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Enlightenment Journal | Spring 2013

Inside the Soul:

 

The Battle We Must Fight Every Day  

and the Key to Victory

A Conversation with Michael Nagler

T

his Yoga Hour conversation between Yogacharya O’Brian and Michael 

Nagler explores the dynamics of the inner battle to fully express our divine 

nature, skillfully portrayed in the Bhagavad Gita. 
Yogacharya O’Brian:

 The battle portrayed in the Bhagavad Gita is a universal 

one, the struggle of every person to live consciously, or as Paramahansa Yoga-

nanda put it: To live by the promptings of the soul and not simply from habits and 

patterns in the mind. What does the Bhagavad Gita tell us about this? 
Michael Nagler:

 Many passages in the Gita are inaugurated by a poignant ques-

tion by Arjuna. Among those, I think this is the most poignant, where Arjuna 

says: “Why do I do things that I do not want to do? That I know are wrong; it is as 

if I were in the grip of some kind of power. Krishna, what is that power?”  
Krishna immediately says it is selfish desire (kama), it is anger (krodha) and 

both of these arise from the guna of rajas. Krishna goes on to explain this guna 

of rajas—this tendency of restless, aggressive action—resides in us in our senses, 

our mind, and our intellect. It is in that arena that we have a chance of over-

mastering that power.