Sanskrit
विहाय कामान्यः सर्वान्पुमांश्चरति निःस्पृहः । निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः स शान्तिमधिगच्छति ॥
vihāya kāmān yaḥ sarvān pumāṃś carati niḥspṛhaḥ nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ sa śāntim adhigacchati
Translation
Whoso forsaketh all desires and goeth onwards free from yearnings, selfless and without egoism—he goeth to Peace.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A compact restatement that closes the loop back to verse 55’s opening definition — abandoning desire, free of “mine” and “I” — as if the whole portrait since then has been one long unpacking of this single line. Peace, named directly here, is what verse 72 will identify as nothing less than the state of Brahman itself. Nirmama and nirahaṅkāra — without “mine,” without “I-making” — name the two grips the ahaṃkāra keeps on experience. Dropping them is the same move chapter 3 will describe as letting the guṇas, not “I,” be the doer.
Study deeper
Word by word
- vihāya kāmān yaḥ sarvānविहाय कामान् यः सर्वान्
- one who, abandoning all desires (vihāya + kāmān + yaḥ + sarvān)
- pumāṃś carati niḥspṛhaḥपुमांश् चरति निःस्पृहः
- moves about free of longing (pumān + carati + niḥspṛhaḥ)
- nirmamoनिर्ममो
- without 'mine' (nir-mama)
- nirahaṅkāraḥनिरहङ्कारः
- without 'I' (nir-ahaṅkāra)
- sa śāntim adhigacchatiस शान्तिं अधिगच्छति
- he attains peace (saḥ + śāntim + adhigacchati)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Two new terms appear here beyond verse 55’s original portrait — nirmama, without “mine,” and nirahankara, without “I” — and they target two separate possessive habits, not one: claiming things as belonging to you, and claiming a self that’s doing the claiming. The verse treats these as two distinct things to let go of.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice which possessive habit you slip into more easily — claiming things as "mine," or claiming credit and identity through "I did this" — they're two separate habits, and naming which one is active helps more than treating them as one problem.
Professional
- On a team, ego shows up as two distinct behaviors — hoarding credit ("I built this") and hoarding territory ("this is my system, stay out") — worth diagnosing which one you or a teammate is actually doing before trying to address it.
Family & Social
- In a family, disputes over "mine" — my time, my space — and disputes over "I" — my way, my recognition — create different frictions; noticing which one is actually driving a specific conflict helps more than treating all of it as one issue.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.