“That enemy has been slain by me and others also I shall
slay. I am the lord; I enjoy; I am perfect, powerful and happy”.
The translation of this stanza is itself its
commentary. And it is a commentary on the lives of us too!
During education, we are keen to defeat our
classmates in grade/sports.
When we get to a job, we want to eliminate our
colleagues and win name for ourselves.
When we take up a business, we want to eliminate
our competitor(s) by all means, fair and unfair.
To the extent, even in spiritual center,
this “Killing” spirit is there, but in a subdued manner.
This, in short, is the color and manifestation
of our ego!!!
Verse 15
“I am rich and born in a noble family. Who else is equal to
me? I will sacrifice. I will give (charity). I will rejoice,”—thus, deluded by
ignorance
An egoistic individual, given his nature as
explained in all previous verses, looks at the world with his glass/lens of
ego and judges the world and his own relationship with it.
He feels happy and congratulates himself on his
high birth and breed, on his belongings and wealth, and fails to find anyone
equal to him.
With such a nature, he believes that with some
charity, some ritualistic prayers and sacrifices, he feels he can win over even
the God!!
Verse 18
Given over to egoism, power, haughtiness, lust and anger,
these malicious people hate Me in their own bodies and those of others.
Once egoism takes possession of an individual,
he steadily sinks to the ugliest depths of animalism.
Driven by passion, he crosses all borders of
dignity /culture and values.
Enumerating the inner contents of such an
individual, Lord Krishna says that he is "full of egoism, brute strength,
arrogance, passion and anger."
Any one of these is sufficient to pull one down
to the level of an Asura, but Lord
says, such an individual has all these qualities together.
Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the
self—lust, anger and greed—therefore, one should abandon these three.
The Lord indicates here that there are three
gateways to reach Hell.
Constant flow of thoughts towards attaining an
object is Desire.
As and when there is any obstacle to the
attaining of such a desired object, Anger
arises in a man.
On the contrary, if any object of desire is
attained, then the inner state of mind to amass more and more of such object,
more and more from that object, whether a human or wealth or any such thing, is
Greed.
Thus, a man fuelled by desire, can never be
satisfied in his life, because, depending upon the outcome of his pursuits with
the background of his desires, he is either angry or greedy, as explained.
It is an Ethiopian idea to think, “I will pursue
this object with desire for the last time or the second last time and then stop
desiring it”.
The pandemic virus flow may stop one day but
this desire is such an infection which will never ever cease, unless one gets
into the spiritual path with even more vigor than the desires affecting him.
Love.