Gita 03.36 – Alien desires become our own and impel us to sin

Thank you Atha Kena Prayuktoyam Paapam Charati Purushah Anichana Pivaashnaya Baladivini Yojithaha Bhagavad Gita 3.36 Arjuna is asking Atha Kena Prayuktoyam By what is one Prayuktoyam impelled this impelled this Paapam Charati Purushah paapam, sin, charati, is moved towards, is pushed towards, our thoughts go, we contemplate on it, purushaha, person. So what impels one to sin, anicchan apivarshneya, unwillingly, baladivani ojitaha, as if engaged by force. So Arjuna is here asking a very central question in the life of any seeker, that there seems to be some inner inimical force that prevents us from living virtuously, that forces us to act impiously, sinfully, even viciously at times.

So what is that force? Now Krishna will answer in the next verse saying that it is lust, kamesha, krodhesha, lust only which is further degenerated into wrath, anger, but let's focus on the context and the content of this particular question right now. So the context is, Krishna has told Arjuna to stick to his duty, nigraha kinkarishyasi was 33, stick to your duty, but while doing your duty don't succumb to raga and dvesha, don't tayor na vashamagache, raga and dvesha are present in indriyasya, indriyasyarthe, senses and sense objects. So now that means we can work, we should work according to our nature, but while working according to our nature we have to control our desires, especially the sensory desires.

So now what is it that makes such control difficult, almost impossible? We resolve to live virtuously and we resolve to avoid vice and yet we find ourselves doing exactly opposite, we find ourselves engaging in vice and unable to live in virtue. So what makes us do that and what can we do about it? Krishna explains here that actually it is lust only which he'll say, but Arjuna is asking and he says anicchana pivarshanaya, so after describing first to Arjuna that the question, he goes into the particularities of the question, he says anicchana pivarshanaya, it is as if we don't desire it and still we do it. Now this is Arjuna's subjective feeling, it's not an objective philosophical truth, we don't do anything without first desiring to do it.

So that means that when we engage in sense gratification, so it is we who go through dhyayato, dhyayato is contemplation and then from contemplation attachment comes and then the desire becomes stronger, then anger comes and 2.62-63 describe the fall down sequence, the trajectory of self-destruction, so it begins with contemplation and from contemplation comes desire, so anicchana it refers, now is it Arjuna not speaking the truth? No, he is speaking the truth, but he is talking from a long-term perspective, not from the immediate temptation perspective, long-term means that in general a spiritual seeker or even a general moral person, generally moral person doesn't desire to do wrong things, so in that sense anicchana, suppose there is a recovering alcoholic, that person has by experience and by education realized how dangerous alcohol is, how entangling and degrading it is and misreinducing it is, so he wants to give it up, so that the general desire is not to drink alcohol, is to not drink alcohol, but suddenly spikes of desire come up and those desires impel a person, impel the recovery alcoholic to relapse, to purchase a bottle, somewhere to drink, so the question is anicchana is relative to the general desires that the person cultivates, suddenly there are spikes of opposite kind of desires, spikes of sinful desires and after the event is over, after the one has fallen, one starts wondering why did I do that, I actually didn't want to do that, but I did it at that time, what was this actually and Krishna is, Arjuna elaborates on anicchana, further in the last line, bala diva niyojitaha, niyojita is engaged, engaged as if by force, so asha pashti paddhaha, in the 16th chapter, 12th verse, Krishna talks about how asha, desire is like a pash, like a noose or a rope, shackles, kama krodha paraya, the souls who are demoniac are bound by their noose, shackles, ropes of their desires and they are given, devoted to lust and anger, so the same two factors, kama krodha which Krishna talks are the agents of sin, there it is described in the 16th chapter that they are devoted to those things, so of course, here Krishna is, Arjuna is talking about a seeker, about himself, placing himself in the position of a seeker, so the seeker is certainly not devoted to kama krodha, the seeker wants to be devoted to Krishna, to be Krishna parayana, not kama krodha parayana, but still one finds bala diva niyojitaha, forcibly dragged away, so what exactly is happening? Actually, during the period of temptation, we feel as if, at least initially, before we give in to that desire, before we accept that desire as our desire, before that we feel as if someone is pulling us, forcing us, against our will, but that may be so initially, but after some moments of contemplation, how long that will vary according to time, place, circumstance and person, but after some time we accept that desire as our own desire and thereafter what happens is that we get carried away by the force of that temptation and only after we have come in for a bad tumble, do we realize what did I do, why did I do such a that was insane, so in that way we become trapped, so the way to avoid this trap is by recognizing that we are in a dangerous situation, so there are ropes, invisible ropes that shackle us to the sense objects, the ropes of our attachments, so for example, between the alcoholic and the bottle of alcohol, there is a rope, now it's not that rope is pulling all the time and because the rope doesn't pull all the time, one feels that if one is free and if one is trying to live a life of virtue, then one also is having nobler desires, desires to be sober and if that is the normal state, the person, the desire to be sober, but then at times suddenly the rope starts pulling, the rope of attachment starts pulling and so during the initial period appears anichhan, say a person wants to go to the north but or say we can consider more of a, it is a pet animal like a small dog and the dog wants to go ahead and there is a master who will let the dog free for some time and given some rope to the dog and the dog is moving and the dog may because of that think that I am free entirely, but then suddenly the master decides there is no more freedom, so the master pulls the dog and the dog is moving forward and suddenly what happened, I didn't want to, I want to go ahead, why am I going back, that is the dog is going back because the dog is shackled, there is a, the dog is tied, it's tied to a rope and the rope was for some time allowing freedom, now it is not allowing freedom, now it is pulling in other directions, like that the rope of Aranarthas, the ropes of Aranarthas are there around us, but they don't always pull us, in fact we try to cultivate world virtuous desires which which take us in the direction opposite to the Aranarthas and that is why we feel as if when the Aranarthas pull us, it is Anityan, but it is not always Anityan, initially it is Anityan against our desire, but the temptation is so seductive that eventually they make us accept their desire as our desire and in this way we get trapped, so the next section from 37 to 43 will analyze the way lust acts and the way we can defend ourselves from lust,.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you Atha Kena Prayuktoyam Paapam Charati Purushah Anichana Pivaashnaya Baladivini Yojithaha Bhagavad Gita 3.36 Arjuna is asking Atha Kena Prayuktoyam By what is one Prayuktoyam impelled this impelled this Paapam Charati Purushah paapam, sin, charati, is moved towards, is pushed towards, our thoughts go, we contemplate on it, purushaha, person. So what impels one to sin, anicchan apivarshneya, unwillingly, baladivani ojitaha, as if engaged by force. So Arjuna is here asking a very central question in the life of any seeker, that there seems to be some inner inimical force that prevents us from living virtuously, that forces us to act impiously, sinfully, even viciously at times.
So what is that force? Now Krishna will answer in the next verse saying that it is lust, kamesha, krodhesha, lust only which is further degenerated into wrath, anger, but let’s focus on the context and the content of this particular question right now. So the context is, Krishna has told Arjuna to stick to his duty, nigraha kinkarishyasi was 33, stick to your duty, but while doing your duty don’t succumb to raga and dvesha, don’t tayor na vashamagache, raga and dvesha are present in indriyasya, indriyasyarthe, senses and sense objects. So now that means we can work, we should work according to our nature, but while working according to our nature we have to control our desires, especially the sensory desires.
So now what is it that makes such control difficult, almost impossible? We resolve to live virtuously and we resolve to avoid vice and yet we find ourselves doing exactly opposite, we find ourselves engaging in vice and unable to live in virtue. So what makes us do that and what can we do about it? Krishna explains here that actually it is lust only which he’ll say, but Arjuna is asking and he says anicchana pivarshanaya, so after describing first to Arjuna that the question, he goes into the particularities of the question, he says anicchana pivarshanaya, it is as if we don’t desire it and still we do it. Now this is Arjuna’s subjective feeling, it’s not an objective philosophical truth, we don’t do anything without first desiring to do it.
So that means that when we engage in sense gratification, so it is we who go through dhyayato, dhyayato is contemplation and then from contemplation attachment comes and then the desire becomes stronger, then anger comes and 2.62-63 describe the fall down sequence, the trajectory of self-destruction, so it begins with contemplation and from contemplation comes desire, so anicchana it refers, now is it Arjuna not speaking the truth? No, he is speaking the truth, but he is talking from a long-term perspective, not from the immediate temptation perspective, long-term means that in general a spiritual seeker or even a general moral person, generally moral person doesn’t desire to do wrong things, so in that sense anicchana, suppose there is a recovering alcoholic, that person has by experience and by education realized how dangerous alcohol is, how entangling and degrading it is and misreinducing it is, so he wants to give it up, so that the general desire is not to drink alcohol, is to not drink alcohol, but suddenly spikes of desire come up and those desires impel a person, impel the recovery alcoholic to relapse, to purchase a bottle, somewhere to drink, so the question is anicchana is relative to the general desires that the person cultivates, suddenly there are spikes of opposite kind of desires, spikes of sinful desires and after the event is over, after the one has fallen, one starts wondering why did I do that, I actually didn’t want to do that, but I did it at that time, what was this actually and Krishna is, Arjuna elaborates on anicchana, further in the last line, bala diva niyojitaha, niyojita is engaged, engaged as if by force, so asha pashti paddhaha, in the 16th chapter, 12th verse, Krishna talks about how asha, desire is like a pash, like a noose or a rope, shackles, kama krodha paraya, the souls who are demoniac are bound by their noose, shackles, ropes of their desires and they are given, devoted to lust and anger, so the same two factors, kama krodha which Krishna talks are the agents of sin, there it is described in the 16th chapter that they are devoted to those things, so of course, here Krishna is, Arjuna is talking about a seeker, about himself, placing himself in the position of a seeker, so the seeker is certainly not devoted to kama krodha, the seeker wants to be devoted to Krishna, to be Krishna parayana, not kama krodha parayana, but still one finds bala diva niyojitaha, forcibly dragged away, so what exactly is happening? Actually, during the period of temptation, we feel as if, at least initially, before we give in to that desire, before we accept that desire as our desire, before that we feel as if someone is pulling us, forcing us, against our will, but that may be so initially, but after some moments of contemplation, how long that will vary according to time, place, circumstance and person, but after some time we accept that desire as our own desire and thereafter what happens is that we get carried away by the force of that temptation and only after we have come in for a bad tumble, do we realize what did I do, why did I do such a that was insane, so in that way we become trapped, so the way to avoid this trap is by recognizing that we are in a dangerous situation, so there are ropes, invisible ropes that shackle us to the sense objects, the ropes of our attachments, so for example, between the alcoholic and the bottle of alcohol, there is a rope, now it’s not that rope is pulling all the time and because the rope doesn’t pull all the time, one feels that if one is free and if one is trying to live a life of virtue, then one also is having nobler desires, desires to be sober and if that is the normal state, the person, the desire to be sober, but then at times suddenly the rope starts pulling, the rope of attachment starts pulling and so during the initial period appears anichhan, say a person wants to go to the north but or say we can consider more of a, it is a pet animal like a small dog and the dog wants to go ahead and there is a master who will let the dog free for some time and given some rope to the dog and the dog is moving and the dog may because of that think that I am free entirely, but then suddenly the master decides there is no more freedom, so the master pulls the dog and the dog is moving forward and suddenly what happened, I didn’t want to, I want to go ahead, why am I going back, that is the dog is going back because the dog is shackled, there is a, the dog is tied, it’s tied to a rope and the rope was for some time allowing freedom, now it is not allowing freedom, now it is pulling in other directions, like that the rope of Aranarthas, the ropes of Aranarthas are there around us, but they don’t always pull us, in fact we try to cultivate world virtuous desires which which take us in the direction opposite to the Aranarthas and that is why we feel as if when the Aranarthas pull us, it is Anityan, but it is not always Anityan, initially it is Anityan against our desire, but the temptation is so seductive that eventually they make us accept their desire as our desire and in this way we get trapped, so the next section from 37 to 43 will analyze the way lust acts and the way we can defend ourselves from lust,