Bhagawad Gita Ch.3 Ver.37-End of chapter [Sri Adi Shankara]

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37.0 Hear who that foe, the author of all mischief, is, of who you

ask,-the

Lord spoke giving him the required information:

 

The blessed Lord said:

37. This is craving, this is wrath, born of the constituent Rajas. He is

 

voracious, a great sinner; know him to be the foe in this context.

 

37.1 Bhagavan is the Lord. Bhaga, according to Visnu Purana 6.5.74,

denotes

the six attributes-full lordliness, energy, renown, glory, detachment, and

emancipation. Vasudeva in whom those six exist eternally, unimpeded, and in

 

full measure, is the Bhagawan. Or, accoridng to Visnu Purana 6.5.78, He is

the

blessed Lord as He knows the 'origin, dissolution, appearance, and

disappearance

of living beings, and is aware also of knowledge and ignorance'.

 

37.2 The foe of the whole world is this craving that proves disastrous to

all

living beings. Craving, impeded by some one or the other, changes into

wrath.

So wrath, too, is this very thing born of rajas. When it arises it

activates

rajas and drives man to act. Those who suffer, busy in servitude, due to

rajas,

lament, "We are made to work due to craving." It consumes much, and is a

great

sinner. Incited by rajas man sins. Therefore, knwo craving to be the foe

in

this empirical life.

 

38.0 By means of analogies, how craving is the foe is indicated:

 

38. Just as fire is obscured by smoke, a mirror by dirt and embryo by the

 

womb, so is knowledge by craving.

 

38.1 Just as luminous fire is obscured by the non-luminous smoke, born

together with fire; a mirror by dirt; or the embryo by a sheathing

membrane-so

is this knowledge by it. i.e., by craving.

 

39.0 What is the thing denoted by the word 'this' and obscured by

craving?

Answer:

 

39. Knoweldge, O son of Kunti, is obscured by this persistent foe of the

knower, i.e. by craving, as by an insatiable fire.

 

39.1 Knowledge is obscured by this persistent foe of the man of

knoweldge.

The man of knoweldge already knows:"I have been flung into trouble by this

craving." So he always suffers. Thus it is the persistent foe of the

knower,

and not of the ignorant. The latter, in the grip of craving, indeed may

look

upon it as a friend. But when its effect, pain, overtakes him, he

realizes:"I

have been made to suffer through craving"; but not till then. So it is the

persistent foe of the knower alone. What form does this foe assume? Of

craving

or desire. It is hard to satisfy, being a fire that nothing can quench.

 

40.0 Abiding in what does craving, obscuring knwoledge, prove a foe of

the

whole world? The reply follows. Once the base of the foe is known he may

be

easily destroyed.

 

40. His abode is said to be the senses, mind, and intellect. By means of

 

these he obscures knowledge and deludes the embodied man.

 

40.1 Senses, mind and intellect are said to be the abode of this craving.

By

means of these abodes obscuring knowledge, this foe deludes the embodied

Spirit

in manifold ways.

 

Such being the case,

 

41. Therefore, mighty prince! first controlling the senses, give up this

wicked craving that destroys knoweldge and realization.

 

41.1 Therefore, at the outset, controlling the senses, O mighty prince!

give

up, this wicked craving, this foe, who destroys knowledge won from the

sastras

and the teacher and also the specific realization thereof. These two lead

to

supreme well-being. This is the idea.

 

42.0 It has been stated that, first, controlling senses, the foe craving,

 

must be given up. Resorting to what may one give it up? Answer:

 

42. They say that the senses are noble; nobler than the senses is mind;

Intellect is nobler than the mind; What is nobler, still, than the mind, is

He,

the Self.

 

42.1 The senses, ear etc., in relation to the gross and finite external

body,

are held by the sages to be noble; for, they are subtle, internal, and wider

in

scope. Similarly mind, imaginative and analytic, is nobler than the senses.

So

top the intellect, whose essence is discrimination, is nobler than the mind.

 

Finally He (the embodied Self) who is inner to every object and instrument

of

perception up to the intellect, whon 'craving' resorting to these

instruments,

namely, the senses, mind and intellect, deludes by obcuring knoweldge-He is

nobler than even the intellect. He, the beholder of the intellect, is the

supreme Self.

 

What follows?

 

43. Thus knowing Him as nobler than the intellect, and restraining the

inner

senses through the Self, O mighty armed! destroy the enenmy-the craving, so

hard

to reach.

 

43.1 Thus knowing the Self beyond the intellect, and controlling the

inner

sense by means of the purified mind, i.e. by properly concentrating it, O

mighty-armed! destroy the enemy, craving, that is so hard to reach; for it

assumes numerous forms that are scarcely intelligible.

 

Thus ends the commentary on the Karma Yoga by Adi Shankaracharya.