The Bhagavad-gita (16.7-20) describes the mentality of the godless materialists who ruin themselves and those around them by their inordinate infatuation with temporary things. Their tragic life-story can be summarized as cry, vie, lie, die, fie.
Cry: Being enslaved by their innumerable and insatiable self-centered desires, they live perpetually dissatisfied, forever craving, worrying and crying for more. (16.11-12)
Lie: Their uncontrollable and irresistible desires drag them into ignoble and immoral actions (16.12)
Vie: Their moral blindness makes them ruthlessly competitive and abusive towards whoever comes in their way, and they delight in scheming violence and even murder (16.13-15).
Die: All their materialistic scheming is abruptly terminated when they run full speed into the dead end of death. (16.11)
Fie: Having let their untrammeled materialism torpedo their spiritual consciousness and devotional opportunity, they find themselves after death in arenas with little if any spiritual or even material prospects. (16.19)
Tie: The Gita (16.24) concludes the chapter by urging us to tie our intelligence to scriptural directions and use the strength of that upward connection to protect ourselves from being dragged down by our self-defeating materialistic obsessions.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16 Text 12
“Bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification.”
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