In the supplied attestations (all from the Bhagavad Gītā mūla, chapter 2), kāma denotes desire as a psychological condition that the steady-minded aspirant must abandon to attain stability and peace. The verses treat kāma in two complementary aspects: (1) as the object of total renunciation — the steadfast one abandons all desires arising in the mind (2.55, 2.71); and (2) as a causal link in the genesis of bondage — desire is born from attachment to sense-objects and itself gives rise to anger (2.62). A contrasting image (2.70) likens desires entering the composed person to rivers entering an undisturbed sea: the one who is so unmoved by entering desires attains peace, unlike the kāma-kāmī (the desirer of desires). The attestations consistently associate freedom from kāma with the attainment of śānti (peace) and with the state of the sthita-prajña.
Senses
The reading surface. A later ingestion attaches a locus to a settled sense, or proposes a new one (dashed) for human triage — it never rewrites settled prose.
1 · Desires arising in the mind (mano-gata) that the steady-minded one (sthita-prajña) abandon…settledadded v1
Desires arising in the mind (mano-gata) that the steady-minded one (sthita-prajña) abandons wholly, being content in the self alone.
smṛti (epic-philosophical)
bhagavadgita:2.55
2 · Desire as a causal stage in the genesis of bondage: born from attachment (saṅga) to dwelt-…settledadded v1
Desire as a causal stage in the genesis of bondage: born from attachment (saṅga) to dwelt-upon sense-objects, and itself the source from which anger (krodha) arises.
smṛti (epic-philosophical)
bhagavadgita:2.62
3 · Desires that enter a person; the one into whom all desires enter while remaining unmoved (…settledadded v1
Desires that enter a person; the one into whom all desires enter while remaining unmoved (like the sea receiving rivers) attains peace, in contrast to the kāma-kāmī (one who craves desires).
smṛti (epic-philosophical)
bhagavadgita:2.70
4 · All desires which the liberated, longing-free (niḥspṛha), un-possessive (nirmama), egoless…settledadded v1
All desires which the liberated, longing-free (niḥspṛha), un-possessive (nirmama), egoless (nirahaṃkāra) person abandons (vihāya kāmān sarvān), thereby reaching peace.
smṛti (epic-philosophical)
bhagavadgita:2.71
Attestation concordance — tier 2, every locus
Append-only. Grows by locus as texts arrive; stays one collapsed table so the senses remain the reading surface.
v1Bhagavad Gītā mūla (ch. 1) — +4 loci 4 sense(s) drafted from 4 Gītā locus/loci.
Caveats
The corpus supplied is a single tradition and stratum: the Bhagavad Gītā mūla, all four loci from chapter 2. No commentary loci (Gauḍapāda or Śaṅkara) were supplied, so no commentary positions can be attributed.
No interpretive split is present within the supplied evidence; the four loci are mutually consistent in treating kāma as desire to be transcended.
The senses are drawn solely from the four chapter-2 verses and should not be taken as the full Gītā usage of kāma, since attestations from elsewhere in the text were not supplied.
The contrast in 2.70 between one who is unmoved by entering desires and the kāma-kāmī is the closest the supplied evidence comes to a nuance, but it is a single author's framing rather than a documented interpretive controversy.