When two people engage in an illicit relationship, their embrace is unholy. Lust is such an insidious partner that locks us in an unholy embrace. The Bhagavad-gita (03.37) cautions that lust is our enemy, a vicious and voracious enemy that has an insatiable appetite for consuming the things that titillate our senses, thereby making us defenseless in our fight against vice. Of course, lust itself is a primary vice.

Lust locks us in selfishness. When we come under the spell of lust, we can’t think of others except as factors in our enjoyment. If we feel that others will give us sensual gratification, we try to connect with them. If we feel that others won’t give us that gratification, we discard them as if they were disposable use-and-throw objects.

And lust is a treacherous enemy because it comes not with upraised weapons but with smiles and sweet promises that make us lower our guard and welcome it into our heart, as if it were our best friend. But once lust enters within, it soon shows its true colors, goading us towards actions that we wouldn’t do normally. The torment it subjects us to when we don’t submit to its dictates is something only the worst of our enemies would subject us to. And lust acts like a relentless slave-driver from whom we just can’t escape because it has locked us in its unholy embrace.

The best way to free ourselves from lust is to strive to embrace Krishna’s lotus feet, to invoke his presence in our heart by praying to him desperately and by striving to serve him diligently. Reciprocating with our devotional fervency, he mercifully releases us from lust’s unholy embrace by awakening us to the joys of love that transcends the pleasures of the flesh that lust locks us into.

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