There is one evil force, called by many names and taking many forms, in the mind and across cultures. Why do we err although we know the guidelines? Only the perceptive beginner notices how she struggles at first to master an urge, is somehow overridden at its peak, and is visited afterwards by guilt — a cycle of struggle and relapse. This is what troubles Arjuna, and you, and me. So the answer is sought and given: the primal seed of disturbance in the peaceful mind is “desire.” The Nāsadīya Sūkta of the Ṛgveda tells how “desire, the primal seed, arose in It, and thence mighty powers and impulses erupted, creating this universe.” In the microcosm too, when the mind is serene, a thought of desire arises and carries it off on a bumpy ride. Even on waking, I feel transported from elsewhere back into this supposedly familiar world; I sense the difference between the objectless state of suṣupti and the twin world of dream and waking. What drives us back into this chaos? This seed of primeval desire, said to lie unnoticed even in deep sleep for want of awareness, which pulls us back and chains us. This agitation belongs to the Rajas aspect of Prakṛti (see 14.7, 14.12).

So the real enemy is this deeply planted seed. This is Kāma — not merely bodily lust — the net of Māyā, the temptation of the serpent's fruit, Satan, the Devil, the inner ego, the deep-seated emperor of the void. Until it is burnt away, no one truly rises to Divinity. And what are its disguises? It is one substance, like water, taking the shape of its container. Allowed to flow, it looks and feels like lust, craving, longing, possessiveness. Obstructed, it camouflages as anger, wrath, rage, frustration. Fed repeatedly, it becomes greed, miserliness, hoarding. Sated in every wish — or thwarted in all — it turns to delusion. Tasting a little hard-won success, it swells into pride and vanity. Seeing another enjoy what it lacks, it curdles into envy and spite, and returns either as fresh desire or as frustration, and the cycle goes on. Since its root is in Tamas and its power drawn from Rajas, it is naturally opposed (14.10) to Sattva — to purity, knowledge, right thinking, and the Guru's counsel.