Bhagavad Gita 2.63

krodhād bhavati saṁmohaḥ

saṁmohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ

smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo

buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati

 

“From anger arises delusion’s haze,

Which shrouds the mind in forgetful daze.

With memory lost, wisdom is the next to fall,

And soon we succumb to self-destruction’s deadly call.”

 

My dear Lord, you remind me repeatedly of what I experience frequently and also forget just as frequently: the more I let desire trigger a storm inside me, the more I find myself trapped in a storm outside me.

You have given me, through scripture and culture, many boundaries that externally deter me from letting the impulsive become destructive by indiscriminate indulgence on my part.

But it is my misfortune that when I let desire rise to the level of a storm, it triggers anger within me. Then that very anger makes me forget the purpose of the boundaries. What was originally designed to protect me, I, out of delusion, think is meant to deprive me.

Bring me out of this delusion, O Lord, by helping me remember that what your boundaries deprive me of is not pleasure but trouble.

Bless me to remember that you are never my depriver but my deliverer—of freedom and the supreme pleasure that comes through freedom from mundane desires and absorption in your loving service.

Let that divine absorption become my ultimate purpose and not the fleeting and cheating pleasures of the world.

***

02.63 From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.

Let me see your boundaries as protectors not deprivers