Bhagavad Gita 3.38

dhūmenāvriyate vahnir

yathādarśo malena ca

yatholbenāvṛto garbhas

tathā tenedam āvṛtam

 

“As fire is covered by rising smoke,

As dust on a mirror acts like a cloak,

As the womb keeps unknown the life that is within,

So is wisdom lost to the desire that drives us to sin.”

 

My dear Lord, what makes the inner enemy of destructive desire so difficult to deal with is that it comes in different garbs and seems threatening to different degrees at different times. When my craving is just like smoke around the fire, I can notice its presence, and I feel that I can deal with it.When it is like a layer of dust covering a mirror, I don’t even realize that it has obscured me because I tend to forget, at least temporarily, that there is a “me” that is different from the superficial and carnal desires driving me. And when desire becomes like a womb covering the life within, I am so lost—buried deep under layers of desires—that it takes a long time for me to even remember that there is a spiritual essence to me, let alone recover that essence. 

Please, O Lord, let me stay alert, let me not lower my guard ever. By remembering that, at any moment, I can get so caught that I may not even realize I am caught. Bless me, O Lord, to remember your words of warning and, more importantly, your words of the spiritual joy that awaits me if I can be free from this morbid desire. I beg you, O Lord, let your words stay alive within me, for that is what will keep me alive, even while this deadly enemy is still alive within me. 

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03.38 As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.