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.
It is a natural tendency of the senses to go for sense objects. Every sense has got its raga (like) and dvesha (dislike). You don’t even need intelligence for that. The sense itself is designed for that. The sense becomes attracted or repelled, and then whether you act on it or not has to do with your intelligence. Restraint is done with intelligence, which is very difficult to do because you are not trained for that. But if Bhakti is there, then restraint comes naturally.
