Chapter 3 verse 38
“As the fire is enveloped by
smoke, as a mirror by dust, an embryo by the womb, so this wisdom is enveloped
by desire/anger”
I wondered why Krishna came up
with 3 examples which talks about the same thing. Did he suddenly turn to
poetry in the middle of a life lesson? I had to refer to Swami Chinmayananda’s
(probably Adi Shankara’s) interpretation of this verse and it is much more
profound that met my ignorant mind. The 3 examples bring out the 3 gunas and
effect on us. Even a brightly burning fire’s luster is diminished with smoke
but the smoke can easily be cleared with some wind. Likewise, sattvic
afflictions still veil the pure divine from ourselves but can be removed more
easily than other guna afflictions. Dust on the mirror is going to take more
effort to clean and that is similar to aggressive tendencies (rajasic guna).
Finally, just like the power of the being which is in embryo form is not
evident to the world till it is in the womb and will only come out in a
prescribed time called the gestation period, tamasic tendencies (low mental
preoccupations) takes much longer to overcome. The purpose of the human life is
to realize the supreme residing in each of us. The smokescreen or dust which
separates that purpose from our understanding is attachment to body and mind
through desires and anger due to unfulfilled desires.
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