Sanskrit
ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते । सङ्गात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ॥
dhyāyato viṣayān puṃsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho'bhijāyate
Translation
Man, musing on the objects of sense, conceiveth an attachment to these; from attachment ariseth desire; from desire anger cometh forth;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The negative counterpart to the whole portrait so far, and one of the Gita’s most quoted passages: a precise causal chain showing how ordinary dwelling on sense-objects escalates step by step — musing to attachment, attachment to desire, desire to anger. Verse 63 continues the same chain to its end point.
Lessons
Personal
- Before reacting to whatever triggered your anger, ask what you were dwelling on beforehand — the attachment usually formed minutes or days earlier, not in the moment itself.
Professional
- A frustrated reaction at work is often a frustrated attachment to a specific outcome. Noticing the attachment — to being right, to a deadline, to credit — earlier gives you a cheaper point to intervene than after anger has already shown up in a meeting.
Family & Social
- Recurring arguments with the same person are often the same chain repeating: the same desire, unmet, escalating to the same anger. Naming the underlying desire out loud can break the pattern faster than addressing the argument's surface topic.
Concepts