 Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Thirty–One by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 In the Grip of the Monster
Why?
I think that one of the saddest things I have seen in life is a little child who has done something wrong or silly being confronted by a parent. The dialogue is always this:
“Why did you do that?”
“I don’t know.”
It is sad when the child says “I don’t know” in hope that the parental anger will be deflected or defused. But it is much sadder when the child is speaking the truth–he really has no idea why he did what he did. There was an impulse, and he followed it. And now look at the consequence.
We pride ourselves on being adults, but no matter how much we have learned about “the world” and “life”–what do we know about ourselves? What, especially, do we know about the “why” of our actions? When something happens to us we glibly say it is karma, but why do we do the things that create our karma?
Speaking for us, Arjuna puts the question to Krishna, the embodiment of Infinite Consciousness, saying: “Krishna, what is it that makes a man do evil, even against his own will; under compulsion, as it were?”
The words translated “evil” is papa, which means any kind of negative action, one which accrues negative karma or demerit. A secondary meaning is misfortune or harm–the results of papa, just as karma is both action and reaction.
Arjuna was a great yogi. He lived without needing to sleep–a condition far more psychological than physiological–and could easily pass at will from this world into any higher world he might wish to visit. The bonds of body and mind rested very lightly upon him. But in the Gita he is questioning Krishna on behalf of all humanity, so he sometimes asks things to which he already knows the answer. (And we must not forget that Vyasa wrote the Bhagavad Gita as a universal instructor for humanity and adjusted it accordingly. I hope nobody thinks that Arjuna and Krishna spoke to each other on the battlefield in blank verse.)
Arjuna’s question here assumes that action can take place without our will being involved, as though there is a kind of unwilling impulse on our behalf that pushes us into evil deeds. But we all know that impulse comes from inside us, not from outside, so it obviously comes from us and is our choice on some deep subconscious level. The problem is, we have many “minds” and many “wills,” as we are presently only a conglomeration of fragments. The phenomenon of multiple personality demonstrates that. Buddha spoke of us being a collection of skandhas–literally “heaps.” Know the enemy
Krishna goes directly to the root of the whole matter, saying: “The rajoguna has two faces, rage and lust: the ravenous, the deadly: recognize these: they are your enemies.”
Rajas means activity, passion, or desire for an object or goal. The quality of rajas is the rajoguna, which impels us to those things. This raging fire has two major “flames”–kama and krodha, which Swami Prabhavananda translates as “rage and lust.”
Although we know academically that lust includes desire, in both English and American usage it has such a strong sexual connotation that it is rather a poor translation for kama, which means desire in any degree, passion, and sexual desire. Basically, kama is desire for any object, whether it is solely mental or produces an overt act or speech. Even simple wishes are pastel shades of kama. So simple “desire” is the best translation.
Krodha is anger in any degree, including wrath and fury. Hatred is essentially krodha.
It is necessary for us to understand that desire and anger in even the slightest degree is still a problem, an obstacle to real peace. Simple attraction (raga) and aversion (dwesha) are not passions, but they, too, must eventually be expunged from the yogi’s heart. How much more, then, must kama and krodha be seen as the dangerous forces they actually are, “ravenous, and deadly.” They prey on us unmercifully, ravaging us on all levels of our being. That is why Socrates, later in life, spoke of the fading of lust as “freedom from a harsh and cruel master.” Of all sins, desire and anger are the most lethal.
We must be vigilant and sensitive to the presence of these two assassins of the soul. Desire and anger take many forms. They arise in us wearing an array of masks–many of them seeming religious and even holy–but we must ruthlessly strip them away and expose their real character. Otherwise these snipers of the heart will destroy us. There can be no truce with them. They are implacable enemies, and we should be as implacably inimical to them. No quarter should be given or any prisoners taken. As Krishna will soon tell us, we must “kill this evil thing which obstructs discriminative knowledge and realization of the Atman.” The “works of the devil”
It is not so hard to detect the evil of anger and hatred. Their destructive nature is readily seen. Anger and hatred, even when willfully indulged, are essentially painful to us. But desire (kama) promises us pleasure, a wheedling false friend that leads us into suffering, but which first drugs us and makes us think we are enjoying ourselves. It is a terrible trap which few escape. For anger can burn us out, but desire is an addiction augmented by its every indulgence. Krishna’s exposition will cover it thoroughly.
“Smoke hides fire, dust hides a mirror, the womb hides the embryo: by lust the Atman is hidden. Lust hides the Atman in its hungry flames, the wise man’s faithful foe.”
Desire is a fundamental denial of our nature which is satchidananda. It makes us feel we need some pleasure or power object or state, that such things will somehow make us more than we presently are and will make us happy. In this way desire is the prime force of the not-self. There is no way our true nature can be altered, diminished, or destroyed, but desire certainly alters, diminishes, and destroys our perception of reality, burying our Self beneath its insubstantial debris that is really nothing. It make us like fools fishing in a pond for the moon. This is because “intellect, senses and mind are fuel to its fire: thus it deludes the dweller in the body, bewildering his judgment,” gripping us in compulsions that end in terrible suffering. It is indeed a “faithful foe” for its enmity is without cessation or mitigation and is all-embracing. The cure
“Therefore, Arjuna, you must first control your senses, then kill this evil thing which obstructs discriminative knowledge and realization of the Atman.” We can rid ourselves of this awful addiction, this horrible hallucination. It is not easy, but it must be done.
The first step is control of the senses. This is impossible without the observance of the ten commandments of yoga:
1) Ahimsa: non-violence, non-injury, harmlessness
2) Satya: truthfulness, honesty
3) Asteya: non-stealing, honesty, non-misappropriativeness
4) Brahmacharya: sexual continence in thought, word and deed as well as control of all the senses
5) Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-greed, non-selfishness, non-acquisitiveness
6) Shaucha: purity, cleanliness
7) Santosha: contentment, peacefulness
8) Tapas: austerity, practical (i.e., result-producing) spiritual discipline
9) Swadhyaya: introspective self-study, spiritual study
10) Ishwarapranidhana: offering of one’s life to God
The two absolutes for success in sense control are a vegetarian diet and meditation. But Krishna has more to tell us.
“The senses are said to be higher than the sense-objects. The mind is higher than the senses. The intelligent will is higher than the mind. What is higher than the intelligent will? The Atman Itself.”
This is why mediation is necessary. Only through the practice of yoga can we ascend the ladder of senses, mind, and will to reach the Self, the only source of mastery and freedom. At the same time we have to use our good sense, so Krishna continues: “You must know Him who is above the intelligent will. Get control of the mind through spiritual discrimination. Then destroy your elusive enemy, who wears the form of lust.” Destroy the enemy
Sri Krishna tells us that we must “kill this evil thing which obstructs discriminative knowledge and realization of the Atman.…Destroy your elusive enemy, who wears the form of lust.” For it is really the ego who is masquerading in the form of desire so it can persuade us that it is really us who are the source of its impulses. It wants to blame us and even make us feel guilty–another delusion. Instead we must see it for what it is, cast off our non-existent weakness, and confront it with the truth of our almighty Self.
We are not to simply overpower desire, or banish it, or merely weaken it, or come to some kind of peace agreement with it. For it is a “faithful foe” and will eventually return to the attack with increased strength. It must be killed out by the very roots. And we must do it by the power revealed within us by yoga sadhana.
“If a yogi has perfect control over his mind, and struggles continually in this way to unite himself with Brahman, he will come at last to the crowning peace of Nirvana, the peace that is in me.…Therefore, Arjuna, become a yogi.”
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
1) Bhagavad Gita 3:36 [Go back]
2) Bhagavad Gita 3:37 [Go back]
3) “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15) [Go back]
4) Verse 41 [Go back]
5) I John 3:8 [Go back]
6) Bhagavad Gita 3:38, 39 [Go back]
7) Bhagavad Gita 3:40 [Go back]
8) Bhagavad Gita 3:41 [Go back]
9) See The Foundations of Yoga. [Go back]
10) Bhagavad Gita 3:42 [Go back]
11) Bhagavad Gita 3:43 [Go back]
12) Bhagavad Gita 6:15, 46 [Go back]
|
