Desire & Craving

Kāma — wanting, temptation, addiction — 69 verses, starred ones first.

1. 2.62 ★ Thinking → clinging → craving → anger. The chain of suffering begins in where you let your mind dwell.
2. 2.70 ★ All desires pour into the sage like rivers into the ocean — the ocean stays unmoved. That is peace.
3. 3.37 ★ The enemy is desire and anger, born of rajas — all-devouring, all-sinful. Know this as your internal enemy.
4. 16.21 ★ Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
5. 18.54 ★ Brahman-become, serene, neither grieving nor desiring, equal to all beings — he attains supreme bhakti to Me.
6. 2.55 ☆ Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.
7. 6.10 ☆ The yogi practises constantly in solitude — alone, mind and body subdued, free from craving and possessiveness.
8. 6.18 ☆ When the completely controlled mind rests serenely in the Self alone, free from all desire-pull — that is called yoga.
9. 6.24 ☆ Abandon all desires born of mental planning — without remainder — and restrain the senses completely, by the mind alone.
10. 18.2 ☆ Sannyāsa = abandoning desire-motivated action; tyāga = abandoning fruits of ALL action — say the learned.
11. 1.31 Victory without the people you love — what does it cost, and what is it worth?
12. 1.37 Greed blinds the other side — but we can still see. That sight is both burden and responsibility.
13. 1.44 'Alas' — the word before the argument ends and the grief takes over completely.
14. 2.43 Elaborate rituals for pleasure and power lead to rebirth — not liberation. The cycle continues.
15. 2.49 Acting for reward is the lowest form of action. Seek the wisdom that transcends reward-seeking.
16. 2.56 Unmoved in sorrow, ungreedy in joy, free from passion, fear, and anger — that is the steady sage.
17. 2.59 Discipline removes the object but longing persists. Only direct experience of the Supreme removes the longing itself.
18. 3.36 Arjuna asks: what force drives a person to sin even when they know better and don't want to?
19. 3.38 Fire covered by smoke, mirror by dust, embryo by womb — so is wisdom covered by desire. The cover varies in density.
20. 3.39 Desire is the eternal enemy of the wise — insatiable as fire. Feeding it only makes it burn more.
21. 3.40 Desire operates at all three levels — senses, mind, intellect. It covers knowledge at each and deludes completely.
22. 3.41 Therefore: control the senses first. Then slay this sinful destroyer of both knowledge and direct wisdom.
23. 3.42 Senses < mind < intellect < Self. Know the hierarchy — the Self is highest, and from there desire can be defeated.
24. 3.43 Know the Self as higher than the intellect. Steady the self by the Self. Then slay the formidable enemy — desire.
25. 4.19 All actions free from desire and intention; karmas burned by jñāna's fire — the wise call this one paṇḍita.
26. 5.3 The eternal renunciant neither desires nor hates — free from all opposites, easily freed from bondage.
27. 5.12 The yogi abandons fruit and attains lasting peace. The non-yogi, bound to fruit by desire, is fettered.
28. 5.23 Withstand desire and anger's force here in this body — that one is yoked, that one is happy.
29. 5.26 For those freed from desire and anger, with controlled minds, knowing the Self — brahma-nirvāṇa exists on all sides.
30. 5.28 With senses, mind and buddhi controlled, free of desire, fear and anger — the liberation-oriented muni is ever-free.
31. 7.11 I am the strength of the strong, free from craving — and the desire in beings that does not conflict with dharma.
32. 7.20 Wisdom stolen by desire: they worship other deities, following various rites, driven by their own nature.
33. 7.22 With that faith, the devotee worships that deity and gains the desired objects — these being dispensed by Me alone.
34. 7.27 All beings fall into complete delusion at birth — through the dvandva-moha arising from desire and aversion.
35. 9.21 When Vedic merit is exhausted, soma-drinkers return from heaven to the mortal world, going and coming.
36. 10.1 Again, O mighty-armed — hear My supreme word: I speak it to you who love Me, out of desire for your welfare.
37. 10.28 Among weapons I am the thunderbolt; among cows, Kāmadhuk; among progenitors, Kāmadeva; among serpents, Vāsuki.
38. 12.17 No thrill, no hatred, no grief, no craving — renouncing both good and evil — this full-devotee is dear to Me!
39. 13.7 Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the body, consciousness, courage — all this with its modifications is the kṣetra!
40. 13.33 As space pervades all yet is never tainted, so the ātman dwells in every body without being stained.
41. 14.6 Sattva — luminous and stainless — yet binds the jīva through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
42. 14.7 Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.
43. 14.12 Greed, restless activity, and longing surge — know that rajas is predominant and karma-saṅga is binding.
44. 14.13 Darkness, inertness, heedlessness, and delusion arise — know that tamas is predominant.
45. 14.17 Sattva begets wisdom; rajas begets greed; tamas begets heedlessness, delusion, and ignorance.
46. 15.5 Free from pride, moha, attachment and desire, the dvandva-unbound, undeluded ones reach the imperishable goal.
47. 16.8 The āsurī worldview: the world is unreal, groundless, Godless — produced only by matter-union and desire.
48. 16.10 Driven by insatiable kāma, hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, gripping false notions through moha — impure resolves.
49. 16.12 Bound by hundreds of hope-nooses, devoted to kāma and krodha, they hoard wealth by unjust means for sense-enjoyment.
50. 16.16 Many thoughts, moha-net covering them, addicted to kāma-enjoyments — they fall into impure naraka.
51. 16.18 Taking refuge in ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha — they hate Me in their own bodies and in others.
52. 16.23 One who abandons śāstra-vidhi to act from desire's impulse attains neither siddhi, nor sukha, nor the Supreme Goal.
53. 17.5 Those who practice ghora tapas without śāstric sanction, driven by dambha, ahaṃkāra, kāma and rāga — āsurī tapas.
54. 17.6 They torture their body's elements AND Me who dwell within — know these fools to be of āsurī resolve.
55. 17.11 Sāttvic yajña: performed as ordained, without fruit-desire, with the conviction 'this must be done.'
56. 17.12 Rājasic yajña: performed targeting fruit and for ostentation — know this, O best of Bharatas.
57. 17.17 Sāttvic tapas: the three-fold tapas practiced with supreme śraddhā, without fruit-desire, by the disciplined.
58. 17.22 Tāmasic dāna: given at wrong place/time, to unworthy recipients, without respect, with contempt.
59. 17.25 Uttering 'Tat,' without fruit-desire, mokṣa-seekers perform yajña, tapas, and various acts of dāna.
60. 18.4 Hear My definitive word on tyāga, O best of Bharatas — tyāga has been declared three-fold, O tiger among men.
61. 18.24 Rājasic karma: done desiring pleasures or with ego-pride, involving great effort.
62. 18.26 Sāttvic kartā: attachment-free, non-egotistic, firm, enthusiastic, unmoved by success or failure.
63. 18.27 Rājasic kartā: passionate, fruit-desiring, greedy, cruel-natured, impure, subject to elation and sorrow.
64. 18.28 Tāmasic kartā: undisciplined, vulgar, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, desponding, procrastinating.
65. 18.31 Rājasic buddhi: imperfectly/wrongly discerns dharma-adharma and kārya-akārya — not as they really are.
66. 18.34 Rājasic dhṛti: holds fast to dharma, kāma, and artha with attachment, desiring the fruit of each.
67. 18.38 Rājasic sukha: arises from sense-object contact — nectar-like at first, poison-like at the end.
68. 18.49 The unattached-minded, self-conquered, desire-free one attains supreme naiskarmya-siddhi through sannyāsa.
69. 18.53 Releasing ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha, possessions — free from mine-ness, tranquil — fit for becoming Brahman.