16.10 Insatiable, and acting on it Krishna speaks
काममाश्रित्य दुष्पूरं दम्भमानमदान्विताः
मोहाद्गृहीत्वासद्ग्राहान्प्रवर्तन्तेऽशुचिव्रताः
kāmam āśhritya duṣhpūraṁ dambha-māna-madānvitāḥ
mohād gṛihītvāsad-grāhān pravartante ’śhuchi-vratāḥ
Given over to insatiable desire, full of pretence, arrogance and intoxication, in delusion they take up false aims and act on impure resolves.
Explanation
Insatiable, and the word matters.
duṣpūra — hard to fill, impossible to fill. The problem is not that the desire is wrong but that it has no stopping point.
Chapter 5 made the same structural complaint about pleasure: things with edges produce the ache of their edges. Here the appetite has no edge at all, which is worse.
Word by word
- kāmam
- lust
- āśhritya
- harboring
- duṣhpūram
- insatiable
- dambha
- hypocrisy
- māna
- arrogance
- mada-anvitāḥ
- clinging to false tenets
- mohāt
- the illusioned
- gṛihītvā
- being attracted to
- asat
- impermanent
- grāhān
- things
- pravartante
- they flourish
- aśhuchi-vratāḥ
- with impure resolve
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