एवं बुद्धेः परं बुद्ध्वा संस्तभ्यात्मानमात्मना।जहि शत्रुं महाबाहो कामरूपं दुरासदम्॥
evaṃ buddheḥ paraṃ buddhvā sanstabhyātmānam ātmanājahi śatruṃ mahā-bāho kāma-rūpaṃ durāsadam
Word by word
The verse says
Knowing him to be above the understanding, steady yourself by yourself, and strike down the enemy in the shape of wanting - the one that is so hard to get at.
In plain words
The chapter ends with an instruction and a warning in the same line.
Saṁstabhya ātmānam ātmanā - steady the self by the self. The same reflexive structure as 2.55.
And the last word: durāsadam - hard to approach, hard to get at. Krishna does not end on an easy note.
Where you've felt this · in parenting
You stop trying to argue your three-year-old out of the tantrum and simply become the steadiest thing in the room. Nothing is said. It takes far longer than arguing, and it is the only thing that has ever worked.
Going deeper
The answer, when it finally comes, is a position rather than a technique.
Arjuna asked at verse 36 what pushes a person into doing what he does not want. The answer, over seven verses, was: wanting - and it is installed in the very faculties you would use to resist it.
So the instruction cannot be think harder or try more. It is ātmanā - by the self, from the one place verse 42 has just established is above the captured equipment.
Durāsadam is an honest last word. Not impossible. Hard to come at, hard to corner. Krishna has spent seven verses describing something that hides inside the instruments of judgement, and he is not going to finish by calling it manageable.
And the question Arjuna started with has quietly dissolved. He asked which of two paths to take. He ends without either being named, because the question was wrongly put. The move was never what should I do, but who is standing here while it is done.