Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 59

विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः । रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते

viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ | rasavarjaṃ raso'pyasya paraṃ dṛṣṭvā nivartate

Translation

Objects withdraw from an abstinent man, but not the taste. On seeing the Supreme, his taste, too, ceases.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

viṣayāḥ

the objects of sense

vinivartante

turn away

nirāhārasya

(of the) foodless

dehinaḥ

of the embodied

rasavarjam

relish, excepting

rasaḥ

relish

api

even

asya

of him

param

the Supreme

dṛṣṭvā

having seen

nivartate

turns away

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

For one who merely restrains the body, sense-objects fall away — he is denied them — but the relish (rasa), the taste for them, remains. On seeing the Supreme (paraṃ dṛṣṭvā) — the Brahman, the highest reality — even the relish ceases of itself. Real renunciation is the falling away of taste, not the mere abstention of the senses.