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Passion can never be fulfilled. It is like blazing fire. By feeding it, it will only blaze forth with increased vigour. On this ground it is insatiable. This factor is what makes the display of desire and passion problematic, sometimes a huge monster. Nonetheless, seekers cannot refrain from dealing with passion effectively. What should then be done becomes a challenge for the seeker. Krishna explains the subject further and, in the process, provides the infallible answer too.

Dear and blessed souls:

Harih Om Tat Sat.

Redemption from actions

Krishna has been explaining the insight and evaluation about interactional life, and the place and potential of the sensory objects. The exposition is not only educational but also aptly instructive. A question arises. What about applying this knowledge to the actual field of life, in one’s activity and interaction? It is in answer to this that Krishna brings up the subject of svadharma (one’s own natural duty) in the next verse (3.35).

Duryodhana assailed by passion and greed

Arjuna has come to Kurukshetra with a clear resolve to fight the colossal Mahabharata war. He knew well that on the opposite side were his own cousins Duryodhana and the rest. Bheeshma, the grandfather, has all along been in Hastinapura, devoted to its welfare and preservation. Drona was selected by Bheeshma to stay in the palace and teach all the grandchildren. For many years Drona too was living in the palace surroundings looked after well by Bheeshma and the rest.

For some reasons the children parted in their ways. Hatred and intolerance had reigned in Duryodhana for long. Finally, Hastinapura was partitioned and Pandavas were given Indraprastha, the desert land. Without a word of protest, they went there and built it up as a very prestigious model royal city. Duryodhana could not tolerate their prosperity and wanted to rob it all. Cunningly a dice play was arranged, and Yudhishthira lost everything in it.

Even after the long forest exile and incognito life, Duryodhana did not return their kingdom to the Pandava brothers. Instead, he said they should fight and win back their kingdom. He would not give it himself. It is such an inevitable war that Arjuna was facing, together with his brothers.

Painful call of sva-dharma

True, to kill grandfather and teacher is unthinkable. So too to kill so many relatives on both sides is heart rending. But it is war, in which each fighter has come voluntarily to kill or get killed. Fighting and falling are the rules of war. Inasmuch as it is the dharma of Arjuna, as of others, to fight the enemies, he should do it, no matter how painful the course and consequences are. Yet Arjuna finds it hard, unacceptable. Overcome by delusion, he felt to be an ascetic and live by bhiksha (seeking alms) would be better.

Krishna says that Arjuna should not abandon his warrior-dharma; he should not seek renunciational life of asceticism. Why? It is not conducive to his sva-dharma (his own duty). May be an ascetic life is ennobling, and the Kshatriya life is seemingly vicious. But, that is not the consideration here. Śreyas Arjuna so frantically sought from Krishna (2.7), lay in fighting the inevitable war, not in eschewing it to accept another course, however benign and benevolent the latter may appear to be.

As long as the activity is one’s own, sva-dharma, as inherited by birth, growth and tendencies, it is absolutely superior and will gracefully fetch the śreyas. Krishna’s words are sharp: “Even death by performing one’s own dharma leads to śreyas; adopting another’s course is fraught with fear.” See how deep, thorough and inclusive is Krishna’s discussion! This is the great legacy our holy land has preserved for countless millennia.

A war engendered from greed and deception

Arjuna is poised in the midst of a very huge war involving nearly 4.5 million warriors’ death in the hands of their opponents. The reason for the catastrophe is the greed, wickedness and intolerance of a single individual, namely Duryodhana. Yudhishthira had sent Krishna himself, as ambassador to talk to Hastinapura chiefs and somehow avoid huge bloodshed. But Duryodhana was totally uncompromising.

He was aspiring for a kingdom not belonging to him. He had usurped it – not won legitimately. He robbed the entire Indraprastha city through his uncle’s deceitful game. What all tortures he had unscrupulously inflicted on Pandavas! A single mind causing so much havoc, involving slaughter of his own kith and kin was unheard of!

What can be behind such intransigent sinfulness? How does it find expression? Can it be regulated at all by the victim and how? All this triggered Arjuna to ask Krishna: “Propelled by what, does a human commit sin at all? Even if he does not wish to, something forces him to perpetrate the crime. What is the mystery behind this grave inner conflict?”

Forces perpetrating crime and sinfulness

This verse raises a significant question on human sinfulness (3.36). Whatever is harmful, degrading and depressing is sinful. Obviously none should have a flair for it. But in actual life, we find something forces one to perpetrate crime. What is the secret behind such a confounding process? The question, especially the gravity with which Arjuna raises it, makes it immensely relevant.

Krishna has already pointed that sensory objects carry the caps of attraction and repulsion (3.34). But none should fall a victim to these. Touched gravely by this statement, Arjuna’s mind becomes quite concerned about the matter and he wants to know in depth how and why sinfulness itself is optionally sought by humans. Only when the problem is known, its solution can be wrought. Thus Arjuna’s enquiry
is quite pertinent and immensely grave. It involves human mind and intelligence directly, explaining their decisive role in reforming and refining one’s personality and its interactions with the world objects around.

Passion and hatred – the two-fold force

Krishna’s response, though brief, is comprehensive (3.37-43), exposing different layers in human personality, showing clearly how each layer has its role in shaping one’s interactions with the world.

The one source and cause forcing the human to commit sinfulness is passion, it is again hatred. What acts as ‘passion’ alone gives rise to ‘hatred’ as well. So, Krishna calls it passion as well as hatred, a product, outcome, rajo-guṇa generates. It is verily a glutton (3.37). For this reason, it is a huge sinner, causing one to commit colossal sins. Know this, says Krishna, to be your enemy number one. It is seated just within your body, closer than senses.

When desire, greed or passion is hindered, it instantly becomes intolerant and vicious. It gives rise to hatred. Both have their origin in rajo-guṇa, a quality of Nature, prakṛti. Krishna describes it as a glutton indeed; it is a horrible sinner as well. Know this to be the stark enemy residing in your own personality.

Inner reformation and refinement

The whole creation is but a display of Nature. Naturally everything and all we see in and around us is also the same display. Hence, the existence and expression of kāma and krodha (passion and hatred) is included in Nature’s display. One cannot be exempt from these. But everyone has the freedom and scope to deal with and sublimate them adequately. Herein lie the discretion and will of the human. Unlike animals, every human is supposed to bring about moderation and improvement in his qualities. In fact, human life is meant for such inner reformation and refinement. Once one’s nature is refined and enriched, it will be the most pleasing and delightful to oneself, as also greatly beneficial to others around.

Krishna explains the situation further. Like fire is enveloped by smoke, the mirror with dust and moisture, the embryo covered by amniotic sac, this spiritual wisdom is covered by desire. Fire and mirror are visible. Any kind of obstruction befalling them can be detected easily and removed, if necessary with others’ help, provided one is attentive and steadfast. But amniotic sac covering the foetus is invisible (3.38).

The way passion encircles one’s pure wisdom is also like that, not visible. So it is hard to access the plight and set it right. However, the task is not impossible. Do not forget that the whole spiritual pursuit is taken up by intelligence. Invisibility to senses hence does not matter at all. Through astute and wilful diligence, the seeker can access the passion-prejudice envelopment and get rid of it.

Know your enemy

Krishna emphasizes that the envelopment passion causes is the real enemy for seekers and Knowers (3.39). Its presence and manoeuvring are internal and any time it can surface with sufficient force and insistence. Passion can never be fulfilled. It is like
blazing fire. By feeding it, it will only blaze forth with increased vigour. On this ground it is insatiable. This factor is what makes the display of desire and passion problematic, sometimes a huge monster. Nonetheless, seekers cannot refrain from dealing with passion effectively. What should then be done becomes a challenge for the seeker. Krishna explains the subject further and, in the process, provides the infallible answer too.

It is necessary to know how deep passion and its working are, and where the seeker has to focus his effort to weaken and eliminate passion and its stranglehold (3.40). Krishna is very methodical in his analysis. He precisely points how passion has entrenched itself in
one’s inner personality and in what all levels it has its sway.

Senses are in the body. They are external. Apparently, the senses cause passionate pulls and pushes. Senses are inert, as the body is. They cannot independently act at all. Mind’s close association and instigation are necessary in every sensory movement, especially attraction and repulsion. Thus one instantly has to focus on his own inner being, personality, which consists of mind, intelligence and ego. Passion is
grounded in the mind and intelligence as well. Senses, mind and intelligence, says Krishna, together form the substratum for the labyrinth that passion causes.

Seeker has to straightaway take the help of inner mind and intelligence in his efforts to deal with kāma, passion. In the thoughts and feelings mind generates as well as the reasoning intelligence advances, you will find the deep-seatedness of kāma. Dissuading the urge kāma produces in the mind, the intelligence should be led to advance vibrantly sufficient reasons to discredit and devalue passion. In fact, this should become a recurring note in the seeker.

Desire – the seeker should deeply reflect on this – is enveloping true wisdom and evaluation. The force of passion causes mind and intelligence to drown one in delusion. Desire itself is the deluding force.

Resort to intelligence

Intelligence should prompt the seeker to eschew desire, by reflecting upon the fact that no sensory object can and will enter within one’s body to touch the mind and generate any joyful experience. This reasoning is so valuable that once it becomes strong, one’s whole evaluation about life and the world around, is bound to change drastically.

Joy is an emotion; it does not belong to any sensory object, which is but inert and cannot produce any experience at all. When one gains the desired object, mind alone feels joyous, thinking that the cherished goal has been attained. Is it not then clear that every sensory enjoyment is not really sensory, but caused and sourced by the mind? This understanding should mark a fundamental change in the seeker’s evaluation and his response to the sensory world. It is one thing to have a knowledge, and it is altogether different to respond wholesomely to it and be reformed and resolute!

Know well that desire coils up with the mind and intelligence and constantly tries to delude the seeker. This very knowledge, when rightly absorbed and assimilated, will weaken the stronghold of kāma. Knowledge is indeed powerful. It is sharper than a razor. When the mind goes on interacting with knowledge, the process of inner purification will result.