Shloka 39

Devanagari script

आवृतं ज्ञानमेतेन ज्ञानिनो नित्यवैरिणा । कामरूपेण कौन्तेय दुष्पूरेणानलेन च,और हे अर्जुन! इस अग्निके समान कभी न पूर्ण होनेवाले कामरूप ज्ञानियोंके नित्य वैरीकेः द्वारा मनुष्यका ज्ञान ढका हुआ है

Transliteration

āvṛtaṁ jñānam etena jñānino nityavairiṇā | kāmarūpeṇa kaunteya duṣpūreṇānalena ca ||

Translation

အို ကုန္တီ၏ သားတော်၊ ဤအမြဲတမ်းရန်သူဖြစ်သော ကာမသည်—လိုလားတပ်မက်မှု၏ ရုပ်သဏ္ဌာန်ဖြင့်—မပြည့်မဝသော မီးကဲ့သို့ လောင်ကျွမ်းလျက်၊ ပညာရှိတို့၏ အသိအမြင်တောင် ဖုံးလွှမ်းထား၏။

Word by Word

आवृतम्covered, enveloped

ज्ञानम्knowledge

एतेनby this

ज्ञानिनःof the knower / of the wise person

नित्य-वैरिणाby the constant enemy

काम-रूपेणin the form of desire

कौन्तेयO son of Kunti

दुष्पूरेणby/with (that which is) hard to satisfy

अनलेनby fire

चand

Speaker

अजुन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Arjuna

Kaunteya (Arjuna as son of Kuntī)

Kāma (desire)

Anala (fire, as metaphor)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Desire (kāma) is portrayed as a constant inner enemy that can obscure even a wise person’s discernment; therefore ethical clarity requires vigilance and self-control so that knowledge can guide action.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Gītā dialogue set on the battlefield, Arjuna addresses Kṛṣṇa (calling him ‘Kaunteya’ as a conventional vocative in the received text) while discussing the force that drives wrongdoing; this verse identifies desire as the veil over knowledge, likening it to an insatiable fire.