Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Kandarpa

कन्दर्प · kandarpa

Kama, the god of love and desire

A teaching that warns against desire also finds God in it.

Kandarpa is another name for Kama, the god of love, who carries a bow of sugarcane and arrows tipped with flowers. Elsewhere the Gita calls uncontrolled desire the enemy of wisdom. Here Krishna claims desire as his own when it serves the continuation of life, 'the cause of offspring', just as in chapter 7 he says he is the desire in beings that does not go against dharma.