— Bhagavad Gita 2.59 (tr. Swami Swarupananda, 1909)
About this quote
हिन्दी में
इंद्रियों को रोकने वाले से विषय तो छूट जाते हैं, पर उनका रस भीतर बना रहता है; परम तत्व को देख लेने पर वह रस भी मिट जाता है।
What it means
This is a limit placed on abstinence, not a recommendation of it. The first half grants that if you stay away from things, the things do fall away — and then adds the catch: the relish for them remains. What the translation calls longing is nearer to a lingering taste than to an active craving. The object has left; the liking has not.
The second half supplies the only exit the verse allows, and it is not more willpower: the residue goes when something higher is actually seen. Read closely, the line is mildly deflating to anyone proud of their discipline, since restraint is credited with removing the occasion and nothing beyond that. It is worth keeping because it names, as a stage, what most self-improvement advice treats as the finish line.
What it teaches you
Separate removing the opportunity from losing the interest. Blocking the app, keeping sweets out of the house, avoiding the person — these are real and often necessary, but a fortnight later ask whether the pull has genuinely thinned or has merely been denied a target, because only the first counts as progress by this verse’s measure.
अर्थ और सीख
यह श्लोक संयम की तारीफ़ नहीं, उसकी सीमा बताता है: विषयों से दूर रहने पर विषय तो छूट जाते हैं, पर उनका रस भीतर बना रह जाता है। वह रस तभी मिटता है जब परम तत्व का दर्शन हो जाए, केवल ज़ोर लगाने से नहीं। व्यावहारिक सीख यह है कि मौक़ा हटा देना और मन का खिंचाव मिट जाना — ये दो अलग बातें हैं, और यहाँ केवल दूसरी को ही असली प्रगति माना गया है।
Where it comes from
This verse comes from Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, Sankhya Yoga (The Yoga of Knowledge) — the Gita in miniature: the immortality of the Self, the discipline of equanimity, and the first statement of acting without attachment to results.
The Bhagavad Gita — ‘the Song of the Lord’ — is the dialogue between Krishna and the warrior Arjuna set within the Mahabharata, and one of the most influential spiritual texts ever composed. English translation by Swami Swarupananda (1909), a public-domain rendering from the Sanskrit; the exact chapter and verse are cited with this quote.
