Sanskrit
एवं बुद्धेः परं बुद्ध्वा संस्तभ्यात्मानमात्मना । जहि शत्रुं महाबाहो कामरूपं दुरासदम् ॥
evaṃ buddheḥ paraṃ buddhvā saṃstabhyātmānam ātmanā jahi śatruṃ mahābāho kāmarūpaṃ durāsadam
Translation
Thus understanding Him as greater than the Reason, restraining the self by the Self, slay thou, O mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of desire, difficult to overcome.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The chapter’s closing instruction assembles everything since verse 36: knowing what’s beyond buddhi (verse 42), one steadies the ordinary self by the higher Self and slays the enemy named back in verse 37. “The self by the Self” is a formula the Gita reuses at 6.5-6, and it resolves the chapter’s arc from Arjuna’s opening confusion about knowledge versus action into a single closing image: fight, but fight desire, using the very faculty — buddhi, anchored beyond itself — that verse 1 opened the chapter by questioning.
Concepts