Gita 03.37 – Inner enemies are more dangerous than outer enemies

That we'll discuss in our future sessions. Thank you. Arjuna asked a question in the previous verse, what is it that impels people to sin? Now Krishna is answering that question here, it is lust and then it is anger, it is these two are born of as soon as yoga rises these also rise with it along with it it is now Ashana is to devour, Mahashana is the great devourer, Mahapapma is that which induces sin, so the that which induces great sins with the Arjuna know it know that Arjuna in this world this is your enemy, so a warrior needs to know who are the enemies so that the warrior can fight against them, normally wars are fought straight on enemies on one side, allies on another side and both of them fight each other, but although that is the way wars are expected to be fought, often wars are also fought through proxy, through espionage, through sabotage, so for example somebody might appear to be on one's own side but that person might be a traitor and person is fighting on one side and suddenly that person turns and attacks one's own one's own ally itself, so it's important for a warrior to know clearly who is a friend and who is the enemy, so Krishna tells over here that understand that lust and anger, lust which later gets transformed into anger is an enemy, this is a vairi, don't think that only Karna, Duryodhana they are your enemies, these are bigger enemies, those enemies Karna and Duryodhana they may do sinful activities and they may trouble you that way, but these will make you do sinful activities, so outer enemies harm us by their actions, but inner enemies make us harm ourselves by making us do self-destructive, self-defeating activities, so they are very sinful, actually lust can make a person fall to terrible, terrible nadir, dark depths of depravity, now Krishna is telling know that this is vairiyam, this is the enemy, why is that? because lust actually deceives us by promising pleasure and then delivering pain, lust promises come on do this, do this, go here, watch this, touch that and you'll get pleasure, now there is some pleasure, but that is pleasure basically a very brief, the pleasure of some biological hormonal releases there and once that is over there is no more pleasure, the same thing which promised so much pleasure, its pleasure gets exhausted and after that there is increased attachment, there is karmic culpability, there are sexually transmitted diseases, there are relationship problems, if the sex is illicit there is infidelity, divorce and so many other complications can come up that one suffers terribly, so Mahasana, Mahapapana, lust can devour our morality, our spirituality, our dignity, our integrity, our civility, our sensitivity, our humanity itself, so it is Mahasana, all devouring sinful enemy, now because this enemy lust puts on a masquerade of friendship by promising pleasure that's why this enemy is all the more dangerous and it's critical that the enemy be dealt with carefully, if we are not careful in dealing with lust, if we trust lust then we will be ruined, so Krishna is telling Arjuna that what impels you to sin Arjuna is the lust, so lust is present within the heart and from inside it misguides us, so we have a misguider inside us and that's what makes us vulnerable and then now with Kamesha Krodhesha, lust degenerates into anger, when lust is not fulfilled, when we crave for something very strongly and somehow something comes in the way of it, then we get furious, who dared stop me from getting this and we explode at that person, we explode at that object and if that object is not available for us to hit out at, then we hit out at whoever is nearby and that way the anger takes control of us and anger drags us down further, so lust occurs in the mode of passion because in the mode of passion we identify with the body and we consider bodily desires to be our desires and we think that fulfilling bodily desires will lead to happiness, so we work very hard, Krishna says that when the mode of passion increases in 14.12, he states that at that time there is insatiable desire is there, so that lust, strong lust is the characteristic of passion and when we want to do things and we are not able to do things, then the passion degenerates into ignorance and that is when Krodha occurs, so now we have an inner misguider but we also have an inner guide and that is Krishna and to the extent we connect with Krishna and to the extent we stay connected with Krishna, then by his guidance we can see through the misguiding influences, the misguiding temptations of lust and we can defend ourselves, so how lust attacks and how we can defend ourselves from lust that Krishna will describe in the future verses, at this point he focuses on identifying, the enemy is lust and he gives three characteristics, it is born of the mode of passion that itself is an indication that if we try to keep ourselves in goodness, Prabhupada says in the purport that if we follow the prescribed method of living and acting, that is sattvic way of living and acting, then we can check lust from hijacking us so the first characteristic and then he says also, it impels us to great sin and it can destroy everything else in its way, it is a great devourer, so lust is vicious and voracious, it makes us do wrong things and if whatever comes in the way, when it is impelling us to wrong things, it just destroys that, devours that and keeps going on in the wrong direction, so by understanding these dangerous characteristics of lust, we need to cultivate a healthy fear for the degradation that lust can bring in our lives and thereby take shelter of the inner guide and defend ourselves.