Bhagavad Gita Verse 15, Chapter 5

naadatte kasyachitpaapam na sukritam vibhoohu |
ajnyaanenaavritam jnyaanam tena muhyanti jantavaha || 15 ||
 
Neither does the eternal essence accept anyone's sins, nor anyone's merits. Ignorance veils knowledge, that is how creatures are deluded.
 
na : not
aadatte : accept
kasyachit : anyone's
paapam : sins
na : not
sukritam : merits
vibhoohu : eternal essence
ajnyaanena : ignorance
aavritam : veiled
jnyaanam : knowledge
tena : that
muhyanti : deluded
jantavaha : creatures
 
In the sequence of shlokas describing the vision of the enlightened seeker, Shri Krishna provided the illustration of the city dweller and also asserted that the eternal essence is separate and distinct from action and its adjuncts including doership, results and enjoyership of result.
 
In this shloka, he takes us another step further in explaining the distinctness of eternal essence from action. He says that even sin and merit also have nothing to do with eternal essence. He also further says that action, result, doership, enjoyership, sin, merit - the notion that these belong to the "I", the eternal essence, is termed as ignorance. This ignorance is caused due to our strong identification with the body, mind and intellect.
 
Let us refer to the Pac-Man example from the previous post. Based on his actions in the video game, the Pac-Man character can gain points (merits) or lose points (demerits). This gaining and losing of points is again based on rules of the video game. It, too, is a fully automatic system that does not require any external intervention to work.
 
Now, in some places in the Gita, Shri Krisha asks us to offer merit and sin to God. But here it is said that eternal essence does not take sin or merit. So how do we reconcile this seeming contradiction? The key thing to understand here is that the person who thinks he is associated with action, sin and merit is at one level, and the person who has identified himself with eternal essence is at another level. It is just like saying that the points accumulated in a Pac-Man game have no bearing in the real world. The game and the real world are two different realms.
 
Another way to look at it is as follows. Sin and merit are duality. They are two sides of the same coin, as it were, just like black/white, heat/cold and day/night. When you rise above it, duality has no bearing. Day and night do not mean anything when one is in outer space, when one leaves the earth and rises above it.
 
Here's another noteworthy point. Shri Krishna has used an interesting word to refer to ignorant people in this shloka. He calls them creatures. It is a subtle hint that as long as we operate with body identification, we are similar to animals who also operate only at that level.
 

Bhagavad Gita Verse 38, Chapter 3

dhoomenaavriyate vahinyarthaadarsho malena cha |
yatholbenaavrito garbhastathaa tenedamaavritam || 38 ||
 
Just as smoke covers fire, dirt covers a mirror, and a womb covers a foetus, so does this (desire) cover that (wisdom).
 
dhoomena : by smoke
aavriyate : covers
vahinaha : fire
yathaa : like
aadarshah : mirror
malena : dirt
cha : and
yathaa : like
ulbena : womb
aavritaha : covers
garbhaha : foetus
tathaa : so does
tena : that
idam : this
aavritam : cover
 
Earlier Shri Krishna explained that when likes and dislikes morph into desire and hatred, they increase the rajas in our system, creating a vicious cycle. So what is the end result? Here, he says that when desire and hatred arise, they shut off or conceal our wisdom.
 
Our wisdom, or ability to discriminate, resides in our intellect. Due to a lifetime's worth of conditioning, this wisdom does not become our second nature. Wisdom is like a shining light, which can easily be covered if we are not careful. So desire, or anger, arise from the deeper, subconscious aspects of our mind and cover this light of wisdom. We then lose any ability to decide right from wrong, and behave foolishly. Shri Krishna says here that our wisdom can be covered in three ways.
 
The thickest, most dense covering occurs due to taamasic desires. These are desires that have lived inside our system for ages, and once they get activated, they totally cover the wisdom just like a womb covers a foetus. And just like there is no other way to see the foetus other than to wait for its birth, the only way to get rid of taamasic desires is to wait. They are so strong, and so in tune with our likes and dislikes, that nothing can be done once they are activated. Examples of taamasic desires are excessive drinking, drug usage, or even the overpowering desire to be "right" which can lead you into violent fights and arguments.
 
Less potent than taamasic desires are raajasic desires. As Shri Krishna says in this shloka, their veiling of wisdom is less thicker than taamasic desires. They are like dust on a mirror, where one stroke of the hand cleans the mirror. Raajasic desires are usually motivated by greed. Examples include buying the latest gadget, boasting of one's accomplishments to one's friends and so on.
 
Finally, saatvic desires are those that cover our wisdom very lightly. The desire to attend a satsang, or to attain moksha, is a saatvic desire. Our wisdom shines the brightest, or in other words, operates at the greatest capacity through saatvic desires.
 
As we progress in our journey, let us try to be alert and at least try to track the desires that we harbour. How many desires are we living with? What is the proportion between saatvic, raajasic and taamasic? Are we slowly changing the proportion in favour of saatvic desires?
 
In this shloka, the mysterious phrase "this covers that" was used. Although we got a sense of what that means here, Shri Krishna goes into more detail in the next shloka.