Desires Bhagavad Gita Quotes

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The peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul.
Anonymous (The Bhagavad Gita)
You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either. Perform every action with you heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the fruits. Be even-tempered in success and failure: for it is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga. Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender. Seek refuge in the knowledge of Brahma. They who work selfishly for results are miserable.
Bhagavad Gita
Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness. The one who is motivated only by the desire for the fruits of their action, and anxious about the results, is miserable indeed.
Bhagavad Gita
They say that life is an accident, driven by sexual desire, that the universe has no moral order, no truth, no God. Driven by insatiable lusts, drunk on the arrogance of power, hypocritical, deluded, their actions foul with self-seeking, tormented by a vast anxiety that continues until their death, convinced that the gratification of desire is life's sole aim, bound by a hundred shackles of hope, enslaved by their greed, they squander their time dishonestly piling up mountains of wealth. "Today I got this desire, and tomorrow I will get that one; all these riches are mine, and soon I will have even more. Already I have killed these enemies, and soon I will kill the rest. I am the lord, the enjoyer, successful, happy, and strong, noble, and rich, and famous. Who on earth is my equal?
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Freedom from activity is never achieved by abstaining from action. Nobody can become perfect by merely ceasing to act. In fact, nobody can ever rest from his activity even for a moment. All are helplessly forced to act. . . . A man who renounces certain physical actions but still lets his mind dwell on the objects of his sensual desire, is deceiving himself. He can only be called a hypocrite. The truly admirable man controls his senses by the power of his will. All his actions will be disinterested. Activity is better than inertia. Act, but with self-control. If you are lazy, you cannot even sustain your own body.
Anonymous (BHAGAVAD GITA: EL CANTO DEL SEÑOR (Spanish Edition))
Through selfless service, you will always be fruitful and find the fulfillment of your desires
Bhagavad Gita
When a man dwells on the pleasure of sense, attraction for them arises in him. From attraction arises desire, the lust of possession, and this leads to passion, to anger. From passion comes confusion of mind, then loss of remembrance, the forgetting of duty. From this loss comes the ruin of reason, and the ruin of reason leads man to destruction.
Bhagavad Gita
SHOW GOOD WILL TO ALL Be fearless and pure; never waiver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve. Realize the truth of the scriptures; learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigor, patience, will purity; avoid malice and pride Then, Arjuna, you will achieve your divine destiny.
Bhagavad Gita
They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart. 56
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness. Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. 50 When consciousness is unified, however, all vain anxiety is left behind. There is no cause for worry, whether things go well or ill.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness. Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. 50 When consciousness is unified, however, all vain anxiety is left behind. There is no cause for worry, whether things go well or ill.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Shutting out all external objects, fixing the vision between the eyebrows, making even the inward and outward breaths, the sage who has controlled the senses, mind and understanding, who is intent upon liberation, who has cast away desire, fear and anger, he is ever freed.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
When you keep thinking about sense objects, attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire, the lust of possession that burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgment; you can no longer learn from past mistakes. Lost is the power to choose between what is wise and what is unwise, and your life is utter waste. (2:62 –63 ) Yet
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
When meditation becomes very deep, breathing becomes slow, steady, and even, and the windows of the senses close to all outward sensations. Next the faculties of the mind quiet down, resting from their usually frantic activity; even the primal emotions of desire, fear, and anger subside. When all these sensory and emotional tides have ceased to flow, then the spirit is free, mukta – at least for the time being. It has entered the state called samadhi. Samadhi
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Krishna introduces the idea that it is not enough to master all selfish desires; it is also necessary to subdue possessiveness and egocentricity.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
You may ask, “Who wrote the Vedas?” They were not written. The words are the Vedas. A word is Veda, if I can pronounce it rightly. Then it will immediately produce the [desired] effect.
Swami Vivekananda (Lectures on Bhagavad Gita)
The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results; all his selfish desires have been consumed in the fire of knowledge. 20 The wise, ever satisfied, have abandoned all external supports. Their security is unaffected by the results of their action; even while acting, they really do nothing at all. 21 Free from expectations and from all sense of possession, with mind and body firmly controlled by the Self, they do not incur sin by the performance of physical action. 22 They live in freedom who have gone beyond the dualities of life. Competing with no one, they are alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to them. 23 They are free, without selfish attachments; their minds are fixed in knowledge. They perform all work in the spirit of service, and their karma is dissolved.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
The manner in which the Gita has solved the problem is to my knowledge unique. The Gita says, ‘Do your allotted work but renounce its fruit — be detached and work — have no desire for reward and work.
Mahatma Gandhi (Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
Therefore the Gita is not for those who have no faith. The author makes Krishna say: ‘Do not entrust this treasure to him who is without sacrifice, without devotion, without the desire for this teaching and who denies Me. On
Mahatma Gandhi (Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
[Krishna answers:] “The man who has given up all desires, who desires nothing, not even this life, nor freedom, nor gods, nor work, nor anything.
Swami Vivekananda (Lectures on Bhagavad Gita)
The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results; all his selfish desires have been consumed in the fire of knowledge.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
A man is said to be [illumined] if his will has become firm, if his mind is not disturbed by misery, if he does not desire any happiness, if he is free of all [attachment], of all fear, of all anger
Swami Vivekananda (Lectures on Bhagavad Gita)
The man or woman who realizes God has everything and lacks nothing: having this, “they desire nothing else, and cannot be shaken by the heaviest burden of sorrow” (6:22). Life cannot threaten such a person; all it holds is the opportunity to love, to serve, and to give. Dharma,
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
This is the unmistakable teaching of the Gita. He who gives up action falls. He who gives up only the reward rises. But renunciation of fruit in no way means indifference to the result. In regard to every action one must know the result that is expected to follow, the means thereto, and the capacity for it. He, who, being thus equipped, is without desire for the result and is yet wholly engrossed in the due fulfillment of the task before him is said to have renounced the fruits of his action.
Mahatma Gandhi (The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
if he does not desire any happiness, if he is free of all [attachment], of all fear, of all anger
Swami Vivekananda (Lectures on Bhagavad Gita)
Fear is born of the thought of failure when one is attached to success. Anger is born of frustrated desire.
Paramahansa Yogananda (The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita Explained by Paramhansa Yogananda as Remembered by His Disciple)
He who has given up all desires, and moves free from attachment, egoism and thirst for enjoyment attains peace. (Chapter- II, Shloka- 71)
Gita Press (श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता पदच्छेद, अन्वय, साधारण भाषाटीकासहित)
They say that life is an accident caused by sexual desire, that the universe has no moral order, no truth, no God.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve. Realize the truth of the scriptures; learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. 2 Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. 3 Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
When the yogī, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in transcendence – devoid of all material desires – he is said to be well established in yoga.
Anonymous (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
When one's mind dwells on the objects of Senses, fondness for them grows on him, from fondness comes desire, from desire anger. Anger leads to bewilderment, bewilderment to loss of memory of true Self, and by that intelligence is destroyed, and with the destruction of intelligence he perishes.
Lord Krishna (Srimad Bhagavad Gita)
Those who are established in wisdom (sthita-prajna) live in continuous, unbroken awareness that they are not the perishable body but the Atman. Further, they see the same Self in everyone, for the Atman is universally present in all. Such a one, Krishna says, does not identify with personal desires. These desires are on the surface of personality, and the Self is its very core. The Self-realized man or woman is not motivated by personal desires – in other words, by any desire for kama, personal satisfaction.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante ’nya-devatāḥ taṁ taṁ niyamam āsthāya prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā “Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures.
Anonymous (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
When you actively turn your thoughts to all the bad consequences of the desires as they arise in you, the passion for them gradually dries up. As your passion diminishes, your mind comes under control. Firm, dedicated faith (sraddha) brings you the raw force of determination, will.
Jack Hawley (The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners)
Nor is the Gita a collection of do’s and dont’s. What is lawful for one may be unlawful for another. What may be permissible at one time, or in one place, may not be so at another time, and in another place. Desire for fruit is the only universal prohibition. Desirelessness is obligatory.
Mahatma Gandhi (Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
Arjuna, ignore the onslaught of external stimuli and focus between your eyebrows, regulating inhalation and exhalation at the nostrils, to liberate yourself from fear, desire and anger, and discover me within you, I who receive and consume every offering of your yagnas.—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 5, verses 27 to 29 (paraphrased).
Devdutt Pattanaik (My Gita)
Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita calls desire the “ever-present enemy of the wise . . . which like a fire cannot find satisfaction.
Ryan Holiday (Stillness is the Key)
Duty uncontaminated by desire leads to inner peacefulness and increased effectiveness. This is the secret art of living a life of real achievement!
Jack Hawley (The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners)
The refinement of an individual or a society is measured by the yardstick of how well greed and desires are controlled.
Jack Hawley (The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners)
Son of Kunti, the wisdom of the wise is covered by this eternal enemy; covered by a fire in the shape of desire, a fire which is always hungry.
Laurie L. Patton (The Bhagavad Gita)
Clinging is born to someone who dwells on the spheres of the senses; desire is born from clinging; and anger is born from desire.
Laurie L. Patton (The Bhagavad Gita)
There is only one desire in life which is good and the desire for the means to realise it is also good.
Mahatma Gandhi (Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
Do your allotted work but renounce its fruit—be detached and work—have no desire for reward and work.
Mahatma Gandhi (The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
Strong-Armed One, the one who neither hates nor desires should be known as the eternal renouncer - the one for whom opposites are the same, easily freed from bondage.
Laurie L. Patton (The Bhagavad Gita)
Clinging is born to someone who dwells on the spheres of the senses; desire is born from clinging; and anger is born from desire. 63
Anonymous (The Bhagavad Gita)
Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
The yogi moving toward Divinity is deemed more highly evolved than ascetics who practice severe penance, higher than the learned ones who know the scriptures, and above the ritualists who perform their rites seeking favors. All of these are to some extent still entangled in desire. So be a yogi, Arjuna! “Know that the true yogi has chosen a great yet attainable ideal in life: to turn Godward, to constantly and consciously move toward Divinity — to not simply know about God, but to know God in the fullest sense, to literally become one with the Divine! “This is the profound plan and purpose of creation that is hidden from most people. Arjuna, be the one who gives Me his whole heart. That yogi will be My very own.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
The individual soul (jivatma), because it has drawn the senses around itself, experiences the pleasures, desires, and pains of the world. “People who are unaware of the True Self Within (Atma), do not recognize this jiva in them that is using the senses. As the senses are limited to the mind level, they are incapable of comprehending Atma, which is above the mind. Yogis, however, possessing the eye of wisdom (intuitive faculty), do see Me, their Atmic Self within. “To obtain this ‘eye of wisdom’ you must do two things: surrender your ego and purify your mind. Only by accomplishing both of these will you behold Me. Those with only halfhearted surrender or only partially purified minds are not granted the capacity to see their Atmic Self.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
But renunciation of fruit in no way means indifference to the result. In regard to every action one must know the result that is expected to follow, the means thereto, and the capacity for it. He, who, being thus equipped, is without desire for the result and is yet wholly engrossed in the due fulfillment of the task before him is said to have renounced the fruits of his action.
Mahatma Gandhi (Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every endeavor is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker for whom the reactions of work have been burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.
Anonymous (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will Always to strive for wisdom; opened hand And governed appetites; and piety, And love of lonely study; humbleness, Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives, Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mind That lightly letteth go what others prize; And equanimity, and charity Which spieth no man's faults; and tenderness Towards all that suffer; a contented heart, Fluttered by no desires; a bearing mild, Modest, and grave, with manhood nobly mixed, With patience, fortitude, and purity; An unrevengeful spirit, never given To rate itself too high;--such be the signs, O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are set On that fair path which leads to heavenly birth! Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride, Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech, And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,-- These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birth Is fated for the regions of the vile.
Edwin Arnold (The Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita: Discourse Between Arjuna, Prince of India, and the Supreme Being Under the Form of Krishna (Religious Classic) - Synthesis ... the yogic ideals of moksha, and Raja Yoga)
in the Bhagavad Gita. One stanza reads: “Offering the inhaling breath into the exhaling breath and offering the exhaling breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both breaths; thus he releases prana from the heart and brings life force under his control.”2 The interpretation is: “The yogi arrests decay in the body by securing an additional supply of prana (life force) through quieting the action of the lungs and heart; he also arrests mutations of growth in the body by control of apana (eliminating current). Thus neutralizing decay and growth, the yogi learns life-force control.” Another Gita stanza states: “That meditation-expert (muni) becomes eternally free who, seeking the Supreme Goal, is able to withdraw from external phenomena by fixing his gaze within the mid-spot of the eyebrows and by neutralizing the even currents of prana and apana [that flow] within the nostrils and lungs; and to control his sensory mind and intellect; and to banish desire, fear, and anger.”3
Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi (Self-Realization Fellowship))
My aim for this book is for it to be as lean and portable as possible. Since there is limited room here and no desire to leave any valuable source out, anyone who wants a bibliography for this book can email: hello@stillnessisthekey.com For those looking to do more reading on Eastern or Western philosophy, I recommend the following: Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius (Modern Library) Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, by Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden (Hackett) Letters of a Stoic by Seneca (Penguin Classics) The Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics) The Art of Happiness, by Epicurus (Penguin Classics) The New Testament: A Translation, by David Bentley Hart (Yale University Press) Buddha, by Karen Armstrong (Penguin Lives Biographies)
Ryan Holiday (Stillness is the Key)
As fire is engulfed by smoke; mirror obscured by dust; fetus covered by amnion, so is the knowledge buried by insatiable sexual desire. The sexual desire is the biggest enemy of the wise. This insatiable burning desire will obstruct and destroy knowledge. From Bhagavad Gita
varma
You put a hard question on the virtue of discipline. What you say is true: I do value it—and I think that you do too—more than for its earthly fruit, proficiency. I think that one can give only a metaphysical ground for this evaluation; but the variety of metaphysics which gave an answer to your question has been very great, the metaphysics themselves very disparate: the bhagavad gita, Ecclesiastes, the Stoa, the beginning of the Laws, Hugo of St Victor, St Thomas, John of the Cross, Spinoza. This very great disparity suggests that the fact that discipline is good for the soul is more fundamental than any of the grounds given for its goodness. I believe that through discipline, though not through discipline alone, we can achieve serenity, and a certain small but precious measure of freedom from the accidents of incarnation, and charity, and that detachment which preserves the world which it renounces. I believe that through discipline we can learn to preserve what is essential to our happiness in more and more adverse circumstances, and to abandon with simplicity what would else have seemed to us indispensable; that we come a little to see the world without the gross distortion of personal desire, and in seeing it so, accept more easily our earthly privation and its earthly horror—But because I believe that the reward of discipline is greater than its immediate objective, I would not have you think that discipline without objective is possible: in its nature discipline involves the subjection of the soul to some perhaps minor end; and that end must be real, if the discipline is not to be factitious. Therefore I think that all things which evoke discipline: study, and our duties to men and to the commonwealth, war, and personal hardship, and even the need for subsistence, ought to be greeted by us with profound gratitude, for only through them can we attain to the least detachment; and only so can we know peace.
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Good people come to worship me for different reasons. Some come to the spiritual life because of suffering, some in order to understand life; some come through a desire to achieve life’s purpose, and some come who are men and women of wisdom. 17 Unwavering in devotion, always united with me, the man or woman of wisdom surpasses all the others. To them I am the dearest beloved, and they are very dear to me. 18 All those who follow the spiritual path are blessed. But the wise who are always established in union, for whom there is no higher goal than me, may be regarded as my very Self.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
When you keep thinking about sense objects, attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire, the lust of possession that burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgment; you can no longer learn from past mistakes. Lost is the power to choose between what is wise and what is unwise, and your life is utter waste. (2:62 –63
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
Arjuna, to expand your mind, use intelligence to draw your mind away from sensuality, so that there is no self-obsession, aggression, arrogance, desire, anger, possessiveness, attraction or repulsion. You are content in solitude, consuming little, expressing little, connected with the world and aware.—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 18, verses 51 to 53 (paraphrased).
Devdutt Pattanaik (My Gita)
When there is no desire for fruit, there is no temptation for untruth or himsa (violence). Take any instance of untruth or violence, and it will be found that at its back was the desire to attain the cherished end. But it may be freely admitted that the Gita was not written to establish ahimsa. It was an accepted and primary duty even before the Gita age. The Gita had to deliver the message of renunciation of fruit. This is clearly brought out as early as the second chapter. 26. But if the Gita believed in ahimsa or it was included in desirelessness, why did the author take a warlike illustration? When the Gita was written, although people believed in ahimsa, wars were not only not taboo, but nobody observed the contradiction between them and ahimsa.
Mahatma Gandhi (Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
undertakings are free from anxiety about results; all his selfish desires have been consumed in the fire of knowledge. 20 The wise, ever satisfied, have abandoned all external supports. Their security is unaffected by the results of their action; even while acting, they really do nothing at all. 21 Free from expectations and from all sense of possession, with mind and body firmly controlled by the Self, they do not incur sin by the performance of physical action.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
The Self-realized person, however, has no karma to work out, no personal desires; at the time of death he or she is absorbed into the Lord: But they for whom I am the supreme goal, who do all work renouncing self for me and meditate on me with single-hearted devotion, these I will swiftly rescue from the fragment’s cycle of birth and death, for their consciousness has entered into me. (12:6–7) Such a person, the Upanishads stress, can actually shed the body voluntarily when the hour of death arrives, by withdrawing consciousness step by step in full awareness.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
He who banishes all bad desires arising in his mind may be described as a sthita-prajna — one who is situated in perfect knowledge, one who is steadfast in action. Though, of course, ultimately we all should arrive at a stage when we should banish all desires, even the desire to see God; to a person in that stage all action becomes spontaneous. After one has seen God face to face, how can the desire to see Him still remain? When you have already jumped into the river, the desire to do so will no longer be there. Our desire to see God ceases when we are lost in Him, have become one with Him.
Mahatma Gandhi (Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi)
In dreamless sleep, the Upanishads say, a king is not a king nor a pauper poor; no one is old or young, male or female, educated or ignorant. When consciousness returns to the mind, however, the thinking process starts up again, and personality returns to the body. According to this analysis, the ego dies every night. Every morning we pick up our desires where we left off: the same person, yet a little different too. The Upanishads describe dying as a very similar process. Consciousness is withdrawn from the body into the senses, from the senses into the mind, and finally consolidated in the ego; when the body is finally wrenched away, the ego remains, a potent package of desires and karma.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
However people sincerely call on me, I come to them and fulfill their hearts’ desires. They use many paths to reach me. It might sound philosophical, but we can make it a little clearer by saying that God, the Supreme One, the Incarnation, is not a person. Then what is God? Simplest to understand is that God is the peace in us. We are born with joy. We are peace and joy personified. We are purity personified. Unfortunately we seem to be ignoring that. We’re ignorant of our own true nature. So we run after things to make us happy and to find peace. Behind all our efforts, our basic motive is to find happiness and thus to find peace. All our actions are for that good. They need not be religious. We’re all working toward that happiness. Even all these wars, fights and competition are ways people look for happiness. Even when people steal things, they think they’re going to be happy by stealing. So the ultimate motive behind all our actions is to find that joy and peace. That’s what Krishna means when he says, “Whatever people do, ultimately their interest is in me.” When he says “me,” it means that peace: “I am that joy. I am eternal. Unfortunately many don’t realize that I, as peace, am already there in them.” Sometimes you put on your earrings and then forget them. Then you spend hours pulling out all the drawers until somebody comes, pinches your ears and says, “Here they are.” It’s the same way spiritually. Peace, or your true Self, is something subjective. You look about for it outside of you as some object, something different from you. That’s why you miss it. If occasionally you seem to be enjoying some happiness or peace, that’s nothing but a reflection of your own peace within.
Satchidananda (The Living Gita: The Complete Bhagavad Gita: a Commentary for Modern Readers)
Warriorship is an infinitely nuanced subject. A true warrior desires nothing so much as to be perfectly appropriate, “in sync” with space and time in each and every moment. The perfection of warrior timing results in a kind of invisibility. Walking between the super strings of karma, or bound activity, the warrior engages in kriya, or spontaneous action. This is the actionless action spoken of so eloquently by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Only the natural perfection of kriya ensures that a warrior’s actions will be of real benefit to those she serves. Walking between and in a state of total non-distraction, a warrior’s invisibility is identical to her invincibility. In the warrior heart is a dynamic stillness that is unperturbed by any arising of this world, by any impediment or seeming obstacle. Even when we have not realized this perfection, it is our warrior hearts, still mostly unknown to us, that lead us steadily on to realization.
Shambhavi Sarasvati (Pilgrims to Openness: Direct Realization Tantra in Everyday Life)
According to the law of karma, souls reincarnate in environments befitting their spiritual attainments. Good people (even those who have veered from the spiritual path) go, when they die, to the heaven of those who do good deeds. They dwell there for a number of years and then take birth again, this time into a home that is pure and prosperous. A few of them will be born into a family that is spiritually advanced, but such births are difficult to obtain. When this happens, the good environment draws out their latent spirituality and leads them rapidly toward liberation. The ones born into the pure and prosperous houses have the opportunity at first to enjoy the relatively tame desires they held in their former bodies. But as soon as those pleasures are done they feel irresistibly drawn to spirituality by the force of the good habits they strove for in the previous life. Even those who showed only a faint interest, merely inquiring about spiritual matters, progress further than the ones who merely follow the rites and ceremonies of their belief systems unthinkingly, and thus stall their true spiritual advancement.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
Krishna went ahead and told Arjuna,  when we are subjected to the senses and allow them to predominate, the attachments come, from the attachments we get the desire , from unfulfilled desire/broken desire the anger comes, from anger the delusion comes, from delusion we get confused in memory and we lose reasoning and that leads to ruin.
Vishnuvarthanan Moorthy (Bhagavad Gita for Dummies)
Arjuna, there is a banyan tree that grows upside down, its roots in the sky and its trunk below. The wise know that Veda constitutes its leaves. The branches go up and down, as a consequence of nature’s tendencies, nourished by experiences. The aerial roots that grow down are actions born of desire that bind it to the realm of men. Wisdom alone can cut these downward roots, enabling discovery of the reverse banyan tree, with its primal roots, before enchantment of the senses began and obscured the view.—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 15, verses 1 to 4 (paraphrased). The banyan tree is sacred to the Hindus. It symbolizes immortality (akshaya). But it is unique in that it has primary roots and secondary roots. The latter grow from its branches and eventually become so thick that it becomes impossible to distinguish them from the main tree trunk. In this verse, Krishna visualizes a banyan tree growing from the sky, its primary roots rising up into the sky, its secondary roots growing down to the earth. Thus, it is being nourished from above and below. The primary root rising from the sky is nourished by inner mental reality. The secondary roots going down to the earth are nourished by external material reality. The tree is who we are. We are nourished from within as well as without. Within is the atma that is immortal and infinite, and so does not suffer from the anxieties of the mortal and the finite. It is neither hungry nor frightened, nor does it yearn for validation. Without is the world of things, people, our relationships, our desires and frustrations. When we derive value from the outside, we assume that our identity is the anxious aham. So Krishna advises Arjuna to use the axe of knowledge (gyana) to cut down all secondary roots, take refuge in the primary root of atma and liberate himself. This is moksha, liberation, where we no longer seek validation from the outside, but feel eternally validated from the inside. Moksha is liberation from fear.
Devdutt Pattanaik (My Gita)
when we are subjected to the senses and allow them to dominate, the attachments come, from the attachments we get the desire , from unfulfilled desire/broken desire the anger comes, from anger the delusion comes, from delusion we get confused in memory and we lose reasoning and that leads to ruin.
Vishnuvarthanan Moorthy (Bhagavad Gita for Dummies)
A gentleman never desires to encroach upon another's property or wrongfully possess another's things.  It is said that for a gentleman, another's things are like garbage on the street - he does not use it or take it home.
Mahaprabhu Das (Notes on the noteworthy Bhagavad Gita for the intelligent few)
People lose half of their health to gain wealth, and they lose half of their wealth to regain their health. When I had all my teeth. I had no nuts to chew, and now that I got the nuts, I have no teeth to chew. Caught up between gaining and losing, they lose their entire life. "One who is galloping on desires has no peace; but one who is established in the Self has no desire. All the desires will flow in him, like rivers flowing into the ocean. He will have no dearth of anything." Lord Krishna promises that. Don't think that if you become desire-less it means you become a pauper No! It's the desire which keeps you poor. Your poverty is your hankering.
Ravi Shankar (The Bhagavad Gita: Chapters 1-13)
spiritual intelligence is exclusive and material desires are unlimited and has got many branches
Kishan Barai (Bhagavad Gita Made Very Easy: Read & Understand Complete Bhagavad Gita in Short Time)
Those who have given up personal desire and fruitive actions are respected in the entire society and are considered as wise
Kishan Barai (Bhagavad Gita Made Very Easy: Read & Understand Complete Bhagavad Gita in Short Time)
Those knowledgeable who perform any action without personal materialistic desire are consider as supreme and get real peace in life.
Kishan Barai (Bhagavad Gita Made Very Easy: Read & Understand Complete Bhagavad Gita in Short Time)
Throughout the Gita, Kṛṣṇa explains that even in this life, within our present body, we can rise to pure consciousness, know God and live in a state of spiritual liberation. At present, our material desires conceal our true awareness [3.39]. Thus, by our decision to embrace or reject spiritual life, we act as our own friend or enemy; we alone elevate or degrade ourselves [6.5-6]. Kṛṣṇa emphasizes that we are responsible for our own condition. The Lord does not force us to do good or evil, and thus is not responsible for the joy and sorrow we create in our lives [5.14-15]. We have free will.
H.D. Goswami (A Comprehensive Guide to Bhagavad-Gita with Literal Translation)
O MAN! Offer Thy labyrinthine longings into a monotheistic bonfire consecrated to the unparalleled God. Burn desire for human affection in the fire of aspiration for GOD alone, a love solitary because omnipresent! Throw faggot of ignorance to incandesce the blaze of insight! Devour all sorrows in the sorrow for God's absence. Consume all regrets in meditative bliss!
Paramahansa Yogananda (God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita (set of 2 volumes))
The freedom of Brahman surrounds those whose minds are controlled, who know themselves and who release themselves from selfish desire and anger with sustained effort. (5.24
Ravi Ravindra (The Bhagavad Gita: A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life)
One whose mind remains undisturbed by distress, who has no desire for pleasure, who is free from mundane attachment, fear and anger, is a sage of steady mind.
B.G. Narasingha (Original Bhagavad Gita — The Ultimate Millennial Edition — With Clear and Concise Commentary)
He who has not repeatedly heard and studied the Gita, yet desires liberation, will be laughed at by children. But those who hear it and study it are not humans. They are certainly like the gods.
Bibek Debroy (The Bhagavad Gita For Millennials)
I DON'T DESIRE ANY NYMPHS TO BECOME A TERRORIST, I AM A DEVOTEE, I MAKE THE HEART OF THE NATION A TEMPLE.
Sachin Ramdas Bharatiya
Gradually, as our perspective deepens, we begin to experience our own lives in the context of a wider purpose. We begin to look at all our melodramas and our desires and our sufferings, and instead of seeing them as events happening within a lifetime bounded by birth and death, we begin experiencing them as part of a much vaster design.We begin to appreciate that there is a wider frame around our lives, within which our particular incarnation is happening. One of the first things that kind of perspective does for us is to calm us down a great deal. The whole game isn’t riding on this one lifetime! Whew! There’s a great feeling of release inherent in that; it removes the anxiety and the sense of urgency. We don’t have to do it all right now—and in fact we see we’re not “doing it” anyway! It’s the lawful continuity of karma and reincarnation flowing through us lifetime after lifetime, kalpa after kalpa. What a relief!
Ram Dass (Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita)
THE STORY OF LIFE IS THAT ONE DOES NOT GET THE DESIRED CHARACTER IN IT.
Sachin Ramdas Bharatiya
The Buddha believed in reincarnation, which means he thought that something reincarnates. The Pali literature says: “There are no real ego entities hastening through the ocean of rebirth, but merely life waves, which, according to their nature and activities, manifest themselves here as men, there as animals, and elsewhere as invisible things.” “Life waves”—that’s a nice image. In Hinduism they’re called vasanas, subtle thought-forms. Every act we do creates vasanas, life waves, based on the desires connected with the act. Those life waves go out and out. Even when we die, they continue; the physical body dies, and what remains are those subtle life waves, those mental tendencies that function like a kind of psychic DNA code to determine your next round. In Hinduism that’s called karma. Karma is basically a pattern of life waves, or desire waves, that keep going and going, life after life, until they spend themselves. When they do, there’s no more individual desire, no more separation, and therefore no more incarnation. The game is over.
Ram Dass (Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita)
Nishkâma Karma, or work without desire or attachment.
Swami Vivekananda (Lectures on Bhagavad Gita)
While contemplating the objects of the senses, attachment to them is born. From such attachment, intense desires arise. From unfulfilled desires, the seeds of anger appear. Ch.2 v.63 #110 krodhād bhavati saṁmohaḥ saṁmohāt smṛtivibhramaḥ smṛtibhraṁśād buddhināśo buddhināśāt praṇaśyati From unrestrained anger, delusion arises. From this delusion, memory is lost. When memory is lost, discernment is lost. When discernment is lost, this leads to harmful or destructive actions. Ch.2 v.64 #111
Jeffrey Armstrong (The Bhagavad Gita Comes Alive: A Radical Translation)
The soul, all-perfect and ever perfect, is compelled by the law of evolution to incarnate repeatedly in progressively higher lives— retarded by wrong actions and desires and accelerated by spiritual endeavors—until Self-realization and God-union are attained. Having then transcended the Lord’s delusion, the soul is forever freed. “Their thoughts immersed in That (Spirit), their souls one with Spirit, their sole allegiance and devotion given to Spirit, their beings purified from poisonous delusion by the antidote of wisdom— such men reach the state of non-return” (Bhagavad Gita V:17). In the Bible it is similarly written: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out” (Revelation 3:12)
Paramahansa Yogananda (Man's Eternal Quest (Collected Talks & Essays 1))
Real desirelessness is desire for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, not an artificial attempt to abolish desires. The living entity cannot be desireless or senseless, but he does have to change the quality of the desires.
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
According to the Bhagavad Gita, four kinds of people worship God: those who are afflicted, those who seek knowledge, those who crave wealth, and those endowed with wisdom.1 All four kinds are worthy because their actions and thoughts are in some way connected with God, even though some of them seek worldly prosperity. No doubt God is the Kalpataru (the wish-fulfilling tree), but this does not mean that He automatically fulfills all desires. As a wise doctor will not prescribe poison to alleviate a patient’s pain, similarly the omniscient Lord answers only those prayers which will ultimately benefit the devotee.
Chetanananda (They Lived with God: Life Stories of Some Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna)