Chapter III (VERSE 38 & 39) & CHAPTER XVI (VERSE 16)
Karma Yoga – The Yoga of Action
CHAPTER III
(Verse 38)
धूमेनाव्रियते वह्निर्यथादर्शो मलेन च ।
यथोल्बेनावृतो गर्भस्तथा तेनेदमावृतम् ॥ ३-३८॥
As fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror by dust, as an embryo by the womb, so this (wisdom) is enveloped by that (desire or anger).
Three different examples have been given to illustrate how desires and the consequent anger delude our rational capacity and choke our discrimination. Repetition is an unpardonable crime against the “scriptural-style,” and the Geeta faithfully follows the immortal style common to all Bibles of the world. There is no redundancy, or wasteful repetition in the Divine Song. With this understanding, when we try to read the stanza we find that there are subtle implications in the three different illustrations used by the Lord. More is meant here than meets the eye.
The discrimination in man is screened off and obstructed in its exercise due to the attachment in his mind for the ever-changing worldly-objects. We all know that our attachments to things can fall under three distinct categories. Our desires can either be low and vicious — mind for the flesh-fleshy carnal pleasures — or our ambitions may be for an active exertion in order to achieve power and wealth, to gain strength and might, to win fame and glory. There can also be a burning aspiration to strive and to achieve a diviner perfection and a Godly Self-illumination. Thus, our desires can fall under three headings according to the quality of the attachment — inert (Tamasic), or active (Rajasic), or noble and divine (Sattwic). The veilings that are created over our discrimination by these different types of qualities (gunas) are indicated here by the three different examples.
AS FIRE BY SMOKE — A smoky fire-place, shrouded by dark curling smoke can sometimes, if not totally, at least partially, veil the brilliance of the light emitted by the flames. A wick without a chimney is less bright than with a chimney, proving the example under review. Even Sattwic desires veil the infinite glory of the Spirit.
AS DUST ON A MIRROR — This illustrates the veiling caused by agitations that cover the purer intellect due to our thick desires for glory and power (Rajasic). Compared with the former, this is indeed more complete, and the removal of it is, naturally, more difficult. The smoke rolls off even at a passing whiff of breeze, while the mirror cannot be cleaned even by a storm. It can be polished only by our own efforts at dusting it clean with the help of a clean, dry duster. Through the smoke, however thick it might be, the fire can be perceived; through the dust, if it be thick, no reflection at all can be seen in the mirror — if at all seen it will only be dim.
AS THE FOETUS IN THE WOMB — This is an illustration to show how completely the Diviner aspect in us is screened off by the low animal appetites and the vulgar desires for the sensuous. The foetus is covered by the womb until it matures, and there is no method of observing it as long as it is in the womb. The veiling is complete, and it can drop off only after a definite period of time. Similarly, the desires for the flesh-fleshy enjoyments build, as it were, a womb around the discriminative power in us, and such low mental pre-occupations (Tamasic) can drop off only after a longer period of evolutionary growth undergone by such a deluded mind and- intellect.
In the true scriptural style, Krishna thus distinguishes between the different textures in the veils that come to cover the soul when the individual is entertaining different types of desires. In short, desire is that which hides the Divine in us.
IN THIS STANZA IT IS NOT CLEARLY STATED, WHICH COVERS WHAT; THE LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE WORDS AS THEY STAND IN THIS COUPLET ONLY SAYS, “SO IS THIS COVERED BY IT.” THE TWO PRONOUNS, ‘IT’ AND ‘THIS,’ ARE DEFINED IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA AND THEREIN WE FIND AN EXPLANATION OF BOTH:
(Verse 39)
आवृतं ज्ञानमेतेन ज्ञानिनो नित्यवैरिणा ।
कामरूपेण कौन्तेय दुष्पूरेणानलेन च ॥ ३-३९॥
Enveloped, O Son of Kunti, is ‘wisdom’ by this constant enemy of the wise in the form of ‘desire, ‘ which is difficult to be appeased, like fire.
This stanza vividly explains to us that discrimination (Jnana) the capacity to distinguish the Real from the unreal, the permanent from the impermanent, the true from the false, which gives man his higher status in the scale of evolution — is the divine faculty that gets screened off from us due to our own greedy and insatiable desires. The pronouns in the previous stanza now stand clearly elucidated: the “discriminative capacity” in us (it — idam) gets screened off by the insatiable “desires” (by this – — tena).
Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga – The Yoga of Divine and Devilish Estates
CHAPTER XVI
(Verse 16)
अनेकचित्तविभ्रान्ता मोहजालसमावृताः ।
प्रसक्ताः कामभोगेषु पतन्ति नरकेऽशुचौ ॥ १६-१६॥
Bewildered by many a fancy, entangled in the snare of delusion, addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall into a foul hell.
BEWILDERED BY MANY A FANCY — When an egocentric individual, who has thus sold himself to sense indulgence, spends his time seeking gratification from the world-of-objects, his mind becomes ever unsteady. The mind of an indulgent sensualist soon learns to empty its powers of concentration and exhausts itself in its own hallucinations, fancies and imaginations.
ENTANGLED IN THE SNARE OF DELUSION — If the individual’s mind, as a result of its false philosophy, gets dissipated in sapless dreams, his intellect also is in a sad condition. His power of judgement and discrimination is caught up in a web of delusions and false values. His intellect, cut off from its permanent moorings, has thereafter no platform of its own to spring from and come to a correct judgement and evaluation of life. It fails to recognise the permanent harmony of life, but recognizes only its own ego-centric vanities. Life looked at through such a disturbing equipment naturally gives a distorted view.
ADDICTED TO GRATIFICATION OF LUST — When an individual’s intellect is clouded, his mind gets agitated, and his sense-organs, which are the vehicles through which the mind-intellect has to express itself, certainly behave erratically. When a driver is drunk, the car cannot move properly. Naturally, therefore, such an individual becomes a victim of lust and sense-gratifications.
THEY FALL INTO A FOUL HELL — We need not be great philosophers to understand that such an individual, tired physically, confused mentally, and upset intellectually, will live here in a self-created hell, distributing his own personality-contents of woes to others around him. A man can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven, by the harmony or discord in himself. A subjectively shattered personality cannot find peace or fulfilment in any situation. Even if the environments are conducive, he discovers, in himself, methods of unsettling them by his own inner sufferings.
If a single individual who has these false values, discovers for himself but a sad world of sorrow even in the midst of happy surroundings, we can very well understand what would be the condition of the world when a good majority of us are having, in varying degrees, the above qualities. Hell and heaven are determined by the amount of discord or harmony that we successfully bring about in our inner makeup.