Nothing fascinates the human imagination as much as sex. Pictures, articles, TV programs, movies, novels, websites and almost all conceivable means of communication are frequently used to titillate people’s imagination sexually. The sheer amount of time, energy and material dedicated to exploring sex makes it seem something extraordinarily special, rare and unique.

Factually however, sex is extraordinarily ordinaryin three ways:

1. Frequency: It happens millions of times at every moment for every moment since the moment creation began.

2. Availability: It is available not just to humans but also to almost all species – many of whom can do it far more easily and freely than humans.

3. Familiarity: All of us have experienced it millions of times in the past, in all the countless lifetimes we have been in material existence.

Thus, sex is totally pedestrian, completely commonplace, absolutely routine. Then, why does such a run-of-the-mill activity make us run off after it – mentally and even physically?

Due to the deluding power of lust.

The Bhagavad-gita (03.39) states that lust is the nitya-vairi, the eternal enemy of the soul. When lust controls our mind, it maliciously distorts our vision. Consequently, we see the activity that is extraordinarily ordinary to be extraordinarily special.

To protect ourselves from this pathetic perversion of our vision, we need to keep lust out of our mind by fixing our consciousness on Krishna. To the extent we keep lust out of our mind by cultivating Krishna consciousness, to that extent the ordinariness of sex will become obvious to us. Over time as we become seasoned in the art of remembering Krishna, we will no longer be fascinated and tormented by sex; instead, we will become increasingly fascinated and enlivened by the truly extraordinary glory and beauty of Krishna.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03 Text 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.”