Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 - Karma Yoga - Sloka 42

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

The origin of sin - 36-43

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 3 -Karma Yaoga - Sloka 42

Indriyani parani ahuh indriyebhyah param manah I

Manasah tu para buddhih yah buddheh paratah tu sah II sloka 42

इन्द्रियाणि पराणि आहुः इन्द्रियेभ्यः परम् मनः ।
मनसः तु परा बुद्धिः यः बुद्धेः परतः तु सः ।। श्लोक ४२ 

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 what is superior to the intellect is Atman.


 A thing subtle is always superior to another which is gross. The senses 5 in number, excel the gross body. Mind dominates over the senses and hence is superior to them. Intellect comes above the mind in that it decides while the later merely feels. Atman supplies light to the intellect itself and therefore it is above all these instruments utilised by It.


The skin and other coverings of a fruit are of varying grades. The interior sheaths progressively assume more and more of the characteristics of the pulp which is the main factor in it. Similarly in the makeup of the man, the subtle organs are more akin to Atman, than the gross.


Desire clings more tenaciously to the subtle than to the gross. Attachment to the body easily gives place to the attachment to the senses; from the senses it shifts to the mind; from the mind it rises to the intellect. Attachment to all of these categories leads to bondage and brings untold misery to the embodied. 


How to do away with desire, subtle as well as gross, is the next question. The solution to this is presented in the final sloka of this chapter.