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.
Align your consciousness with the eternal consciousness called prema. Then you will see the magic happening all around you. Prema is the only magic. When your mind is aligned with love, you will see beauty all around you. When your consciousness is not aligned with prema, then you will see problems all around you – problem after problem. When you have love for Krishna, then you will see that there is nothing else but Krishna and His play. Then you will be intoxicated. That is the real high.
