Sanskrit
सङ्कल्पप्रभावान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः । मनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं विनियम्य समन्ततः ॥
saṅkalpaprabhavān kāmāṃs tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ manasaivendriyagrāmaṃ viniyamya samantataḥ
Translation
Abandoning without reserve all desires born of the imagination, by the mind curbing in the aggregate of the senses on every side,
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The instruction resumes its practical register, returning to sankalpa — last addressed at verses 2 and 4 — as the origin point of desire: desires are said to be born from that projecting will. The method specified is the mind restraining the senses “from every side,” a total rather than selective withdrawal. Saṅkalpa-prabhava — “arising from the planning will” — names the root: cut the kāma at saṅkalpa and the senses have nothing to chase, which is why the restraint is samantataḥ, on all sides at once.
Study deeper
Word by word
- saṅkalpaprabhavān kāmāṃsसङ्कल्पप्रभवान् कामांस्
- desires born of willful thought (saṅkalpa-prabhavān + kāmān)
- tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥत्यक्त्वा सर्वान् अशेषतः
- abandoning all, without remainder (tyaktvā + sarvān + aśeṣataḥ)
- manasaivendriyagrāmaṃमनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं
- the whole host of senses, by the mind (manasā + eva + indriya-grāmam)
- viniyamya samantataḥविनियंय समन्ततः
- restraining from every side (viniyamya + samantataḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Sankalpa returns for a third time — verse 2 named it as what must be renounced, verse 4 listed it among what’s released, and now this verse identifies it as the actual point of origin: desires are born from that projecting will, not the other way around. The method specified is total, “from every side,” which rules out the easier strategy of restraining the senses selectively while leaving the will that generates the craving untouched.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- If you're trying to curb a habit by restraining the specific behaviors around it while leaving the underlying craving-generating pattern untouched, you're treating the symptom — the verse points upstream, to the will that keeps producing the wanting in the first place.
Professional
- If you're trying to fix scope creep by restraining individual requests one at a time, you're managing symptoms — the upstream fix is the planning process that keeps generating new asks in the first place. Address the source, not each instance.
Family & Social
- If you're trying to reduce a recurring source of tension with someone by managing each incident as it comes up, you're still downstream — look instead for the underlying expectation or need that keeps generating the same conflict, and address that directly.
Ask yourself
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