संकल्प — saṅkalp: thought, intention and resolve in the murlis

Estimated reading time : 5 mn

The definitions and explanations below are newly written editorial material, translated from the French draft. The examples are murli quotations; their French and English translations have been checked against the corresponding published versions.

The word and its ordinary meaning

संकल्प — saṅkalp is a masculine Hindi noun of Sanskrit origin. Hindwi associates it with an intention to do something and with a firm decision. It also records a religious use: solemnly declaring an intention before undertaking a ritual act. “Resolve” thus conveys an important ordinary meaning, but does not fit every murli occurrence.

The Murli dictionary entry also gives thought and pure thought. The passages themselves establish the scope of these equivalents.

Published translations of the word

French: pensée; pensée pure. English: thought; pure thought. Plurals occur as required by the sentence. The examples dated 19 May 2024, 26 April 2023 and 9 December 2020 attest these equivalents. In the passage of 1 November 2020, दृढ़ संकल्प is translated as pensée déterminée / determined thought. This translates a qualified expression: the noun alone does not necessarily imply determination.

Proposed translations

Thought / pensée is the preferred choice for mental activity. Intention / intention suits a thought directed towards a course of action or an outcome. Resolve / résolution conveys a settled intention, particularly with दृढ़. The latter two pairs are editorial proposals in this dossier, not published equivalents found in the selected examples. “Pure thought” is appropriate when purity is explicitly stated or required by the local contrast with विकल्प. Using it automatically would erase distinctions made in the texts.

Attested BK usage

Two main poles emerge: thought as mental content, and affirmed intention. Within the first, some passages use संकल्प more narrowly for pure thought. Its orientation towards service is an application rather than a fourth independent dictionary sense.

1. Thought underlying speech and action

Here thought underlies speech and action. The same passage distinguishes elevated thoughts from wasteful ones, so संकल्प is broader than “pure thought”. संकल्प शक्ति refers to the power of thought, rather than one particular resolve.

हिंदी — मूल / Hindi — original : संकल्प के आधार पर बोल और कर्म ऑटोमेटिक चलते हैं .

Français — publié : Vous parlez et agissez automatiquement sur la base de vos pensées.

English — published: You speak and act automatically on the basis of your thoughts.

Murli · daily · 2024-05-19 · hi114 · FR · EN

2. Pure thought, in contrast with विकल्प

The Hindi explicitly associates संकल्प with शुद्ध ख्याल and विकल्प with अशुद्ध ख्याल. The published translations incorporate this distinction in their noun phrases. Their repetitive wording is preserved; the Hindi is explaining the two terms. This local definition does not cancel broader uses elsewhere.

हिंदी — मूल / Hindi — original : संकल्प शुद्ध ख्याल को , विकल्प अशुद्ध ख्याल को कहा जाता है .

Français — publié : Les pensées pures sont des pensées pures et les pensées pécheresses sont des pensées impures.

English — published: Pure thoughts are pure thoughts and sinful thoughts are impure thoughts.

Murli · daily · 2023-04-26 · hi82 · FR · EN

3. Pure thought directed towards service

Pure thought is directed towards a practical activity. The context develops a use of निरसंकल्प that does not simply mean thinking of nothing: service thoughts may remain while being distinguished from ordinary or useless thoughts.

हिंदी — मूल / Hindi — original : शुद्ध संकल्प सर्विस प्रति भले चलें .

Français — publié : Dès lors vous pouvez avoir des pensées pures pour le service.

English — published: You may have pure thoughts of service.

Murli · daily · 2020-12-09 · hi13 · FR · EN

4. Affirmed intention or resolve

The thought concerns an enduring course of conduct. “Firm resolve” is a possible proposed rendering of दृढ़ संकल्प; the published translation uses “determined thought”. The example shows thought becoming commitment, without by itself proving that the commitment has been fulfilled.

हिंदी — मूल / Hindi — original : आज सभी ने दृढ़ संकल्प किया ना - कि कदम , कदम पर रखने वाले बनेंगे .

Français — publié : Vous avez toutes eu aujourd’hui, la pensée déterminée de placer vos pas dans ceux de Baba, n’est-ce pas?

English — published: All of you had a determined thought today, did you not, that you will become those who place your feet in Baba's footsteps?

Murli · daily · 2020-11-01 · hi149 · FR · EN

Useful distinctions

On 30 July 2023, hi23–hi25, the teaching moves from awareness of being a soul to reflection and then an intention to practise tolerance. This supports the connection between mental content and a chosen course of conduct. The French and Hindi segmentation differ on that page; translated rows cannot automatically be assigned to the Hindi sentence opposite them.

Qualifiers matter: शुद्ध specifies purity, श्रेष्ठ an elevated quality, व्यर्थ wastefulness, and दृढ़ firmness. The noun alone therefore implies neither pure thought nor firm will in every instance. Man denotes the mind in which thoughts arise; संकल्प here denotes what is thought or intentionally formulated. Compounds such as संकल्प-विकल्प require their own contextual reading.

On 9 December 2020, hi12–hi13 and hi31–hi32, the text moves from a use of निरसंकल्प connected with service to an absence of thought beyond happiness and sorrow. These levels should not be flattened into one instruction to suppress all mental activity. They are presented as the murli’s teaching, not as scientific findings.

Sources and scope

The research covered the first two relevance-ranked pages of the daily corpus, containing 40 excerpts. Reprints were not counted as independent evidence. Five source pages were consulted in French and English: 9 December 2020, 1 November 2020, 26 April 2023, 30 July 2023 and 19 May 2024. Daily also includes reprinted BapDada teachings and was not treated as exclusively sakar. The separate avyakt and mamma corpora were not surveyed. Lexical relevance does not measure doctrinal importance, and this sample is not exhaustive.