🔥 Desire: The Eternal Enemy That Covers Wisdom | Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3, Shloka 39 Explained

📜 श्लोक (Sanskrit)

आवृतं ज्ञानमेतेन ज्ञानिनो नित्यवैरिणा ।
कामरूपेण कौन्तेय दुष्पूरेणानलेन च ॥ 39 ॥

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🔤 IAST Transliteration

āvṛtaṁ jñānam etena jñānino nitya-vairiṇā
kāma-rūpeṇa kaunteya duṣpūreṇānalena ca ॥ 39 ॥

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🇮🇳 हिन्दी अनुवाद (Hindi Translation)

हे कौन्तेय (अर्जुन)! यह ज्ञान काम रूपी, नित्य शत्रु के द्वारा आच्छादित (ढका) है, जो दुष्पूर (कभी न भरने वाला) और अनल (अग्नि) के समान है।

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🌐 English Translation

O Kaunteya (Arjuna), knowledge is covered by this eternal enemy of the wise—desire, which appears as an unquenchable fire and is never satisfied.

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🧠 व्याख्या (Detailed Explanation in Hindi)

भगवान श्रीकृष्ण इस श्लोक में बताते हैं कि:

• "आवृतं ज्ञानम्" — आत्मा का शुद्ध ज्ञान, बुद्धि, और विवेक इस चीज़ से ढका हुआ है।

• "एतेन" — इस शत्रु के द्वारा। कौन-सा शत्रु?

• "कामरूपेण" — कामना (वासना) के रूप में।

• "ज्ञानिनः नित्यवैरिणा" — यह ज्ञानियों का भी शाश्वत (नित्य) शत्रु है।

• "दुष्पूरेण" — यह कभी संतुष्ट नहीं होता।

• "अनलेन" — जैसे अग्नि को ईंधन चाहिए होता है, वैसे ही यह इच्छा बढ़ती जाती है।

👉 यह श्लोक एक कठोर सत्य को प्रकट करता है —
यह वासना, जो अंतहीन है, एक बार जागने के बाद आत्मा के ज्ञान को ढक देती है, और बुद्धिमान व्यक्ति भी इसके जाल में फँस सकता है।

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📖 Detailed Explanation in English

Krishna makes it very clear:

Even the wise (jñānin) are vulnerable to the eternal enemy—desire (kāma).

• It covers their wisdom (jñānam āvṛtam).

• This desire is never satisfied (duṣpūra), like a blazing fire (anala).

• It keeps growing, demanding more fuel—more pleasure, more gain, more indulgence.

👉 Desire is deceptive. It doesn't come with fangs and claws—it comes as a sweet craving, a seeming harmless longing…
But once allowed in, it consumes peace, clarity, and wisdom.

Even great sages fall when they do not guard their mind against this fire.

This is not a denial of all desires—but a call for disciplined desire, not enslaving desire.

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💡 Life Lessons / Practical Takeaways

• 🔥 Uncontrolled desire is the eternal enemy—even for the wise.

• 🧠 Wisdom is not enough—it must be protected.

• 🛑 Cravings grow stronger the more you feed them—starve them with awareness.

• 💭 Watch every subtle longing—it may grow into a blazing fire.

• 🧘 Real strength is saying "no" to the unnecessary.

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🔚 Conclusion

Krishna has now personified desire as a powerful inner enemy:

It hides wisdom, never rests, and demands endlessly.

To win the inner war, we must learn to recognize desire early, and deal with it before it becomes a raging fire.

In the next verse, Krishna will reveal where exactly desire resides—and how it captures the instruments of knowledge.