Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 21 minutes ago
A talk by Dr. Ramesh Pattni DPhil (Oxford) OBE
of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Emotion, as an important ingredient of life, has intrigued philosophers and psychologists for millennia. Emotions play an important role in our day-to-day life. All our actions and thoughts are governed by our emotional experiences. In turn, emotions are reflected in our actions and thoughts.
How can we understand emotions and the affect from the Hindu traditional point of view? One view of emotions lays emphasis on desires as the root cause of emotional upheavals. They are seen as modifications of desire and attachment. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita,
The pleasures that are born of sense contacts are a source of suffering.
They have a beginning and an end, O Arjuna. For this reason, the wise do not indulge in them BG V.22
A talk by Dr. Ramesh Pattni DPhil (Oxford) OBE
of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Emotion, as an important ingredient of life, has intrigued philosophers and psychologists for millennia. Emotions play an important role in our day-to-day life. All our actions and thoughts are governed by our emotional experiences. In turn, emotions are reflected in our actions and thoughts.
How can we understand emotions and the affect from the Hindu traditional point of view? One view of emotions lays emphasis on desires as the root cause of emotional upheavals. They are seen as modifications of desire and attachment. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita,
The pleasures that are born of sense contacts are a source of suffering.
They have a beginning and an end, O Arjuna. For this reason, the wise do not indulge in them BG V.22
