Chapter 6 · The yoga of meditation
Bhagavad Gita 6.35
By practice and dispassion, the mind is held.
Shri Bhagavan
असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलम् ।
अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते ॥
asaṁśayaṁ mahābāho mano durnigrahaṁ calam / abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyate
There is no doubt, Arjuna, that the mind is restless and hard to hold. But by steady practice, Kaunteya, and by letting go of wanting, it is brought under control.
हिंदी · इसमें कोई संदेह नहीं, अर्जुन, कि मन चंचल है और उसे वश में करना कठिन है। पर हे कौन्तेय, अभ्यास से और वैराग्य से वह वश में आ जाता है।
What it means
By practice and dispassion, the mind is held.
No doubt, Arjuna, the mind is restless and hard to hold. But by practice and by dispassion, it can be restrained.
This is the Trust’s own reading, written for this site. The verse above it is the text.
Where this verse stands
Arjuna objects: the mind is restless
Chapter 66.33–36
Krishna validates difficulty and answers with practice and detachment.
This verse brings the movement toward its conclusion.
Practice and detachment
Krishna does not deny Arjuna’s claim that the mind is difficult. He agrees, then names abhyasa and vairagya. Difficulty is acknowledged without being made an excuse for surrender to restlessness.
Read deeper · Read with 6.26, 6.33–36, 12.8–12 and 18.33.
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · The Gita for Life
Verses that share its vocabulary
Near it in the text’s own words.
- 2.44For those attached to pleasure and power, whose minds are carried away by such talk, the understanding does not settle in stillness.
- 3.7But the one who controls the senses with the mind, Arjuna, and begins karma yoga with the organs of action, unattached, stands far above him.
- 4.23For the one who is free of attachment, liberated, whose mind rests in knowledge, and who acts for the sake of yajna, all his action dissolves completely.
- 5.11With the body, the mind, the intellect, and even with the senses alone, yogis perform action after giving up attachment, for the purification of the self.
- 12.5The struggle is greater for those whose minds are set on the unmanifest, because a goal without form is hard to reach for anyone who lives in a body.
- 13.9Not being attached, and not clinging to children, wife, home and the rest; and a mind that stays even at all times, whether what comes is wanted or unwanted;
Chosen by shared uncommon vocabulary, weighted so that a rare word counts for far more than a common one. A reading aid, not a claim that these verses mean the same thing.
Common questions
What does Bhagavad Gita 6.35 mean?
By practice and dispassion, the mind is held. No doubt, Arjuna, the mind is restless and hard to hold. But by practice and by dispassion, it can be restrained.
Who speaks Bhagavad Gita 6.35?
Shri Bhagavan. The speaker is taken from the text’s own उवाच line as transcribed, not inferred from the verse number.