III: 36

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 3, Verse 36

 

Arjuna says,

 

"What is it that drives

me to an evil action, Krishna,

Even against my will,

As if some force made me do it?"

 

Swami Satchidananda:

 

"Often we come across this in our own lives.  We don't want to do certain things.  We even know it's terribly wrong.  But still some force seems to be pushing us: 'Go ahead.  It's okay.' 

 

["The devil made me do it."]

 

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

 

"Arjuna is saying, 'I want to lead the right life.  I want to enter into a state of abiding joy, and I do not want to be a plaything of circumstances.  I want to do what is good for every creature in the world, but what force prevents me from carrying out these high ideals?  What makes me fall over and over again?'  Krishna will answer Arjuna in the concluding seven verses of the third chapter.  Try to imagine Krishna now as I do, looking at Arjuna with a twinkle in his eye and saying, 'So you think you are the only one who has this problem?'  It is in this loving, divine tone that Krishna reveals the cause of his and our suffering."

 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:

 

"Arjuna wants to understand the force that robs a person of the awareness of the reality of existence."

 

A friend:

 

“As you wrote in brackets, ‘The devil made me do it’ is our great cop-out, and even Arjuna is having trouble taking responsibility for his own actions. We're eager to blame an outside force for our misdeeds. Krishna's response will put things aright – ‘Desire is the form of your enemy.’ Or more completely, desire in the forms of anger, Rajas-guna, and sense/ego-gratification. We have no one to blame but ourselves. No doubt everyone is conditioned by external forces. Our nature can be modified by others' nurture. Environment does play a role in shaping character. Therefore we have compassion on those who perform evil deeds. But my own evil deeds are my own responsibility. I have done them. It has been my choice. No excuses. Those whose philosophy maintains that the soul cannot be tainted by matter must attribute evil deeds to some external force. But the soul can be tainted. That is, I can choose to do evil. The impulse arises from within me. It may be reinforced by something or someone in my environment. But the potential for evil exists within me. Only when (through my experience and others' assistance) I myself decide to choose good over evil will I be free from that heavy burden of "original sin."

[This is very true, and from this point of view, the soul can indeed be considered to be tainted.  From another angle, there is a "part" of the soul (and for me, this is that all-pervasive God quality, the divine ground of Being) that remains untouched by a person's choices, untouched by all the dualities inherent in the world of manifestation (“original innocence,” perhaps).  In my donut model, this is the hole at the center.  When I make unskillful choices, the crust around the donut, inside and out, becomes more durable and predominant, obscuring the hole (in the cave of the heart).  But no matter how big that crust grows, the donut will live forever; the hole will never be obliterated.”