Sanskrit
असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलम् । अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते ॥
asaṃśayaṃ mahābāho mano durnigrahaṃ calam abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyate
Translation
Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to curb and restless; but it may be curbed by constant practice and by dispassion.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna concedes Arjuna’s premise entirely — “without doubt” — before answering it. The two tools named, abhyasa (repeated practice) and vairagya (dispassion), are the same pairing that becomes the formal method of classical yoga; Krishna isn’t inventing something new here so much as naming the standard answer.
Lessons
Personal
- Expect the mind to resist stillness at first — the verse concedes this is hard even for a mighty-armed warrior. Consistency across sessions matters more than any single session going well.
Professional
- Pair any new work habit you're building with a real loosening of your attachment to it going perfectly right away — habits built on all-or-nothing pressure tend to collapse at the first missed day.
Family & Social
- The same 'practice plus dispassion' formula applies to patience with family — steady, repeated effort, without demanding the relationship be fixed in one conversation.
Concepts