconnection from suffering — practise it with firm resolve and a mind that does not despond.
Gradually, gradually — with patience gripping the intellect — settle the mind into the Self and think of nothing at all.
What they call sannyāsa — know it as yoga, O Pāṇḍava — for none becomes a yogī without renouncing saṃkalpa.
Thinking → clinging → craving → anger. The chain of suffering begins in where you let your mind dwell.
Yogis act with body, mind, intellect, and bare senses — abandoning attachment — solely for self-purification.
The yogi practises constantly in solitude — alone, mind and body subdued, free from craving and possessiveness.
Verse 24 of 47 · back to Chapter 6