Karma Yoga: Shlokas 36 to 43
If you have not already done so, I would request you to review the Chapter 2, Sankhya Yoga before studying chapter 3 as that would help set the right context.
You can find the explanation of shlokas 29 to 35 can be found here. Please go through that to get a better understand and maintain continuity in your learning.
You can also listen to all the episodes through my Spotify Portal.
अर्जुन उवाच |
अथ केन प्रयुक्तोऽयं पापं चरति पूरुष: |
अनिच्छन्नपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजित: || 36||
arjuna uvācha
atha kena prayukto ’yaṁ pāpaṁ charati pūruṣhaḥ
anichchhann api vārṣhṇeya balād iva niyojitaḥ
अर्जुन उवाच (Arjuna Uvāca) – Arjuna said; अथ (Atha) – then; केन (Kena) – by what; प्रयुक्तोऽयं (Prayukto ‘yaṃ) – impelled; पापं (Pāpaṃ) – sin; चरति (Carati) – does commit; पूरुष: (Pūruṣaḥ) – a man; अनिच्छन्नपि (Anicchann api) – even unwillingly; वार्ष्णेय (Vārṣṇeya) – O descendant of Vrishni (Arjuna); बलादिव (Balād iva) – as if engaged by force; नियोजित: (Niyojitaḥ) – directed.
Arjuna asked: Why is a person impelled to commit sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if by force, O descendent of Vrishni (Krishna)?
श्रीभगवानुवाच |
काम एष क्रोध एष रजोगुणसमुद्भव: ||
महाशनो महापाप्मा विद्ध्येनमिह वैरिणम् || 37||
śhrī bhagavān uvācha
kāma eṣha krodha eṣha rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ
mahāśhano mahā-pāpmā viddhyenam iha vairiṇam
श्रीभगवानुवाच (Śrī-bhagavān uvāca) – The Supreme Lord said; कामः (Kāmaḥ) – desire; एषः (Eṣaḥ) – this; क्रोधः (Krodhaḥ) – anger; एषः (Eṣaḥ) – this; रजोगुणसमुद्भवः (Rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ) – born of the mode of passion; महाशनः (Mahāśanaḥ) – all-devouring; महापाप्मा (Mahā-pāpmā) – greatly sinful; विद्ध्य् (Viddhi) – know; एनम् (Enam) – this; इह (Iha) – in this world; वैरिणम् (Vairiṇam) – enemy.
It is lust (insatiable desire) alone, which is born of contact with the mode of passion, and later transformed into anger. Know this as the sinful, all-devouring enemy in the world.
धूमेनाव्रियते वह्निर्यथादर्शो मलेन च |
यथोल्बेनावृतो गर्भस्तथा तेनेदमावृतम् || 38||
dhūmenāvriyate vahnir yathādarśho malena cha
yatholbenāvṛito garbhas tathā tenedam āvṛitam
धूमेन (Dhūmena) – by smoke; आव्रियते (Āvriyate) – is covered; वह्निः (Vahniḥ) – fire; यथा (Yathā) – as; आदर्शः (Ādarśaḥ) – mirror; मलेन (Malena) – by dust; च (Ca) – and; यथा (Yathā) – as; उल्बेन (Ulbenā) – by the womb; आवृतः (Āvṛtaḥ) – is covered; गर्भः (Garbhaḥ) – embryo; तथा (Tathā) – so; तेन (Tena) – by that (lust); इदम (Idam) – this; आवृतम् (Āvṛtam) – is covered.
Just as fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, so is this (wisdom) covered by that (lust).
आवृतं ज्ञानमेतेन ज्ञानिनो नित्यवैरिणा |
कामरूपेण कौन्तेय दुष्पूरेणानलेन च || 39||
āvṛitaṁ jñānam etena jñānino nitya-vairiṇā
kāma-rūpeṇa kaunteya duṣhpūreṇānalena cha
आवृतं (Āvṛtaṃ) – covered; ज्ञानम् (Jñānam) – knowledge; एतेन (Etena) – by this; ज्ञानिनः (Jñāninaḥ) – of the wise; नित्य-वैरिणा (Nitya-vairiṇā) – eternal enemy; काम-रूपेण (Kāma-rūpeṇa) – in the form of desire; कौन्तेय (Kaunteya) – O son of Kunti (Arjuna); दुष्पूरेण (Duṣpūreṇa) – insatiable; अनलेन (Analena) – by the fire; च (Ca) – and.
O son of Kunti (Arjuna), knowledge is covered by this eternal enemy of the wise, in the form of desire, which is insatiable as fire.
इन्द्रियाणि मनो बुद्धिरस्याधिष्ठानमुच्यते |
एतैर्विमोहयत्येष ज्ञानमावृत्य देहिनम् || 40||
indriyāṇi mano buddhir asyādhiṣhṭhānam uchyate
etair vimohayatyeṣha jñānam āvṛitya dehinam
इन्द्रियाणि (Indriyāṇi) – the senses; मनः (Manaḥ) – the mind; बुद्धिः (Buddhiḥ) – and the intelligence; अस्य (Asya) – of this (lust); अधिष्ठानम् (Adhiṣṭhānam) – are the sitting places; उच्यते (Ucyate) – are said; एतैः (Etaiḥ) – by these; विमोहयति (Vimohayati) – bewilders; एषः (Eṣaḥ) – this (lust); ज्ञानम् (Jñānam) – knowledge; आवृत्य (Āvṛtya) – covering; देहिनम् (Dehinam) – the embodied.
The senses, the mind, and the intelligence are said to be its (lust’s) sitting places. By these, it (lust) covers knowledge and bewilders the embodied soul.
तस्मात्त्वमिन्द्रियाण्यादौ नियम्य भरतर्षभ |
पाप्मानं प्रजहि ह्येनं ज्ञानविज्ञाननाशनम् || 41||
tasmāt tvam indriyāṇyādau niyamya bharatarṣhabha
pāpmānaṁ prajahi hyenaṁ jñāna-vijñāna-nāśhanam
तस्मात् (Tasmāt) – therefore; त्वम् (Tvam) – you; इन्द्रियाणि (Indriyāṇi) – the senses; आदौ (Ādau) – in the beginning; नियम्य (Niyamya) – having controlled; भरतर्षभ (Bharatarṣabha) – O chief of the Bharatas (Arjuna); पाप्मानं (Pāpmānaṃ) – the sinful; प्रजहि (Prajahi) – you must slay; हि (Hi) – certainly; एनं (Enaṃ) – this; ज्ञान-विज्ञान-नाशनम् (Jñāna-vijñāna-nāśanam) – destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
Therefore, O chief of the Bharatas (Arjuna), in the very beginning, control your senses and slay this sinful destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्य: परं मन: |
मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धे: परतस्तु स: || 42||
indriyāṇi parāṇyāhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ
manasas tu parā buddhir yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ
इन्द्रियाणि (Indriyāṇi) – the senses; पराणि (Parāṇi) – are superior; आहुः (Āhuḥ) – they say; इन्द्रियेभ्यः (Indriyebhyaḥ) – than the senses; परं (Paraṃ) – superior; मनः (Manaḥ) – is the mind; मनसः (Manasaḥ) – than the mind; तु (Tu) – but; परा (Parā) – superior; बुद्धिः (Buddhiḥ) – is the intelligence; यः (Yaḥ) – one who; बुद्धेः (Buddheḥ) – than the intelligence; परतः (Parataḥ) – is superior; तु (Tu) – but; सः (Saḥ) – he.
They say the senses are superior, but superior to the senses is the mind. Superior to the mind is the intelligence, and one who is superior even to the intelligence, that one is he (the soul).
एवं बुद्धे: परं बुद्ध्वा संस्तभ्यात्मानमात्मना |
जहि शत्रुं महाबाहो कामरूपं दुरासदम् || 43||
evaṁ buddheḥ paraṁ buddhvā sanstabhyātmānam ātmanā
jahi śhatruṁ mahā-bāho kāma-rūpaṁ durāsadam
एवं (Evaṃ) – thus; बुद्धेः (Buddheḥ) – than intelligence; परं (Paraṃ) – superior; बुद्ध्वा (Buddhvā) – knowing; संस्तभ्य (Saṃstabhya) – subduing; आत्मानम् (Ātmānam) – the soul; आत्मना (Ātmanā) – by the mind; जहि (Jahi) – conquer; शत्रुं (Śatruṃ) – the enemy; महाबाहो (Mahābāho) – O mighty-armed one (Arjuna); काम-रूपं (Kāma-rūpaṃ) – in the form of desire; दुरासदम् (Durāsadam) – hard to conquer.
Thus knowing the soul to be superior to the material intellect, O mighty armed Arjun, subdue the lower self (senses, mind, and intellect) by the higher self (strength of the soul), and kill this formidable enemy called lust.
What makes us commit sinful acts?
In 3.36, Arjuna asks Krishna “Why is a person impelled to commit sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if by force, O descendent of Vrishni (Krishna)?” The Vrishnis were the ancestors of Yadu (whose descendants were called Yadavas). It is a sad story how, after Gandhari’s curse, the Yadavas forgot their duties, engaged in sinful activities and destroyed themselves.
What Arjuna is asking is a very insightful question. Each one of us has a good voice inside us. It is what we call the conscience. Whenever we are about to commit a sinful activity, our conscience always tells us not to do it. However, we still go ahead and do it. There seems to be a constant conflict between the soul’s divine nature and the material body’s lower nature. It is what is also termed as Shreya (what is good) vs Preya (what is pleasant).
So Arjuna is asking what causes people to commit sinful activities as if by force? Where they are not able to control themselves in spite of a good conscience warning them and telling them not to do it?
The destructive power of lust
To this, the supreme Lord says: It is lust alone, which is born of contact with the mode of passion, and later transformed into anger. Know this as the sinful, all-devouring enemy in the world.
Lord Krishna’s Formula:
Thinking about sensory objects -> Leads to attachment.
Attachment -> Leads to lust.
Lust -> Always leads to anger.
From anger, delusion arises which in turn leads to damage of memory. A damaged memory impacts intelligence. When intelligence is lost, it causes one to fall down (to lower planes).
Keep in mind the top culprits are lust and anger. Lust is uncontrolled desire, while anger is frustration due to unfulfilled desire. Hence, Shree Krishna labels lust as the root of all evil. And around 3000 years later, Gautama Buddha has also said the same thing, that desire is the root of all suffering.
There is this very popular story of a few philosophers who were passing through a forest. They come across a man who was lying down under a tree and they could see that there was a big snake ready to bite his leg and there was a big scorpion which was ready to sting him. They also see that there was a hungry bear behind the tree waiting to pounce on him and eat him for lunch. However the man seemed to be smiling and the philosophers wanted to know what made him so blissful that he is smiling in the presence of so many big dangers. They then realize that this man was actually looking up to the tree and he was dreaming about the juicy fruits which were hanging and imagining how sweet they will be when he gets to eat some of them.
That is desire. It has the tendency to hijack our mind and we lose track of all the dangers and pitfalls of life.
This verse (3.37) is essentially teaching us about the destructive power of material desire when it is not controlled or directed towards spiritual goals. Shri Krishna encourages us to rise above these base desires and cultivate a sense of detachment from the material world, focusing on spiritual growth and self-realization.
How lust covers the intelligence
And then Krishna says that “Just as a fire is covered by smoke, a mirror is masked by dust, and an embryo is concealed by the womb, similarly one’s knowledge gets shrouded by desire.”
As you can see, ignorance covers all material things. We can peel this ignorance only by using our intellect. However, lust covers our intellect itself. So unless we take care of this problem, we will not be able to use our intellect to overcome all the other kinds of ignorance and which means we will only keep failing and falling and repeating our material existence over and over again.
It is written in the Mundaka Upanishad (3.2.4):
“यथा दधि विकार विशेष योगात् सञ्जायते न हि तत्र प्रथगस्थिति। हेतुनानेन कौणम्यन्महद्यन्तमन्तद्व्यक्तम्॥“
“Yathā dadhi vikāra viśeṣa yogāt sañjāyate na hi tatra prathagasthiti | hetunānena kauṇamyam mahadyantam antadvyaktam ||“
Just as fire, though latent in firewood, is not seen until two sticks are rubbed against each other, so is the Atman (the Divine Self) not realized in the body until it is awakened through wisdom.
This worldly life is like a game of snake and ladders. If we keep living blindly in ignorance then we will keep getting caught by snakes and keep falling to lower planes. It can become a never ending game. However, the best way to play this game and complete it such that you don’t have to play it again, is by playing with your intellect. Knowing that no matter how far you progress, you will eventually be taken down by some snake. Knowing that the only way to safely progress through the game is by seeking the mercy and guidance of the Lord and not being attached to all the ladders and the wonderful places they seem to take you to.
Most of us are busy praying to Bhagavan to take us to the next ladder. We do not realize that wherever there are ladders, there are also snakes waiting at the top. The best thing is to just surrender to Bhagavan and tell him to help us overcome this game and not worry about whether he takes us through a ladder or puts us through a snake. He knows the best way out of the game and he will guide us through it. We need to have faith and we need to avoid attachments towards the ladders and aversion towards the snakes.
Lust is a formidable foe. Let us also remember our discussion from chapter 2, where we learned how lust can never be satisfied. Because lust is like fire. When we try to satisfy it, it is like pouring oil into it. The fire only grows bigger that way and it will require more and more oil and keep getting bigger and bigger as we keep trying to satisfy it.
The only way to handle it is by surrendering to Bhagavan and substituting thoughts of material desires with thoughts of Bhagavan and service to Bhagavan.
Our senses are the doorways
In the previous verses, Krishna has explained that desire is the enemy. So where does this enemy reside? How do we find the enemy and defeat the enemy? Shri Krishna says in 3.40 that desire lives in the sense organs and the mind and it finally takes over the intellect. Our sense organs are like the doors, while our innermost fortress is our buddhi (intellect) and in between we have our mana (mind).
If we have a clear intellect using which we are able to think clearly, we will never perform any sinful activities. It is only when the intellect gets covered by ignorance and corrupted by desire that we start to indulge in sinful activities. The analogy given by various vedic scholars is that of a chariot. The chariot is our body. The horses are our sense organs. The reins are our mind. And the charioteer, the driver, is the intellect.
If we let the horses control where we go, we will never reach our destination and most of the time the horses will just run wildly in all directions. The reins are meant to control the horses however the reins themselves are supposed to be controlled by the charioteer. The intellect needs to control the mind and the mind should control the senses. Then we can reach our destination.
Bhagavan has given us everything that is required for our journey. We tend to let our intellect get corrupted and covered in ignorance and we end up letting our senses take control and thus, most of us never reach our intended destination.
The horses will have a lot of energy and they should. We should not try to suppress their energy. We should instead channelize their energy and guide them using the reins to run in the direction that we want them to run. We need to use our intellect to make our mind control our senses the same way and guide our senses in the right direction.
Veerya or Virya
In Yoga there is a concept of Veerya/Virya. It is the energy that is formed when we learn to channelize and transform lust or sex energy in the positive direction. Virya is essential for success in life. If Veerya is lost, Prana gets unsteady. Prana is agitated. The person becomes nervous. Then the mind also cannot work properly. The person becomes fickle-minded and develops mental weakness.
This was one of the reasons why in ancient times they required monks to follow celibacy. As per some calculations, if a man manages to control and transmute his sex energy consistently for 12 years becomes capable of getting into samadhi state which is the ultimate state for self realization.
Thus, Shri Krishna says in 3.41, “Therefore, O best of the Bharatas, the first step is to bring the senses under control and slay this enemy called desire, which is the destroyer of knowledge and realization”.
When you catch an infection and go to a doctor, a good doctor will try to determine what was the source of the infection and give you advice on how to prevent this from happening again. Just like that, Arjuna wants to know what is the source of the infection of the intellect and Krishna is saying that the source of the infection is our senses. It all starts there and then finds its way through the mind to our intellect. So he says take care of the source of infection, learn to control the senses.
Yama and Niyama
Patanjali, the father of Yoga, has provided 8 steps to perfect yoga and reach the state of samadhi. These are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi. The first two are Yama and Niyama which are about disciplining and controlling our senses.
The five Yamas are:
Ahimsa: nonviolence
Satya: truthfulness
Asteya: non stealing
Brahmacharya: controlling the sex energy
Aparigraha: controlling desires and greed
The five Niyamas are:
Saucha: cleanliness
Santosha: contentment
Tapas: spiritual austerities – leading a simple life
Svadhyaya: study of the sacred scriptures
Isvara pranidhana: mindset of surrendering to God
These are the techniques for controlling and disciplining the mind. Out of these, Brahmacharya is not something everybody can follow. So the scriptures have laid down rules and regulations for the same. Like using sex only for reproduction and also not engaging in sex outside of marriage.
If we follow these techniques, we can succeed in controlling our mind, purifying ourselves and getting on the path to spiritual progress and liberation. And in the final verse of chapter 3, Krishna tells Arjuna, “now that you know the reality, go and conquer and destroy the enemy called lust”.
Pragma 5:
Know that lust is the root cause of all evil. Replace it with divine love for Bhagavan.
You can view the next session, Introduction to Chapter 4 and Shlokas 4.1 to 4.5 over here:
References:
https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18525111-lectures-on-bhagavad-gita
https://www.rkmathharipad.org/video/bhagavad-gita-lectures-by-swami-ranganathanandaji/
https://www.asitis.com/
kṛṣṇadaasa
Servant of Krishna
Aka +Vinayak Raghuvamshi