Rooted Sangha: The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 2 | Verses 26-38
- sjholisticyoga
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
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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Meeting life without paralysis
This week in sangha, we continued exploring Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, using Eknath Easwaran’s The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living as our primary guide.
In the previous verses, Krishna introduced the idea of the Self as something enduring and unchanging beneath the constant movement of life. Now, in verses 26–38, he continues speaking to Arjuna’s fear and hesitation, offering several ways of looking at the situation in front of him.
Krishna is not rushing Arjuna into action. Instead, he widens the frame again and again, showing that paralysis often arises when we believe there is only one way to interpret what is happening.
SRI KRISHNA
O mighty Arjuna, even if you believe the Self to be subject to birth and death, you should not grieve.
Death is inevitabble for the living; birth in inevitable for the dead. Since these are unavoidable, you should not grieve.
Krishna begins by offering a very simple observation.
Even if one does not accept the idea of the eternal Self, life still moves through cycles of birth and death. Everything that comes into being will eventually pass away.
This perspective also echoes something we often explore in yoga philosophy through the principle of brahmacharya. While brahmacharya is sometimes translated narrowly as restraint, I am using it more broadly here as the wise use of our energy. When we recognise that birth, death, and change are part of the natural order of life, we begin to see more clearly what is within our influence and what is not.
In modern terms, this is similar to what Stephen R. Covey describes as the Circle of Control in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: learning to distinguish between what we can directly shape and what ultimately lies beyond us. Much of our suffering comes from pouring energy into trying to control what is fundamentally outside our reach. Brahmacharya invites us to step back from that struggle and place our attention where it can actually serve life — in how we act, how we respond, and how we care for what is in front of us.
In this sense, Krishna’s reminder about the inevitability of change is also a reminder to use our energy wisely, rather than exhausting ourselves resisting the way life moves. Change is woven into the fabric of life. Grief arises when we imagine that things should remain fixed.
Seen from this perspective, Arjuna’s despair begins to soften. The situation is not unique, nor is it outside the natural order of life.
The mystery of existence
Krishna then describes life itself as something mysterious and difficult to grasp.
SRI KRISHNA
The glory of the Self is beheld by a few, and a few speak of its glory; a few hear about this glory, but there are many who listen without understanding.
Some see it with wonder.
Some speak of it with wonder.
Some hear about it with wonder.
And even then, many do not fully understand it.
Easwaran suggests that this passage invites humility. Human understanding is limited. We cannot grasp the whole of existence through reasoning alone. Accepting this mystery can sometimes free us from the burden of trying to control everything.
Remembering one’s role
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 then speaks to Arjuna’s responsibility as a warrior.
SRI KRISHNA
Considering your dharma, you should not vacillate. For a warrior, there is nothing higher than a war against evil.
O Arjuna, the warrior who is confronted with such a war should be pleased, for it has come of itself as an open gate to heaven.
But if you do not participate in this battle against evil, you will be violating your dharma and your honour, and you will incur sin.
This section is often misunderstood as a call to violence, but Easwaran reminds us that Krishna is really speaking about dharma – the role each person is called to play in the unfolding of life.
Arjuna’s crisis arises from his attempt to avoid a painful duty. Krishna encourages him to consider that refusing to act may not be the most compassionate or truthful choice.
In other words, inaction can also carry consequences.
Evenness in success and failure
The most important teaching in this section arrives near the end.
SRI KRISHNA
Having made yourseld alike in pain and pleasure, profit and loss, victory and defeat, engage in this great war and you will be freed from sin.
Krishna tells Arjuna to act without being attached to the outcome. Success and failure, gain and loss, pleasure and pain are all part of the shifting landscape of life.
What matters is the quality of the action itself.
This teaching is often summarised in a phrase Krishna introduces here:
“Samatvam yoga ucyate” — Yoga is evenness of mind.
To act with evenness does not mean becoming cold or detached. It means remaining steady enough that our actions are not driven by panic, fear, or the need to control the result.
When we act from this place, we respond rather than react.
A reflection for practice and daily life
These verses invite us to consider how often we become paralysed by the fear of making the wrong decision.
Krishna’s teaching suggests that clarity does not come from controlling the future. It comes from acting with integrity in the present moment.
When we loosen our grip on the outcome, something steadier can emerge. Action becomes simpler, more honest, and less burdened by anxiety.
Even in uncertainty, we can move forward with dignity.
Journal/Thinking prompts
You might sit with one or two of these:
Where in my life might I be avoiding action because I am afraid of making the wrong choice?
What does my own sense of dharma feel like right now — the responsibilities or truths I know I cannot ignore?
How do I usually respond to uncertainty: do I rush, withdraw, overthink, or wait?
What might it look like to act with evenness of mind, without needing to control the outcome?
Where might letting go of the result allow my actions to become simpler and more truthful?
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.
Om Shanti.
Vicki x
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