Attraction and repulsion for sense objects are felt by embodied beings, but one should not fall under the control of senses and sense objects because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.
It is far better to discharge one's prescribed duties, even though they may be faulty, then another's duties. Destruction in the course of performing one's own duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to follow another's path is dangerous."
Arjuna said: "O descendant of Vrisni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?"
The Blessed Lord said: it is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all devouring, sinful enemy of this world.
As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the womb covers the embryo, similarly, the living entity is covered by different degrees of this lust.
Thus, his eternal enemy in the form of lust covers a man's pure consciousness, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust, which veils the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.
Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great sign of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
The working senses are superior to dull matter mind is higher than the senses. Intelligence is still higher than the mind, and it [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.
Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence, one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus-by spiritual strength conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust. | |