Bg 3.39

āvṛtaṁ jñānam etena
jñānino nitya-vairiṇā
kāma-rūpeṇa kaunteya
duṣpūreṇānalena ca

Word for word:

āvṛtam — covered; jñānam — pure consciousness; etena — by this; jñāninaḥ — of the knower; nitya–vairiṇā — by the eternal enemy; kāma–rūpeṇa — in the form of lust; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī; duṣpūreṇa — never to be satisfied; analena — by the fire; ca — also.

Translation:

Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.

What does it covers is described here: It covers Gyanam-knowledge of soul who is knower, it is eternal enemy – why it is such an enemy which goes life time after life time. In terms of identity, strategy and longevity it is worst enemy. Identity – most of the time we don’t come to know who is our enemy…people don’t become angry on lust but become angry on who is obstructing lust. We think our enemy are outside but it is inside.

Strategy – When enemy attack us it used its force to conquer us but lust uses our own force to destroy us, how is that, there is no force to do wrong things but the person does wrong things oneself. E.g. Computer virus uses computer resources to destroy computer. 

Here indulgence will aggravate the fire, fire will not be extinguished. It will not subdued.

Is it that within Dramic arrangement of marriage also lust will be aggravated than what is the point of having Grihasta ashram if lust is always fueled by indulgence then what is the point in Grihasta Ashram? In Grihasta ashram it is not that indulgence brings purification but it is observance of dharma brings purification. There is difference between Grihasta and Grihmedi, Grihmedi is always interested in sense gratification, but for Grihasta sense gratification is one part of life but in center of their life is Dharma – Krishna.

As criminals are shackled similarly those who are criminals or disobedient to the laws of the Lord are Shackled by sex life. Unless one thinks that he is body he cannot be indulged in sex life and thinking he is body is the cause of bondage, it is a bondage of misidentification and further bondage increases when we act at bodily level. Sex desire binds the soul to the body why it binds because I have sex desire so to fulfill it I need a body. So that is how the soul who doesn’t want to serve Krishna is bound in bodily conception of life by having sex desire. And in body conception of life it will suffer more by birth-Old age-disease- death and three fold miseries Adhibhautika, adhidaivika, ādhyātmika. 

“Advancement of material civilization on the basis of sense gratification means increasing the duration of the material existence of a living entity”

As in modern time there is more option available to entangle himself in lusty desires. 

In America the amount of money made by porn industry is much more then football and baseball industry. So many people are caught in that. If the definition of success is sense gratification that is pointless. Most of the funding for research comes in science from defense industry or from consumer industry and consumer industry is about eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

“Therefore, this lust is the symbol of ignorance by which the living entity is kept within the material world. While one enjoys sense gratification, it may be that there is some feeling of happiness, but actually that so-called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer”

As Srila Prabhupad has said there is some amount of happiness, someone can say that no there is big happiness as so many poets are written on this and movies are made on this, but actually this is a huge amount of exaggeration as the capacity of body to enjoy is very limited. That so called enjoyment is ultimate enemy of a person because it traps the person. As mouse is trapped in mouse trap or the fish trapped by bait and the fish is pulled out and dragged. It is ultimate enemy of sense enjoyer. This is not just bad from moral point of view based on some outdated conception of morality or people in past have though this is wrong and this is right. 

Obnoxious (bad) are consider obnoxious because it is noxious (poisonous). Lust is considered more poisonous than poison.

There is visah (poison) and there is visay (Sense object). Vish destroys only after consumption but Visaya destroys just by contemplation. When someone contemplates of sense objects, senses are contaminated, get poisoned and eventually it is destroyed. So Vish is not as dangerous as Vissaya. Therefor one has to be extremely conscious.

So called feeling of happiness is the ultimately enemy of the enjoyer.