Bhagavad Gita 11.29

yathā pradīptaṁ jvalanaṁ pataṅgā

viśanti nāśāya samṛddha-vegāḥ

tathaiva nāśāya viśanti lokās

tavāpi vaktrāṇi samṛddha-vegāḥ

 

As moths rush toward the blazing fire,

Drawn by speed to meet their pyre;

So worlds stream fast to jaws of destruction,

Racing headlong, driven by their own illusion.

 

My dear Lord, through the image of moths rushing into fire, you reveal how people often bring destruction upon themselves through misguided choices. While this impulse has existed throughout history, it has become increasingly aggressive in modern times—manifesting both in ending one’s life through suicide and in choosing lifestyles or substances that steadily lead toward self-destruction.

O supreme deliverer, many are the ways in which I have sabotaged my own prospects. And mighty indeed is the tendency within me to keep sabotaging myself even when I know what I am doing is harmful.

Please, all-merciful Lord, help me understand that the only enduring antidote to self-destruction is the instinct for self-realization. Only when I realize—or at least earnestly strive to realize—that I am your eternal part, meant to live in loving service with you, can I bring out the divine potentials within my soul and drive out the impurities that now cover it. Help me see my self-destructive impulse not merely in my addictive craving for what harms me, but at its root in my object of love shifting from you to any lesser love.

O all-loving Lord, empower me to redirect my longing toward you, so that I may be freed fully and forever from self-destruction and learn instead to relish the joy of self-realization.

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11.29 I see all people rushing full speed into Your mouths, as moths dash to destruction in a blazing fire.