After giving a warning in the first 2 slokas against the arrogance of knowledge and insatiable greed for acquiring wealth, Jagat guru Adi Shankaracharya sternly strikes at the evil of lust, as being one of the most intractable (stubborn) and destructive.
The 2 utmost forbidden things our elders warned us from the days of the Upanishads is, Kaanatha or Kaminee, that is wealth and the other one being Kaanchan, that is woman. He exhorts (strongly urges) both men and women to resist the temptation of getting into external appearance of beauty of the body. Biologically, attraction for the opposite sex is natural, but this temporary attraction or enjoyment will always lead to misery, sorrow and destruction and hence has to be controlled, disciplined, purified and sublimated (changed).
Sri Shakaracharya comes with a most efficient and natural antidote. He wants us humans, to analyze and perceive mentally the reality of the body (Pratipaksha Bhavana). Body is nothing but abhorrent flesh and fat, packed in a bag of skin and nine holes, and one day this filth-filled body will perish.
He reminds us of our multiple lives and being lived through these two passions. This very manav janma attained due to some punya karma, is not to be wasted, but to be utilized to reach the lotus feet of the Lord. He urges us to maintain the practice of ‘varam-varam’, the art of balancing and focusing the mind on the Lord, because mother maya is always ready to strike us with her fatal attraction of the world of objects around us.
We gaze at the world splashed all over with our own limited, veiled and conditioned mind. He instructs us to see the world with close observations, diligent inquiry and discriminatory powers in its most natural form and beauty, opting for Shreyas ( path of right and good) rather than Preyas ( path of immediate pleasure).
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