Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa now concludes the teaching on kāma and, with it, the main karma-yoga teaching of Chapter 3.

In the previous verses, Kṛṣṇa gave a sequence. First, kāma and krodha were identified as the inner enemy. Then he showed how kāma covers knowledge. Then he showed the seats of kāma: the senses, mind, and intellect. Then he gave the first practical instruction: control the senses. Then he revealed the inner hierarchy: senses, mind, intellect, and the Self beyond the intellect.

Now he gives the final instruction: evaṁ buddheḥ paraṁ buddhvā — knowing that which is beyond the intellect. The Self, ātma, is superior to the intellect because the intellect itself is known. We know when the intellect is clear, and we know when it is confused. We know knowledge and ignorance. Therefore, the real “I” is not the intellect, but the consciousness that illumines the intellect.

This knowledge must not remain merely as class knowledge. So Kṛṣṇa says, saṁstabhya ātmānam ātmanā — steady the mind by the mind. Here ātmānam refers to the mind to be steadied, and ātmanā refers to the mind used as the instrument of steadying. This means internalizing the teaching through nididhyāsanam: repeatedly dwelling on the truth, reliving the teaching, reflecting, writing, sharing, teaching, remembering, and making the knowledge available in moments of crisis.

It is not enough to understand, “I am consciousness,” only while listening. The knowledge must become steady. When the situation becomes difficult, when desire rises, when anger comes, when insecurity appears, the teaching should be available: “I am not an incomplete beggar needing the world to complete me. I am the formless consciousness, pūrṇa, full in myself.”

Then Kṛṣṇa says, jahi śatruṁ mahābāho kāmarūpaṁ durāsadam — O mighty-armed one, destroy this difficult enemy in the form of desire. Kāma is difficult to conquer because most people misunderstand it. They try to end desire by fulfilling it. But desire does not end by acquisition. It ends only when the false sense of incompleteness is corrected.

The root of kāma is the feeling, “I am incomplete; I need this object, person, status, pleasure, or result to become full.” Ātma-jñānam removes this error. When I discover fullness in myself, kāma loses its foundation. Then krodha also weakens, because anger is obstructed desire.

Therefore this verse gives the ultimate solution: know the Self, internalize the knowledge, and destroy kāma by owning up inner fullness.