Rooted Sangha: The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 2 | Verse 62 and 63 - Chain of thought and emotional descent
- sjholisticyoga
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
This week in sangha, we continue our discussion of The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living by Eknath Easwaran. Each week, I will do my best to summarise the parts of the book we discuss. Please refer to https://www.sjholisticyoga.co.uk/post/what-is-the-bhagavad-gita if you need a grounding in what The Bhagavad Gita itself is.
I cross-reference with other versions of the Bhagavad Gita, so sometimes the translations differ from Easwaran's.
A Chain Reaction
Last time we explored the ancient practice of Neti Neti - Not this. Not that.
Krishna invited us to look beyond the labels, roles and stories we carry, remembering that we are not every thought we think, every feeling we feel or every identity we wear. Beneath them all lies the quiet awareness that simply witnesses.
This week, Krishna turns his attention to something equally familiar: how the mind quietly leads us away from that awareness.
In Chapter 2, verses 62 and 63, he describes what can feel like a surprisingly modern understanding of human psychology.
62. While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment. From attachment comes desire, and from desire comes anger.
63. From anger arises confusion. Confusion leads to forgetfulness. Forgetfulness destroys discernment, and when discernment is lost, we lose ourselves.
The Sanskrit word dhyāyataḥ, often translated as contemplating, doesn't simply mean noticing something. It means dwelling on it. Turning it over in the mind. Returning to it again and again.
Perhaps someone makes an unkind comment. At first, it is simply a moment. But then we replay it during the drive home. We imagine what we should have said. We wonder why they said it. We create conversations that never happened. Before long, we are no longer responding to the original event but to the story we have built around it.
Or perhaps we see something we would like to own. A new house. A different body. A relationship. A career. There is nothing wrong with appreciating beauty or holding aspirations. Yet when our attention continually circles around what we do not have, appreciation slowly becomes attachment.
Attachment becomes desire.
Desire quietly becomes the belief that I need this in order to be happy.
And whenever reality refuses to cooperate, frustration naturally follows.
Krishna calls this anger, but perhaps we might understand it more broadly as resistance. The irritation we feel when life refuses to unfold according to our expectations.
From there, the mind becomes clouded. We stop seeing clearly. We forget what truly matters. We forget what we already know.
Perhaps this is one of the most compassionate observations in the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna isn't suggesting that we are bad people when we become reactive. He is simply describing what happens when we lose contact with our deeper awareness.
Yoga does not ask us never to desire, never to feel disappointed or never to become angry. These are all part of being human. Instead, it invites us to notice where our attention rests. Because where attention goes, attachment often follows. And where awareness returns, freedom quietly begins again.
A reflection for practice and daily life
This week, notice what your mind repeatedly returns to.
Is there a conversation you keep replaying?
A future outcome you cannot stop thinking about?
A fear you revisit each day?
A desire that has quietly become a condition for your happiness?
Rather than trying to push it away, simply notice. Can you recognise where you are in Krishna's chain?
Can you pause before attachment becomes suffering?
Perhaps that small moment of awareness is all that is needed.
Giving Back
After covering room and fuel costs, all proceeds from Rooted are being saved to support a local cause, to be chosen together later this year - as a small act of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion in action.
On 21st September 2025, we made our first donation (£110) to Kettering Samaritans.
On 23rd December 2025, we donated £100 to Johnny's Happy Place, a wonderful mental health support cafe in Kettering.
On 9th April 2026, we donated £100 to The Green Patch in Kettering.
On 11th June 2026 we donated £100 to Home-Start Wellingborough & District.
We will decide on our next charity very soon.
Going Forward
Next week, we will continue Chapter 2. If you would like to join us in person, do get in touch or book online. It is never too late to join in, even if this is completely brand new to you.
If you would like to buy the book, click the image below for options.
Please Note:
My thoughts draw on teachings from the Bhagavad Gita, and other sacred texts within Hindu philosophy. I share my reflections as a yoga practitioner and teacher, and as a student of Vedanta - not as a scholar or religious authority. My intention is to gently explore how these teachings can be lived and contemplated within contemporary practice, and always with the utmost respect for their cultural and spiritual roots.
Om Shanti.
Vicki x
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