Rooted Sangha: The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 2 | Verse 64 to 67 - Finding Peace in a Restless World
- sjholisticyoga
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 2
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.
The Way Back to Steadiness
Our attention settles upon something. Attention becomes attachment. Attachment becomes desire. When our desires are frustrated, anger and confusion arise. We lose our discernment and, eventually, lose contact with the deeper wisdom within us.
It is a remarkably clear description of how the mind can lead us away from ourselves.
But Krishna does not leave Arjuna there.
Verses 64 to 67 show us another possibility. If the previous verses describe the path into confusion, these verses begin to describe the way back.
In one simple rendering, they might be understood like this:
64. Moving through the world without being ruled by attraction or aversion, and with the senses under gentle guidance, we begin to find serenity.
65. In serenity, suffering begins to loosen its hold. When the mind is peaceful, our discernment becomes steady.
66. Without inner steadiness, there can be no clear wisdom. Without contemplation, there can be no peace. And without peace, how can there be lasting happiness?
67. When the mind follows the wandering senses, wisdom can be carried away, just as the wind carries a boat across the water.
The Pull of Like and Dislike
Verse 64 introduces two important Sanskrit words: rāga and dveṣa.
Rāga is often translated as attachment, attraction or liking.
Dveṣa means aversion, dislike or resistance.
Much of our daily experience is quietly organised around these two movements.
I like this.
I do not like that.
I want more of this.
I want that to go away.
There is nothing inherently wrong with having preferences. We naturally enjoy some experiences and dislike others. We may prefer warmth to cold, quiet to noise, kindness to cruelty, or one type of food to another.
The difficulty begins when these preferences start to rule us.
A pleasant experience becomes something we must hold on to. An uncomfortable experience becomes something we believe should not be happening. We begin negotiating with life, continually asking it to give us more of what we like and less of what we dislike.
And life, of course, rarely agrees to those terms.
The weather changes. Bodies age. Plans unravel. People disappoint us. Pleasant moments pass. Difficult feelings arrive without asking permission.
When our peace depends upon life always matching our preferences, peace becomes fragile.
Krishna is not asking us to become indifferent or numb. Nor is he asking us to withdraw from the world and stop enjoying it.
He is describing the possibility of moving through life without being constantly pulled and pushed by every experience.
We can enjoy what is pleasant without clinging to it. We can meet what is difficult without immediately fighting against it. We can have preferences without allowing those preferences to become the conditions upon which our happiness depends.
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.
The Boat and the Wind
In verse 67, Krishna gives us one of the most memorable images in this section of the Gita.
A boat is travelling across the water. A strong wind rises and carries it away from its course. The wind is not wicked. The water is not the enemy. But without a steady hand upon the rudder, the boat can be taken wherever the conditions carry it.
Our senses and our attention can work in much the same way.
A notification appears on our phone. Someone expresses an opinion about us. We see an image that makes us compare our body, home or life with somebody else’s. Before we know it, the mind has followed the experience far out across the water.
The original moment may have lasted only a few seconds, but it has carried us into an hour of worry, resentment or self-doubt. The senses themselves are not the problem. They allow us to experience beauty, connection, pleasure and the richness of being alive.
Krishna’s concern is what happens when the mind automatically follows every impression it receives.
Yoga trains us to notice the wind without surrendering the whole direction of the boat.
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
Comments