Rooted Sangha: The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 2 | Verses 13-25
- sjholisticyoga
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
This week in sangha, we continued discussing 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.
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What does not change
Having slowed Arjuna down and widened his view of time, Krishna now begins to offer something steadier to stand on.
In verses 13–25, the teaching turns towards what endures beneath change.
SRI KRISHNA
As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth, and old age, so too at the time of death, he attains another body. The man of wisdom is not deluded by these changes.
Krishna speaks about the body and the Self, but not in abstract or mystical language. He begins with something ordinary and recognisable: the way we already live through change. Just as the body moves from childhood to adulthood to old age, so too it moves through birth and death. Easwaran stresses that Krishna is not asking Arjuna to believe anything new here, only to notice what is already true.
Change is constant. It has always been so.
What we usually identify as “me” is in motion all the time.
The Self that is not hurried
It is in Chapter 2, Verse 13 that Krishna introduces the idea of the Atman — the deeper Self — not as a concept to grasp, but as a reality that is not subject to time in the same way the body and mind are.
This Self is not born. It does not die. It is not damaged by events.
Easwaran is careful to ground this teaching. He reminds us that Krishna is not dismissing grief or pain. Rather, he is offering Arjuna a place to stand while he feels them.
When we are anchored only in what changes, urgency dominates. When we remember what does not change, urgency loosens.
Heat and cold, pleasure and pain
SRI KRISHNA
From the world of the senses, Arjuna, comes heat and comes cold, and pleasure and pain. They come and they go: they are transient. Arise above them, strong soul.
The man whom these cannot move, whose soul is one, beyond pleasure and pain, is worthy of life in Eternity.
Krishna names something deeply practical here.
Pleasure and pain, comfort and discomfort, come and go like the seasons. They touch us, but they do not define us.
Easwaran points out that this is not a call to suppress feeling or become numb. It is an invitation to develop steadiness in the midst of fluctuation.
Krishna says:
'Samatvam yoga ucyate' - Yoga is evenness of mind.
We still feel. But we are not swept away so easily.
The body as dwelling place, not the Self
SRI KRISHNA
The body is mortal, but he who dwells in the body is said to be immortal and immeasurable. Therefore, great warrior, fight in this battle.
These verses tell us that the bodies of the embodied Self are perishable, while the Self itself is enduring and indestructible. This is sometimes paraphrased as the body being the temple , but Easwaran doesn’t invite us to elevate the body into something permanent or sacred in itself. Instead, he reframes it in a way that is deeply practical and humane. He speaks of:
'governing the senses very carefully for many years....to see that every day we give the body what is needed to sustain it as a spiritual instrument.'
The body matters — because it is where the work happens — but it is not who we are.
The illusion of destruction
If any man thinks he slays, and if another thinks he is slain, neither knows the ways of the truth. The Eternal in man cannot kill: the Eternal in man cannot die.
We were never born, we will never die, we have never undergone change, we can never undergo change. Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial, we do not die when the body dies.
Realizing That which is indestructible, eternal, unborn and unchanging, how can we slay or cause another to slay?
As we abandon worn-outclothes and acquire new ones, so when the body is worn out a new is acquired by the Self, who lives within.
The Self cannot be pierced by weapons or burned by fire; water cannot wet it, nor can the wind dry it.
The Self cannot be pierced or burned, made wet or dry; it is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless foundations of eternity.
The Self is unmanifested, beyond all thought and beyond all change; knowing this, you should not grieve.
In verses 19–25, Krishna uses strong imagery: weapons cannot cut the Self, fire cannot burn it, water cannot drown it.
Easwaran explains that this language is meant to reassure, not intimidate. Arjuna is paralysed by the fear of loss and destruction.
Krishna reminds him that what he truly is cannot be destroyed, no matter what happens on the battlefield of life.
This is not a denial of consequence. It is freedom from existential panic.
A reflection for practice and daily life
Read this way, these verses are not asking us to detach from life, but to engage with it more honestly.
When we remember that not everything about us is fragile, we can meet difficulty with more dignity. We can act without panic. We can respond rather than react.
For Easwaran, this teaching is not about belief, but about practice — returning again and again to the part of us that is not in a hurry, not easily shaken, and quietly whole.
Journal/Thinking prompts
What feels most changeable in my life right now - and where do I sense something in me that is not changing in the same way?
How do pleasure and discomfort tend to move me?
What does it mean, in my own lived experience, to practise ‘evenness of mind’?
How do I care for my body when I remember it as a sacred dwelling place rather than my identity?
What becomes possible when I remember that not everything about me is fragile or at risk?
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, we made our first donation (£110) to Kettering Samaritans.
On 23rd December, we donated £100 to Johnny's Happy Place, a wonderful mental health support cafe in Kettering.
We agreed that our next beneficiary will be The Green Patch, Kettering. There is currently £80 in the pot!
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. 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, a sacred text within Hindu philosophy. I share my reflections as a yoga practitioner and teacher, not as a scholar or religious authority. My intention is to explore how these teachings can be lived and contemplated within contemporary practice, and always with the utmost respect for their cultural and spiritual roots.
With love,
Vicki x
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