Bhagavad Gita 18.39

yat agre cānubandhe ca

sukhaṁ mohanam ātmanaḥ

nidrālasyapramādotthaṁ

tat tāmasam udāhṛtam

From start to end, it makes the soul numb,

And leaves the consciousness dull and dumb;

Born of sleep, laziness, and heedless haze—

That is pleasure for those lost in tamasic ways.

My dear Lord, when I try to live responsibly and grow spiritually, I become conscientious about pleasures that seduce, recognizing them to be temptations that can be not just disruptive but even destructive. This constant exertion in fighting against seductive pleasures often leaves me vulnerable to another form of temptation that can seem more innocent but often ends up being more malignant: the pleasures that sedate.

O omniscient Lord, protect me from the tamasic and toxic misconception that indulging in escapist pleasures is harmless because I am not pursuing anything physically wrong. Help me realize that I am doing a great wrong to my consciousness itself, numbing and dumbing it so that I experience nothing and become like a living dead person. A consciousness misdirected by rajas requires effort to redirect, but a consciousness deadened by tamas requires far greater effort to revitalize.

O merciful Lord, whereas pleasures in rajas allure me with a shiny doorway behind which lies a dreary prison as the destination, pleasures in tamas offer no real doorway and no real destination—just the mindlessness to dodge reality and responsibility.

In today’s culture of endless distraction, O untiring Lord, please protect me from becoming a passive consumer of escapist trivia and trash. Make me an active appreciator and purposeful pursuer of the many meaningful, beautiful, and joyful things that come from you and draw me to you.

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18.39 And that happiness which is blind to self-realization, which is delusion from beginning to end and which arises from sleep, laziness and illusion is said to be of the nature of ignorance.