The eighteen chapters of the Gītā can be grouped into three sets of six chapters each. The first set focuses predominantly on karma-yoga, the second set on bhakti-yoga, and the third on jñāna-yoga. But to some extent all three topics can be found throughout all the chapters. The first chapter is introductory and doesn’t outline any specific yoga. It is titled “The Path through Despondency” (Viṣāda-yoga) because it describes Arjuna’s dejected mental-emotional state after he surveys the armies on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. It can be considered as a yoga, or transformational means, only in the sense that dejection itself, when it leads to self-inquiry, becomes the basis of authentic practice. In the state of dejection, one’s ordinary absorption in materialistic pursuits is slackened, and thus deliberation on God becomes a distinct possibility.
Everybody is born with a twin sister called death. When the body is born, death is born along with it. Whether we die today or after 100 years, death is certain. So, everyday we are coming closer to our death. Therefore, every night, we should do this introspection: Did I do something to come closer to Krishna today, or move farther away from Him? Is my japa improving? Is my mind feeling more peaceful and less disturbed? This is the real meaning of introspection.
