How lust distorts our value system – Suppose a shopping mall were built to psychologically manipulate consumers to buy anything that attracted them, without considering its cost. While such a mall would be a sellers’ dream, it would be a buyers’ nightmare. 

While modern technology may not have come up with such a mall, Gita wisdom explains that it already exists — it is a mobile mall; it surrounds sexually alluring objects. When we contemplate such objects, we unleash a chain effect that ends up destroying our intelligence, thereby degrading us (02.63). Here, intelligence refers not to technical or professional expertise that we might still retain; it refers to our value system, our understanding of what is non-negotiable, negotiable and negligible. When we enter lust’s shopping mall by indiscriminately dwelling on sense objects, we start valuing those objects disproportionately. 

A person may have a good family and social position that they have built carefully over decades, but they may toss it aside just for a sexual fling. Even if such a fling jeopardizes what they have spent their life building, they just can’t see it; lust has so distorted their value system that they see only the immediate pleasure, nothing else. And once lust assigns a premium value to a particular forbidden fruit, it destroys even the urge for seeking wisdom (03.41). That means they lose any inclination to re-evaluate the costs of their actions; they get completely consumed by various schemes to get that fruit. 

How can we protect ourselves from such value distortion? By regularly reminding ourselves of the things that matter, the things that last. Sacred texts like the Gita are filled with such reminders; by studying them regularly, we can reinforce our value system and be better equipped to choose wisely. 

One-sentence summary: 

Lust distorts our value system; regularly reorient ourselves toward the things that last. 

Think it over:

  • How does lust delude us
  • How can we protect ourselves from lust?
  • Do you find yourself victimized by value distortion? What can you do to protect yourself?

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03.39: 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.