kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ |
mahāśano mahāpāpmā viddhy enam iha vairiṇam ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 3.37)
“[In response to the question, ‘What causes a person to commit sin even against one’s will?’ Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa says:] It is kāma, of raja-guṇa in origin, voracious, and greatly harmful, and it is [kāma’s transformation upon obstruction] anger. Know this [i.e., kāma] to be the enemy here [i.e., on the path to mokṣa].”
kāmaḥ bandhanam evaikan nānyad astīha bandhanam |
kāma-bandhana-mukto hi brahma-bhūyāya kalpate ||
(Mahābhārata: 12.243.7)
“Kāma (desire) is the one and only bondage [i.e., the one and only cause of all the jīva’s bondage in saṁsāra]. There is no other bondage here [i.e., in this world]. One who is free from the bondage of kāma is fit to realize Brahman.”
saṅkalpa-jaṁ manoratham |
(Bhāvārtha-dīpikā on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 4.9.27)
“That which is produced from a resolve (saṅkalpa)” refers to a desire [lit., “that which is a chariot of the mind,” i.e., that which leads the mind as a chariot leads a passenger].”
kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma,— ataeva ‘śānta’ |
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali ‘aśānta’ ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.19.149)
“A devotee of Kṛṣṇa is free from desire and thus peaceful. Those who desire enjoyment, liberation, or supernatural power are not peaceful.”
saṁpratyayaḥ spṛhā ity amaraḥ |
(Amara-kośa; cited in Śabda-kalpa-druma)
“[Śraddhā means] Firm conviction [alt., certainty, trust, confidence, reliance, knowledge, experience] and [i.e., or] desire.”
āruhya paramāṁ kāṣṭhāṁ premā cid-dīpa-dīpanaḥ |
hṛdayaṁ drāvayann eṣa sneha ity abhidhīyate |
atrodite bhavej jātu na tṛptir darśanādiṣu ||
(Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi: 14.79)
“Prema which reaches its ultimate limit, illuminates the lamp of perception [i.e., produces perception of the object of prema—Kṛṣṇa], and melts the heart is called sneha. When it arises, no satiation can ever come about by darśana and so forth [i.e., by hearing of Kṛṣṇa, remembering Him, etc.; when sneha manifests, desire for Kṛṣṇa becomes insatiable even by direct interaction with him, much less seeing him, thinking of him, and so on].”
yaṁ sannyāsam iti prāhur yogaṁ taṁ viddhi pāṇḍava |
na hy asannyasta-saṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 6.2)
“Know that which they call renunciation (sannyāsa) to be yoga, O son of Pāṇḍu, since no one by whom intention has not been renounced becomes a yogī.”
yadi na samuddharanti yatayo hṛdi kāma-jaṭā
duradhigamo’satāṁ hṛdi gato’smṛta-kaṇṭha-maṇiḥ |
asu-tṛpa-yoginām ubhayato’py asukhaṁ bhagavann
anapagatāntakād anadhirūḍha-padād bhavataḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.87.39)
“O Bhagavān, if ascetics do not fully eradicate the roots of desire in the heart, then although you are present in the heart [of these ascetics], you become difficult to attain like a forgotten jewel on the neck, and yogīs who [merely] satisfy the life airs [i.e., who do not sincerely practice yoga to attain you but rather only for bodily and other worldly benefits] attain only distress from both sides [i.e., in this world and the next] because of not being free from causes of death [i.e., because they continue to undergo the threefold sufferings of material existence while living] and because of not having realized your nature [i.e., because they remain subject to saṁsāra in the hereafter].”
tṛṣṇaiva saṁsāras … |
(Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭīkā on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.1.4)
“Thirst [i.e., desire] is itself saṁsāra.”
aham ity anyathā-buddhiḥ pramattasya yathā hṛdi |
utsarpati rajo ghoraṁ tato vaikārikaṁ manaḥ ||
rajo-yuktasya manasaḥ saṅkalpaḥ sa-vikalpakaḥ |
tataḥ kāmo guṇa-dhyānād duḥsahaḥ syād dhi durmateḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.13.9–10)
[In response to Uddhava’s inquiry as to why human beings engage in sensual enjoyment even though they generally know it ultimately results only in suffering, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa says:] “When a false notion of ‘I’ [i.e., identification with the material body and mind] surges in the heart of a bewildered person [i.e., someone devoid of proper discrimination], then frightful rajas surges in the sāttvika mind [i.e., even though the mind is sāttvika by nature]. Resolve along with fancy arise in a mind possessed by rajas, and then irresistible desire arises because of the deluded person’s [consequent] meditation on qualities [i.e., mental absorption in the qualities of the object of the mind’s resolve and fancy].”
