काम

Kāma (काम) means wish or desire. It occurs in many places in the Gita, and in verse 2.62 it is the third link of a chain: when the mind keeps dwelling on something, attachment is born; from attachment comes kāma; and from kāma, anger. So here kāma stands between clinging and anger.

The word is not limited to the wish for sensual pleasure. Any wish that settles over the whole mind, so that its absence feels like a lack, can be kāma: an object, a position, someone's respect, getting even. Verse 3.37 names desire and anger as one and the same enemy, which points to the same root: a wish that is blocked turns into anger.

Common misreading: taking kāma to mean only lust. That is the sense most used in everyday speech, but the Gita's word is much wider.

Better sense: a wish on which the whole weight of the mind comes to rest. The Gita makes the link in the chain not the presence of a wish but its taking over the mind.

To read more, see the topic "From Thought to Ruin".