This stanza vividly explains to us that discrimination (Jnana) the capacity to distinguish the Real from the unreal, the permanent from the impermanent, the true from the false, which gives man his higher status in the scale of evolution — is the divine faculty that gets screened off from us due to our own greedy and insatiable desires. The pronouns in the previous stanza now stand clearly elucidated: the “discriminative capacity” in us (it — idam) gets screened off by the insatiable “desires” (by this — tena).

HE NOW TELLS US WHICH ARE THE SEATS OF ‘DESIRE,’ WHICH, BY ENVELOPING WISDOM, FORMS THE ENEMY OF THE WHOLE WORLD. THE SEAT OF THE ENEMY BEING KNOWN, IT IS EASY TO KILL IT:

Jnanam, Knowledge; is avrtam, covered; etena, by this; nityavairina, constant enemy; jnaninah, of the wise. For the wise person knows even earlier, ‘I am being induced by this into evil.’ And he always [Both at the time when desire arises in him, and also when he is forced to act by it.] feels distressed. Therefore, it is the constant enemy of the wise but not of a fool. For the fool looks upon desire as a friend so long as hankering lasts. When sorrow comes as a consequence, he realizes, ‘I have been driven into sorrow because of longings’, but certainly not earlier. Therefore it is the constant enemy of the wise alone. In what form? Kama-rupena, in the form of desire-tha which has wish itself as its expression is kama-rupa; in that form-; (and) duspurena, which is an insatiable; analena, fire. That which is difficult to satisfy is duspurah; and (derivatively) that which never has enough (alam) is analam. Again, having what as its abode does desire, in the form of a viel over Knowledge, become the enemy of all? Since when the abode of an enemy is known, it is possible to easily slay the enemy, therefore the Lord says: