Desire is the enemy of Self-knowledge!
by Swami Sivananda / Blog
39. O Arjuna! Knowledge of the Self is covered by this everlasting foe of the wise in the form of desire, insatiable like fire.
40.The senses, the mind, and the intellect are the seat of kama. Functioning through them this kama deluded the embodied by veiling the wisdom.
41.Therefore, O Arjuna, by controlling the senses first, slay this enemy called desire, the destroyer of knowledge (indirect knowledge of Atman, right understanding) and wisdom (direct knowledge or realization of Atman)!
Bhagavad Gita Ch. III
Following comment by Ramanuja (a great Sage of India)
‘For whatever reason a person is engaged in Jnana Yoga, which is of the nature of abandoning the activities of all the senses, should control this enemy in the shape of desire which turns him away from the Self (Atman, Consciousness) through creating infatuation for objects of the senses.
By the same reason, you, which are attached to the activities of the senses, should, at the beginning of the practice, control the senses by the practice of Karma Yoga, which is the practice of regulating the functioning of the senses. And then you must destroy, i.e., slay this sinful enemy, which is in the shape of desire and which destroys knowledge and discrimination, i.e., knowledge relating to the nature of the self and of the discriminative power, which is the means to gain this knowledge’.
All that you are all that you have and all that you shall be, is the result of your desires. Your destiny is mapped out by own desires.
🌺 Peace, Love, Harmony
atmannityanada 