38. As fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror by dust, as an embryo by the secundine, so is it covered by that.

39. Knowledge is covered by this, the constant foe of the wise, O son of Kunti, the unappeasable fire of desire.

40. The senses, the mind and the intellect are said to be its abode: through these, it deludes the embodied by veiling his wisdom.

41. Therefore, O Bull of the Bharata race, controlling the senses at the outset, kill it,--the sinful, the destroyer of knowledge and realisation.

42. The senses are said to be superior (to the body); the mind is superior to the senses; the intellect is superior to the mind; and that which is superior to the intellect is He (the Atman).

43. Thus, knowing Him who is superior to the intellect, and restraining

the self by the Self, destroy, O mighty-armed, that enemy, the unseizable foe, desire.

The end of the third chapter, designated THE WAY OF ACTION.

Footnotes

^73:3 Meditative--those who prefer meditation to external action.

Active--those who believe in external work with or without meditation.

^74:4 Worklessness and perfection: These are synonymous terms, meaning, becoming one with the Infinite and free from all ideas of want. A man who has reached this state can have no necessity or desire for work as a means to an end. Perfect satisfaction in the Self is his natural condition. (Vide III. 17.)

^74:5 All are made to act: All men living under bondage.

^76:9 Yajna: means a religious rite, sacrifice, worship: Or an action done with a good or spiritual motive. It also means the Deity. The Taittiriya-Samhita (I. 7. 4.) says, "Yajna is Vishnu Himself."

^76:* See comment on V. 13.

^77:10 Prajapati--the creator or Brahma.

^77:11 Devas: (lit. the shining ones) beings much higher than man in the scale of evolution, who are in charge of cosmic functions.

^78:13 Deva-Yajna: offering sacrifices to the gods, Brahma-Yajna: teaching and reciting the Scriptures, Pitri-Yajna: offering libations of water to one's ancestors, Nri-Yajna: the feeding of the hungry, and Bhuta-Yajna: the feeding of the lower animals;--are the five daily duties enjoined on householders. The performance of these duties frees them from the fivefold sin, inevitable to a householder's life, due to the killing of life, from the use of, (1) the pestle and mortar, (2) the grinding-stone, (3) the oven, (4) the water-jar, and (5) the broom.

^79:14 Yajna: Here it denotes not the sacrificial deeds themselves but the subtle principle, into which they are converted, after they have been performed, to appear, later on, as their fruits. This is technically known as Apurva.

Karma or sacrificial deeds prescribed in the Vedas.