Quiz · 3.36–3.43
Desire is the enemy
Cover the answer. Read the Devanagari of the verse before you open it.
1
In 3.42, what case is indriyebhyaḥ (इन्द्रियेभ्यः), manasaḥ (मनसः), and buddheḥ (बुद्धेः), and what question does that case answer?
Answer
Ablative. It answers "than." Higher than the senses is the mind, higher than the mind is the buddhi, and he who is beyond the buddhi is the one the line calls saḥ (सः). para (पर) and parataḥ (परतः) are what make the ablative a comparison.
2
rajas (रजस्) stands in front of guṇa (गुण) inside rajoguṇasamudbhavaḥ (रजोगुणसमुद्भवः) in 3.37. What is the sandhi, and what do you split it back to?
Answer
रजस् + गुण rajas + guṇa is recited rajoguṇa (रजोगुण). An अस as stem before a voiced consonant inside a compound becomes o (ओ). Split it as rajas-guṇa (रजस्-गुण) when you gloss it. Desire and anger have that one origin.
3
What does 3.43 tell him, in one sentence?
Answer
Having known the one higher than the buddhi, and having steadied the self by the self, kill the enemy whose form is desire and who is hard to approach.
4
Where does 3.36–3.43 sit in the talk between Arjuna (अर्जुन) and Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण)?
Answer
Arjuna (अर्जुन) asks what drives a person to do wrong even while he does not want to, as if compelled by force. Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) answers that desire, and anger which is its other face, is the enemy, born of rajas (रजस्). It covers knowledge as smoke covers fire. Its seat is the senses, the mind, and the buddhi, and the one above the buddhi is the place from which that enemy is killed.
5
Cover 3.37. Which two names show the student has the stretch, and what has he split apart if he gives anger an origin of its own?
Answer
kāmaḥ (कामः) and krodhaḥ (क्रोधः), both called eṣaḥ (एषः), both rajoguṇasamudbhavaḥ (रजोगुणसमुद्भवः). Anger is the other face of desire, not a second enemy. The word he must also keep is vairiṇam (वैरिणम्): know this one as the enemy here.