“No problem’s so big that sex can’t solve it.” So believe the materialists whose minds are filled with endless sexual fantasies.

The Bhagavad-gita (16.10) indicates that such people take shelter of lust (kamam ashritya). Whenever they need a break amidst life’s problems, instead of seeking refuge in Krishna, they seek refuge in lust. Thus they make lust into a god who, they faithfully believe, will solve their problems.

However, lust is a terrible god. Unidimensional obsession with lust makes it voracious, in fact insatiably voracious (dushpuram). The more they indulge in lust for getting some pleasure or at least some relief, the more lust tightens its stranglehold on their minds, goading them into increasingly immoral indulgences. Sexual pleasure being temporary never lives up to their fantasies of endless ecstasy. Groping feverishly for pleasure, they start exploring and enjoying sex in sickeningly distorted forms like pedophilia, incest and rape.

Lust gradually strips them of their entire conscience and makes them into devils who feel no hesitation in doing any misdeed, no matter how heinous. Quite to the contrary, they become sworn to unhealthy, unsavory actions (ashuci-vratah). They even proudly brag about such actions: “So many are my sexual conquests.” Little do they understand the reality: so many times has lust conquered them, making them perpetrate grievous wrongdoings and setting up their appointments with horrendous karmic consequences.

Unlike lust which out the worst in its worshipers, Krishna brings out the best in his worshipers. When amidst life’s problems we seek Krishna’s shelter, he helps us realize the divinity latent within us as his parts. This unleashing of the divine within us helps us to not only face problems gracefully. It also helps us fight lust gallantly and march gloriously towards Krishna for life and love eternal.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16 Text 10

"Taking shelter of insatiable lust and absorbed in the conceit of pride and false prestige, the demoniac, thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent."