श्रीमद्भगवद्गीताShrimad Bhagavad Gita 📖 Read as a flipbook

Bhagavad Gita · Karma YogaChapter 3, Shloka 37 (3.37)

Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्

श्रीभगवानुवाच

काम एष क्रोध एष रजोगुणसमुद्भवः
महाशनो महापाप्मा विद्‌ध्येनमिह वैरिणम्
॥ 3.37 ॥

kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajoguṇasamudbhavaḥ
mahāśano mahāpāpmā vid‌dhyenamiha vairiṇam

Translation

"The Blessed Lord said: It is desire, it is anger — born of rajas; it is never satisfied and greatly sinful. Know this to be the enemy here (in this world)."

Interpretation

"Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa" — one and the same enemy. Shankaracharya: sa eṣa kāmaḥ pratihataḥ kenacit krodhatvena pariṇamate; ataḥ krodhaḥ api eṣa eva — when this desire is blocked by something, it turns into anger; therefore anger too is this same thing. Ramanuja too: eṣa eva pratihata-gatiḥ … krodha-rūpeṇa pariṇataḥ — this same thing, when its movement is blocked, turns into anger towards those who block it and para-hiṃsādiṣu pravartayati — drives one to harm others and the like.

"Rajo-guṇa-samudbhava". Shankaracharya: desire, once it arises, stirs up rajas and pushes a person into action — one hears the lament of suffering people: tṛṣṇayā hi ahaṃ kāritaḥ — "craving made me do it!"

"Mahāśana" — the great devourer. The more you give, the more it wants — never satisfied (later, in 3.39, duṣpūra, anala).

Acharya Ramanuja: prācīna-vāsanā-janitaḥ śabdādi-viṣayaḥ ayaṃ kāmaḥ — this desire for sound and other objects, born of old tendencies; sahajaṃ jñāna-yoga-virodhinaṃ vairiṇam — an inborn enemy opposed to jnana-yoga.

Another note of Shankara's: At the beginning of his commentary on 3.37, Shankaracharya gives the verses from the Vishnu Purana (6.5.74, 6.5.78) that define "Bhagavan" — the six excellences (complete sovereignty, dharma, fame, prosperity, dispassion, liberation) and knowledge of creation and dissolution, of the coming and going of beings, and of knowledge and ignorance — that is, the meaning of "Bhagavan" in "Shri Bhagavan uvāca". (This also came up at 2.2.)

AI-assisted draft translation — under review.

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