Bhagavad Gita 14.7
रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् । तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् ॥ ७ ॥
rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛṣṇā-saṅga-samudbhavam | tan nibadhnāti kaunteya karma-saṅgena dehinam ||7||
Translation
Know that rajas is of the nature of passion, born of craving and attachment. It binds the embodied one, O son of Kunti, by attachment to action.
Reflection
What action are you attached to because it makes you feel like someone?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Fourteen
Rajas is the engine of doing. Its substance is raga, coloring of mind by want; its origin is trishna, the dry thirst that keeps asking for more. Rajas binds by attachment to action: the seeker likes the activity, likes the visible motion, likes being someone who is up to something. Productive lives are usually rajasic lives. The bondage here is not subtle; it is loud and constant. The phone, the project, the queue of next things. To recognize one's restlessness as a guna rather than as identity is already a loosening. The verse offers that recognition.