Arjuna, old comrade, that it would be easier to abandon your present responsibilities. One’s duty in life is one’s dharma. This essentially means that you have to live by your inner Truth rather than your selfish desires. One must do one’s duty. No matter how devoid of merit your responsibilities and commitments may seem, they are preferable to the responsibilities of another, no matter how well you may perform them. You, Arjuna, are a warrior-prince by birth and training. If you now try to avoid your duty and mutate into a sanyasi (spiritual ascetic) merely because you face doing some things that you imagine are painful, you will be violating your inner Truth (your conscience, your dharma), which is the root basis of your life! It is even better to die doing one’s own duty than attempt to do the duty of another.”
The War Against Anger and Desire
36 Arjuna’s head droops, and then he asks, “What is this awful force that drags us even against our will into selfish deeds?”
37 Krishna replies: “That awful force is desire. Desire is the force that drags you — selfish desire, which rises from your action-oriented nature. Selfish desires are insatiable; the more you feed them the more they crave. That is what I meant by ‘bottomless pit.’ Desires never say, ‘Enough.’ And anger is always linked with desires, and anger corrupts everything. This desire-anger duo is your direst, most formidable enemy here on earth.
38 “Desires cloud your spiritual light and bury your power of discrimination. As a flame is covered by smoke, and a mirror is covered with dust, and an embryo hidden in the womb, true knowledge is concealed by desire. For spiritually advanced people, desire is like smoke and is easily blown away to reveal the light of knowledge. For worldly-caught people desire is more like dust that requires vigorous wiping so the light can shine. For really dull persons desire so enfolds them they are like an embryo buried in darkness; only time and a new birth will bring light. Note, Arjuna, that in all these levels of spiritual attainment it is desire that shrouds the glow of one’s True Self Within.
39 “Greed is but desire swollen to grotesque size. The wise one knows that desire is the eternal, insatiable archenemy, and tries to steer clear of it. But despite one’s best efforts, desire still puts on many disguises and sneaks furtively into the heart and mind.
40 “The key bastions of this fiercely destructive enemy have to be found out before you can lay siege to them. Marauding desire has captured, and now firmly occupies, all three bodily stations: the senses, the mind, and the intellect. From these three field headquarters desire attacks and kills wisdom and discrimination, and shrouds the Atma within.
41 “Therefore, Arjuna, O fond friend and greatest of warriors, attack these marauders, these desires. Recapture your senses, mind, and intellect (higher mind, buddhi, which we will deal with later) and use them for Divine purposes. When you kill desire the splendor of Atma will shine.
42 “And know the strategic positions you should occupy in this war. Desire holds more firmly to the subtle (the more refined and difficult to notice) than to the gross. The senses are more subtle than the body; the mind more subtle than the senses; and the intellect more subtle than the mind. Far above all is the Atma, subtlest of all, which is beyond any and all desire.
43 “Therefore, Arjuna, realizing the truth of your True Self (Atma) is your principal weapon for eradicating desire. Self-realization is the true spiritual knowledge (called jnana). This level of knowing is beyond all your lower qualities, no matter how fine, including your mind and even your intellect. Let your very highest Self, your true nature, rule. Control your self with your Self.”
CHAPTER 4
INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE,
ACTION, AND RENUNCIATION
( Jnana-Karma-Sanyasa Yoga )
“Whatever path a person
The War Against Anger and Desire
36 Arjuna’s head droops, and then he asks, “What is this awful force that drags us even against our will into selfish deeds?”
37 Krishna replies: “That awful force is desire. Desire is the force that drags you — selfish desire, which rises from your action-oriented nature. Selfish desires are insatiable; the more you feed them the more they crave. That is what I meant by ‘bottomless pit.’ Desires never say, ‘Enough.’ And anger is always linked with desires, and anger corrupts everything. This desire-anger duo is your direst, most formidable enemy here on earth.
38 “Desires cloud your spiritual light and bury your power of discrimination. As a flame is covered by smoke, and a mirror is covered with dust, and an embryo hidden in the womb, true knowledge is concealed by desire. For spiritually advanced people, desire is like smoke and is easily blown away to reveal the light of knowledge. For worldly-caught people desire is more like dust that requires vigorous wiping so the light can shine. For really dull persons desire so enfolds them they are like an embryo buried in darkness; only time and a new birth will bring light. Note, Arjuna, that in all these levels of spiritual attainment it is desire that shrouds the glow of one’s True Self Within.
39 “Greed is but desire swollen to grotesque size. The wise one knows that desire is the eternal, insatiable archenemy, and tries to steer clear of it. But despite one’s best efforts, desire still puts on many disguises and sneaks furtively into the heart and mind.
40 “The key bastions of this fiercely destructive enemy have to be found out before you can lay siege to them. Marauding desire has captured, and now firmly occupies, all three bodily stations: the senses, the mind, and the intellect. From these three field headquarters desire attacks and kills wisdom and discrimination, and shrouds the Atma within.
41 “Therefore, Arjuna, O fond friend and greatest of warriors, attack these marauders, these desires. Recapture your senses, mind, and intellect (higher mind, buddhi, which we will deal with later) and use them for Divine purposes. When you kill desire the splendor of Atma will shine.
42 “And know the strategic positions you should occupy in this war. Desire holds more firmly to the subtle (the more refined and difficult to notice) than to the gross. The senses are more subtle than the body; the mind more subtle than the senses; and the intellect more subtle than the mind. Far above all is the Atma, subtlest of all, which is beyond any and all desire.
43 “Therefore, Arjuna, realizing the truth of your True Self (Atma) is your principal weapon for eradicating desire. Self-realization is the true spiritual knowledge (called jnana). This level of knowing is beyond all your lower qualities, no matter how fine, including your mind and even your intellect. Let your very highest Self, your true nature, rule. Control your self with your Self.”
CHAPTER 4
INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE,
ACTION, AND RENUNCIATION
( Jnana-Karma-Sanyasa Yoga )
“Whatever path a person
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