What forces a person to act against his will?
Arjuna's question has a hard word in it: "as if engaged by force" (Gita 3.36). Force by whom or by what? The Gita itself seems to give three answers in different places. The Lord neither creates the sense of doership nor causes the actions of beings, and it is nature that works (Gita 5.14). Yet He dwells in the heart of all beings and makes them turn as if mounted on a machine (Gita 18.61). And all actions are performed by the modes of nature, while the one deluded by ego thinks, "I am the doer" (Gita 3.27).
The answer of these eight verses is that the force is a state of the person's own nature: desire, with its twin anger, born of passion. It covers knowledge, and the way to meet it is in order, from the senses upward. A simple reading and a detailed reading of the verses come first for those who want them.
The eight verses, read closely
Arjuna's phrase says that it feels like force. The question is about felt compulsion, the experience of doing what one does not wish (Gita 3.36).
अथ केन प्रयुक्तोऽयं पापं चरति पूरुषः ।
अनिच्छन्नपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजितः ॥ ३.३६ ॥
Arjuna said: By what is a person impelled to commit sin, even unwillingly, O descendant of Vrishni, as if engaged by force?
The reply begins with a pointing word: this, this is desire, this is anger, born of passion (Gita 3.37). "This" fastens on the very thing Arjuna asked about. Two descriptions follow: it is a great devourer and greatly sinful. The first says that no amount of feeding satisfies it. The second says that it is the cause of wrong action. Passion is the quality of the restless mind (rajas), so the enemy is placed in the person's makeup and not in the world.
काम एष क्रोध एष रजोगुणसमुद्भवः ।
महाशनो महापाप्मा विद्ध्येनमिह वैरिणम् ॥ ३.३७ ॥
The Supreme Lord said: It is desire, it is anger, born of the mode of passion, all-devouring and greatly sinful. Know this to be the enemy in this world.
Then three images of covering: fire by smoke, mirror by dust, embryo by womb (Gita 3.38). What is covered is "this" knowledge, the knowledge of the Self and of what is right, which the person has.
यथोल्बेनावृतो गर्भस्तथा तेनेदमावृतम् ॥ ३.३८ ॥
As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, and as an embryo is covered by the womb, so is this knowledge covered by that desire.
The next verse calls desire the constant enemy of the wise, one that cannot be filled, like fire (Gita 3.39). Then the seat: the senses, mind and intellect (Gita 3.40).
एतैर्विमोहयत्येष ज्ञानमावृत्य देहिनम् ॥ ३.४० ॥
The senses, mind, and intellect are said to be the seat of desire. Through these, it deludes the embodied soul by covering its knowledge.
Last come the command and its ground. Control the senses first and slay the enemy (Gita 3.41). The ladder runs from the senses to the Self (Gita 3.42). The conclusion is that, knowing the Self beyond the intellect, one should steady the self by the Self and slay the enemy that has the form of desire (Gita 3.43).
मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः ॥ ३.४२ ॥
The senses are said to be superior to the gross body. The mind is superior to the senses, the intellect is superior to the mind, and the soul is superior even to the intellect.
जहि शत्रुं महाबाहो कामरूपं दुरासदम् ॥ ३.४३ ॥
Thus, knowing the Self to be superior to the intellect, and steadying the lower self by the higher Self, O mighty-armed, slay this formidable enemy in the form of desire.
| Verse | What it says | Its role in the argument |
|---|---|---|
| 3.36 | A person does wrong as if forced | The question |
| 3.37 | Desire and anger born of passion | The enemy named |
| 3.38 | Knowledge covered, as fire by smoke | How it works |
| 3.39 | Insatiable, the constant enemy of the wise | Its character |
| 3.40 | Senses, mind and intellect | Its seat |
| 3.41 | Control the senses first | The method begins |
| 3.42 | Senses, mind, intellect, Self | The ladder |
| 3.43 | Know the Self; steady the self by the Self | The victory |
How the passage answers its own context
Arjuna's question does not come from nowhere. The Lord has just said that attraction and aversion lie in the objects of every sense and that a person should not come under their control, for they are enemies on the path (Gita 3.34). Just before, He has taught that one's own duty, even imperfectly done, is better than another's well done (Gita 3.35). Arjuna's question is the natural objection: if it is so simple to follow one's duty and not be ruled by attraction, why do people fail?
The reply names the force that the earlier verses described. The chain from dwelling on objects to ruin (Gita 2.62, Gita 2.63) shows how it grows. From Thought to Ruin studies that chain; here the Lord names the enemy and gives the order of the fight.
| The chain (2.62–63) | The enemy named (3.36–43) |
|---|---|
| Dwelling on objects | The senses as the first seat |
| Attachment and desire | Desire as the all-devouring enemy |
| Anger | The twin that rises when desire is blocked |
| Delusion, confused memory, lost intellect | Knowledge covered; the intellect as seat |
| Ruin | The command to slay while there is time |
Three streams of commentary on desire and anger
Commentators weigh the passage in three ways, each with its reasons.
The first stream reads "this is desire, this is anger" as one thing. Anger is desire itself when it meets an obstacle. There is one enemy and so one remedy. This stream draws on the chain, in which anger is born of desire (Gita 2.62).
The second stream reads them as twins. Desire and anger are two children of the same passion, each feeding the other, and anger is desire's guard. They are named together because they are met together, though they are two. This stream ties the passage to the three gates of desire, anger and greed (Gita 16.21).
The third stream reads the passage in the light of the Lord as the inner controller. Arjuna's "as if by force" and the Lord's dwelling in the heart (Gita 18.61) are held together by saying that the Lord gives the power to act while nature's mode gives the direction. The Lord does not create doership or cause the action (Gita 5.14); desire, born of passion, does. Here the stream reads the passage with the verses on the modes of nature (Gita 3.27, Gita 3.28).
What each stream must answer
Each stream also meets a difficulty. The first must say why the Lord names anger separately if it is only desire. It replies that the name points to its form when blocked, which is how it is met in life. The second must say how two things can be called one "this". It replies that the demonstrative gathers the pair as one problem. The third must say how the Lord's dwelling in the heart does not make Him the cause. It replies that the Lord gives only the power and that He accepts neither anyone's sin nor virtue (Gita 5.15).
All three agree on the main points: the enemy lies in the person's own nature, it covers knowledge, and it is met in order from the senses upward.
From the tradition, the order of the fight is often shown in the picture of the chariot: the body is the chariot, the senses are the horses, the mind is the reins, the intellect is the driver and the Self is the rider. The ladder of the Gita (Gita 3.42) is read in the light of this picture.
Is knowledge covered or lost?
The three images are not three ways of saying one thing. They are three degrees of covering.
| Image | How complete the covering is | What removes it | The inner equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire and smoke | Light | A breeze | A pause; a change of surroundings |
| Mirror and dust | More | Wiping | Practice, repeated |
| Embryo and womb | Complete for a time | Time and ripening | Understanding that matures through the years |
What is covered is not destroyed. The same teaching is given elsewhere: knowledge is covered by ignorance and living beings are therefore deluded (Gita 5.15), and all undertakings are covered by faults as fire by smoke (Gita 18.48). In each case the remedy is to uncover, not to supply something new.
That is why a person can act wrongly while knowing better. At the moment of acting the knowledge is under the cover, and afterwards, when the smoke clears, the person sees what he knew. Regret is the proof that the knowledge was always there.
The picture of the fort
The senses, mind and intellect are called the seat of the enemy (Gita 3.40), a base from which it works. A teaching picture, which is not in the verse, helps here. Think of a fort held by an enemy. He holds the outer wall, which is the senses; the inner court, which is the mind; and the keep, which is the intellect. A person who wants to retake the fort cannot start from the keep, because it is the best defended. He starts at the outer wall, where the enemy is thinnest, and works inward.
That is the order of the Lord's instruction: the senses first (Gita 3.41), then the higher levels. The picture also explains the final step. When the king of the fort returns, which is the Self known, the enemy has no ground left, since the fort was never his. The ladder says the same thing: the Self is above the intellect (Gita 3.42), and the keep has a lord who is higher than all its defences.
Why the intellect, too, is a seat
The seat of the enemy includes the senses and the intellect (Gita 3.40), and yet the Lord asks that the mind be steadied by the intellect (Gita 3.43). A reader may object that the same faculty cannot be both enemy and friend. The reply is that there are two states of one faculty. An intellect in the service of desire finds arguments for the wish. An intellect that knows the Self beyond it steadies the mind. The Gita's own phrase is to steady the self by the Self, which can be read in two ways. In the first, the lower self, the mind, is steadied by the higher, the intellect. In the second, the lower self, the whole person led by desire, is steadied by the Self that is beyond the intellect. Teachers use both readings, and they fit together: the intellect can steady the mind only after it has been turned toward the Self.
The faculty that stands between the senses and the Self is studied in Buddhi Yoga: The Resolute Intellect, and the Self beyond is the subject of The Imperishable Self.
The same question answered again in chapter 18
Arjuna's question returns near the end of the Gita in a different dress. The Lord says that if, relying on egoism, Arjuna thinks, "I will not fight", the resolve is false, for his own nature will compel him (Gita 18.59). Bound by the action born of his own nature, what he does not wish to do out of delusion, he will do even against his will (Gita 18.60).
The words "even against his will" are the words of Arjuna's question. Chapter 18 gives the same account in the language of nature: the compulsion is real, and it is not an excuse. The reply that follows is not a new technique. The Lord says that He dwells in the heart of all beings (Gita 18.61) and then asks Arjuna to take refuge in Him alone, which is the teaching of The Final Counsel. So the order of the fight in chapter 3 and the surrender in chapter 18 are two halves of one answer: the person does what lies within him, beginning with the senses, and gives over what does not.
Where the Gita speaks of this enemy again
| Verse | What it adds | How it joins |
|---|---|---|
| 2.62–63 | The chain from dwelling to ruin | How the enemy grows |
| 3.34 | Attraction and aversion lie in every object | The hook the enemy uses |
| 5.23 | Bearing the surge of desire and anger before the body falls | The remedy at the moment of arising |
| 16.21 | Desire, anger and greed are three gates | The enemy in its widest frame |
| 14.7 | Passion is born of craving and attachment | The source of the enemy |
| 6.6 | The mind is friend or enemy | The enemy is a state of the mind |
| 7.11 | The Lord is the desire not contrary to righteousness | The limit of "slay" |
| 2.55, 2.71 | The sage casts off all desires and is content in the Self | The state when the enemy is slain |
The surge, in the Lord's words, is to be borne here, in this life, before the body falls (Gita 5.23). The three gates are lust, anger and greed, and the wise give up all three (Gita 16.21). Greed is the subject of a later stop on this path. The Lord also names passion as the source (Gita 14.7), and the mind that has been mastered as a friend, as against the mind that has not, which behaves as an enemy (Gita 6.6).
Objections and replies
Is the Lord, who dwells in every heart, the cause?
No. He dwells in the heart and gives the power by which beings act, but He does not create doership or cause actions, and He accepts no one's sin (Gita 5.14, Gita 5.15). The direction comes from nature's mode, which here is passion (Gita 3.37). The sun gives light to a man who reads a good book and to a man who reads a bad one, and is not the author of either.
Why call desire sinful if the Lord says He is desire?
Because the two verses speak of two desires. The Lord says that He is the desire that is not contrary to righteousness (Gita 7.11). The enemy is the desire born of passion that covers knowledge and rules the person (Gita 3.37). The sign that tells them apart is whether the wish serves what the person knows or overrules it.
How can knowledge be covered if it is the Self's nature?
What is covered is the knowing in the person, not the Self. The Self is the light that is present in all the three images, in the fire under the smoke and in the mirror under the dust. The covering is on the person's use of knowledge (Gita 5.15).
If the intellect is a seat of desire, whom shall I trust?
Trust the intellect that has turned toward the Self. The Lord names the order: know the Self beyond the intellect, and then steady the mind by the intellect (Gita 3.43). An intellect that still serves a wish can be recognised by what it does: it produces reasons for the wish.
"Slay" sounds violent. Is the Gita asking for self-hatred?
No. The command is addressed to the enemy and not to the self. The same mind that is an enemy to the one who has not mastered it is a friend to the one who has (Gita 6.5, Gita 6.6). The aim is to put desire in its place, so that the person rules himself. Violence against oneself is a form of the enemy itself, because it feeds on shame.
Can desire be fully slain?
The state is described as real: the sage casts off all desires and is content in the Self by the Self (Gita 2.55), and the person who gives up all desires and longing attains peace (Gita 2.71). The Gita does not offer this as an easy thing, which is why it gives an order. The tradition's picture, given in the last section, is that the subtle remainder is cleared only by knowing the Self.
Does "as if by force" excuse the wrongdoer?
No. The Lord does not excuse. He commands Arjuna to put the enemy down (Gita 3.41, Gita 3.43). The force is felt and it is real, but it is not absolute. Even a wise person acts according to his nature, and the Lord asks what suppression can achieve (Gita 3.33), so the answer cannot be mere suppression. It is a change in the order of the person's life. And if the force were absolute, the person who bears the surge before leaving the body could not be called a yogi (Gita 5.23). The Gita treats the force as an enemy to be met, which is a different thing from a verdict.
Questions the verses raise, answered from the Gita and the tradition
What does a person do at the very moment the push arises?
He begins with the senses (Gita 3.41): he moves away from what pulls, or what pulls away from him. From the rest of the Gita: he bears the surge instead of acting in it, since the one who can bear it is a yogi (Gita 5.23); he brings the mind back whenever it wanders (Gita 6.26); and he remembers that even the taste for objects ceases on seeing the Supreme (Gita 2.59). From the tradition: teachers advise that at the first sign of the push one should turn to the Lord's name, so that the attention has a place to go.
Why begin the fight with the senses and not the Self?
Because the lowest level is the easiest to change, and each level changed helps the one above it (Gita 3.41). The ladder shows that the Self is highest, and the method begins at the bottom. From the rest of the Gita: the sage withdraws the senses from their objects as a tortoise withdraws its limbs (Gita 2.58). From the tradition: it is said that the one who cannot change his surroundings will not change his mind.
What remains when the enemy is slain?
The state of the sage: content in the Self by the Self (Gita 2.55), at peace (Gita 2.71). The Self is beyond the intellect, and it was never touched (Gita 3.43). From the tradition, the story of Kamadeva: the god of desire is burned to ashes by Shiva's glance, and yet he lives on without a body. The picture says that what is slain is the enemy that rules, and that a subtle desire remains until the Self is known.
How does this teaching fit with one's own duty?
It is the means by which duty can be done. The Lord has said that one's own duty, even imperfectly done, is better than another's duty (Gita 3.35), and that one should not abandon the duty born of one's nature because of its faults (Gita 18.48). The enemy is what makes duty heavy, since it adds the wish for result and for ease. From the tradition: duty done without the push of the wish is itself a form of worship. One's Own Duty studies this.
Where does the Gita take this enemy next?
It takes it to the three gates, where lust, anger and greed are named together and the wise give up all three (Gita 16.21). The one who is freed from these gates does what is good for him and reaches the supreme goal (Gita 16.22). The Lord also speaks of the joy within, the peace of the person who can bear the surge, which later stops on the path take up, under the names endless wanting and the joy within.
The verses give the direction, the rest of the Gita gives the way, and the tradition gives the picture and the support.
What this reading rests on
The verses are read from the site's own verse data. Where the tradition is cited, it is given as the tradition's reading, and the three streams of commentary are described without naming teachers.
Where to read next
The simple reading tells the teaching through one evening, and the detailed reading takes the eight verses one by one. From Thought to Ruin comes before this hub on the path Anger and Desire.