Vasana cannot be annihilated, but it can be redirected

“You cannot kill the human propensities, but they can be changed for higher purposes. You said of annihilation of desire or vasana. But you can think on it very wisely if vasana can be stopped at all. No. Vasana can never be stopped. The vasana is an eternal function of the soul and as the soul is eternal or sanatana so also is the vasana. Therefore vasana can be changed only from one object to another. The mind is always a thinking and feeling organ. It does not matter what does it think but it is a fact that it thinks. I am sure that you cannot probably put the mind completely at rest without thinking something. So the quality of thinking, feeling, and willing has to be changed but we may not attempt to kill the mind altogether. That is an impossible fact because the mind acts even after the so-called death or after the annihilation of the material body” (SP Letter to Ved Prakashji,).

– Srila Prabhupada