That mind whose saṅkalpas have ceased is liberated in every sense

Saṅkalpa is intention, resolution, deliberate purpose. It is the most subtle and persistent function of the mind: even when gross thoughts cease, the underlying intentionality remains—“I want to meditate,” “I seek stillness,” “I aspire to liberation.” This intentionality is vāsanā in its most refined form, and it is the last thing to dissolve. Vasiṣṭha does not condemn saṅkalpa as such—it is necessary for practical life—but rather points out its limiting character. Every saṅkalpa presupposes a subject who intends and an object that is intended; as long as it exists, duality persists in its most subtle form. The mukta-saṅkalpā mind is not devoid of purpose in the sense of inertia or apathy. It acts—it eats, speaks, teaches, walks—but without the intentional residue that turns action into karmic accumulation. The Bhagavad Gītā (III.8) prescribes acting without saṅga (attachment) to the result; Vasiṣṭha goes further: he would prescribe acting without saṅkalpa of the act itself, not because one refuses to intend, but because one recognizes that intention, like everything else, occurs within the quiet mind like a movement of the ocean, not as a separate vessel.

Saṅkalpa is intention, resolution, deliberate purpose. It is the most subtle and persistent function of the mind: even when gross thoughts cease, the underlying intentionality remains —“I want to meditate,” “I seek stillness,” “I aspire to liberation.” This intentionality is vāsanā in its most refined form, and it is the last thing to dissolve. Vasiṣṭha does not condemn saṅkalpa as such—it is necessary for practical life—but rather points out its limiting character. Every saṅkalpa presupposes a subject who intends and an object that is intended; as long as it exists, duality persists in its most subtle form. The mukta-saṅkalpā mind is not without purpose in the sense of inertia or apathy. It acts—it eats, speaks, teaches, walks—but without the intentional residue that turns action into karmic accumulation. The Bhagavad Gītā (III.8) prescribes acting without saṅga (attachment) to the result; Vasiṣṭha goes further: he would prescribe acting without saṅkalpa even for the act itself, not because one refuses to intend, but because one recognizes that intention, like everything else, occurs within the quiet mind like a movement of the ocean, not as a separate vessel.