Karma Yoga

Avrtam jnana etena jnanino nitya vairina

Kama rupena kaunteya duspurenanalena ca

"Indeed Arjuna, this enemi in the form of unappeasable  fire of excessive desire, passion or lust, covers the intelligence of even wisest ones"

 

Krishna uses the word kama for desire. Kama is also passion, the word so popular among motivators and advocates of law attraction.

Krishna has a different view on the subject. He sess kama, passion or desire not as the motivating force, but, as the self degrading force.

Desire is insatiable, unappeasable. One desire leads only to the next. Someone who thinks one million dollars is enough to live a hahppy life, then desires another million, onece he has hit his first million. Thus, it gooes, he becomes a slave to his kama, his desires, his passion and lust.

We see so many rich people, indeed, tycoons, who live their lives in misery. They are so busy chasing their dreams, desires, passions, lust, kama or whatever you wish to call it, that they forget to enjoy what they already possess. Such a pitiable state !

In the mad rush and race we forget that whatever we are chasing is meaningless if we lose ourselves in its pursuit -- if we lose the purpose of life that is Ananda, bliss.

One does need money to live a decent life. We do need some savings, but to make earning money your life pursuit is foolish. We make money to live, we don't live to make money.

We keep accumulating objects  for sensory enjoyment. We feel those objects will make us happy. What happens when we fall sick? With all  objects around us, we cannot enjoy any of them.

Why this mad rush?  it is because we have little or no self esteem. We don't value ourselves. We feel worthless without those possessions, or attaining the next shiny new thing.

Krishna is telling us to know ourselves, to know our value, our worth, to relize that we are not the body, not the senses, not the mind, not even the intelligence...let us listen to Him..

(page 102 -- 104)