श्रीभगवानुवाच । काम एष क्रोध एष रजोगुणसमुद्भवः । महाशनो महापाप्मा विद्ध्येनमिह वैरिणम् ॥
śrī-bhagavān uvāca | kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ | mahāśano mahā-pāpmā viddhy enam iha vairiṇam ||
The enemy is desire and anger, born of rajas — all-devouring, all-sinful. Know this as your internal enemy.
Word by word (3)
- kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ
- — this is desire, this is anger — born of the rajas-guna · Kāma = desire, craving, passion (the same kāma that will be called the 'enemy' — not erotic desire alone but all wanting that is ego-rooted). Krodha = anger (from krudh, to be angry). Eṣa = this (emphatic, pointing directly). Rajo-guṇa = the quality of passion/activity. Samudbhava = arising from (sam+ud+bhava). Desire and anger are not separate forces — they are two expressions of the same rajas-energy: kāma when the want is unsatisfied, krodha when it is obstructed.
- mahāśanaḥ mahā-pāpmā
- — all-devouring, greatly sinful · Mahāśana = greatly eating, all-consuming (mahā = great, āśana = eating, from aś). Desire is described as insatiable — it consumes everything fed to it and demands more. Mahā-pāpmā = greatly sinful (mahā-pāpman). Both compounds emphasize the magnitude: this is not a minor obstacle but an all-consuming, all-corrupting force.
- viddhi enam iha vairiṇam
- — know this here as the enemy · Viddhi = know! (imperative, from vid). Enam = this one (accusative). Iha = here, in this world. Vairiṇam = enemy (from vairin). Krishna's direct instruction: know this — kāma-krodha — as the enemy. Not circumstances, not other people, not fate. The enemy is internal.
The Lord said: It is desire — it is anger — born of the rajas-guna. All-devouring, greatly sinful — know THIS as the enemy here.
A modern analogy
You've been scrolling for two hours. You didn't plan to. Something wanted more — and when the feed disappointed, something got irritable. Same rajas-energy: kāma (the craving for stimulation) becoming krodha (irritation when it's unsatisfied). V37: the enemy is not the phone. The enemy is the hunger that uses the phone.
Take with you
- The answer to V36's question is precise: kāma (desire) and krodha (anger) — both from rajas.
- Kāma and krodha are the same force in two phases: wanting unfulfilled = kāma, wanting obstructed = krodha.
- Mahāśanaḥ — all-devouring: desire fed grows larger, not smaller. Feeding it is not the solution.
- Vairiṇam — the enemy. Krishna doesn't soften this: desire-anger is the enemy of the spiritual life.
V37 is one of the Gita's most psychologically acute verses — Krishna's direct, unambiguous answer to the question of what drives moral failure. The connection between kāma and krodha is philosophically precise: Shankaracharya explains that krodha is kāma obstructed. When desire flows freely, it is kāma. When desire meets an obstacle, the same energy converts to krodha. They are not two separate emotions but one rajas-energy in two states. The two epithets — mahāśana (all-devouring) and mahā-pāpmā (greatly sinful) — describe desire's nature: insatiable (it consumes everything and demands more) and deeply corrupting (it is the root of all the sin described in V2.62-63's chain of destruction). The imperative viddhi (know!) is Krishna's pedagogical sharpness: not 'be aware of' but 'know with certainty' — this is the enemy.
Advaita lens
Shankaracharya identifies kāma as the direct product of avidyā (ignorance of the Self). Because the ego does not know it IS the infinite (Ātman = Brahman), it perpetually tries to fill the gap by acquiring, possessing, experiencing — kāma. When acquisition fails, the gap becomes rage (krodha). From the Advaita perspective, the ultimate destruction of kāma is jñāna (Self-knowledge), not suppression (nigraha) — because when you know you ARE the infinite, there is nothing left to want.
Bhakti lens
For bhakti, the enemy named in V37 — kāma (desire) and krodha (anger), born of rajas — is precisely what bhakti dissolves not through suppression but through substitution. The bhakta's desire is redirected entirely toward the Divine — kāma becomes premā (divine love). The anger at separation from the Beloved becomes the energy of seeking. V37's mahāśanā mahāpāpmā (the great devourer, the great sinner) is overcome in bhakti not by fighting it directly (which can intensify it) but by filling the being so completely with the Beloved that kāma and krodha find no foothold. This is the bhakti answer to V37: not suppression of desire but its transfiguration into love of the Divine.
Karma-Yoga lens
Tilak and Vivekananda both treated V37 as the central obstacle to karma-yoga. Kāma (desire for personal results) is precisely what karma-yoga trains the practitioner to release. V2.47 said: no right to the fruits. V37 explains why: desire for fruits is kāma — the enemy that will, when frustrated, become krodha, then delusion (V2.63's chain). The karma-yogi's practice is the direct antidote to V37's enemy.
Public-domain translations (5) compare all →
The Blessed Lord said: It is desire, it is anger, born of the quality of Rajas, all-devouring and all-sinful. Know this to be the enemy here. [1]
The Blessed Lord said: It is desire, it is anger, born of the Rajo-guna, all-devouring, all-sinful; know this as the foe here. [4]
The Blessed Lord said: It is desire, it is anger, sprung from the quality of rajas, devouring all and very sinful; know this to be the enemy here. [6]
It is passion, it is wrath, Begot of Rajas; hungry, mighty, vile! Know this for the enemy! [7]
The Blessed Lord said: It is desire, it is wrath, born of the quality of passion, all-devouring and very sinful. Know that that is the enemy here. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Thinking → clinging → craving → anger. The chain of suffering begins in where you let your mind dwell.
Therefore: control the senses first. Then slay this sinful destroyer of both knowledge and direct wisdom.
Withstand desire and anger's force here in this body — that one is yoked, that one is happy.
Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
Unmoved in sorrow, ungreedy in joy, free from passion, fear, and anger — that is the steady sage.
For those freed from desire and anger, with controlled minds, knowing the Self — brahma-nirvāṇa exists on all sides.