विषयेन्द्रियसंयोगाद् यत्तदग्रेऽमृतोपमम् ।परिणामे विषमिव तत्सुखं राजसं स्मृतम् ॥
viṣayendriyasaṃyogād yattadagre’mṛtopamampariṇāme viṣamiva tatsukhaṃ rājasaṃ smṛtam
That which is born from the contact of the senses with their objects, which at first is as nectar, but in the end is like poison, that pleasure is accounted rajasic.
Gītā 18·38The mind of the rajasic man drinks of a more fiery and intoxicating cup; the keen, mobile, active pleasure of the senses and the body and the sense-entangled or fierily kinetic will and intelligence are to him all the joy of life and the very significance of living. This joy is nectar to the lips at the first touch, but there is a secret poison in the bottom of the cup and after it the bitterness of disappointment, satiety, fatigue, revolt, disgust, sin, suffering, loss, transience. And it must be so because these pleasures in their external figure are not the things which the spirit in us truly demands from life; there is something behind and beyond the transience of the form, something that is lasting, satisfying, self-sufficient.
