Verse 18.38

Verse 18.38: “That which, through contact of the sense-centres with the objects (of sense), is at the outset comparable to ambrosia, but in its effects is like venom: that pleasure is recognised as Rajas-dominated. (794)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

And that (Rajas) overflows both the banks, when the sense-objects and their centres contact each other: people hold celebrations at a visit of a high official of the State to their place; or marriage functions are celebrated with great pomp by incurring heavy debts: or to a diseased person the plantain fruit and sugar taste sweet (even though both are prohibited to him): or a poisonous root—the gloriosase [gloriosa?] herb (bacanāga)-tastes sweet when first put into mouth: or the friendship of thieves, or the (loving) behaviour of a harlot (lit. mate one accepts at a public place) or the humours or jokes of a flatterer or fool, all prove fatal in the end; in that way, the pleasure that is derived from the union of the sense-objects and their centres, which fattens the beings, ends in drying up whatever wealth (of merit) a person has secured, and in making the being lose his life, and in exhausting whatever merit (puṇya) had been to his credit side, in the way a well-fed swan should smash itself against a rock (allured towards it by its gaudy appearance). And then whatever happiness has been enjoyed vanishes as if it was all a dream, and the only destiny reserved for the being is to rot in the ditch of total ruin. T

hus what is prima facie the (Rajas) pleasure in this world, develops ultimately into evil turning back from the other world (heaven) like poison. Sins are strengthened (sins are firmly entrenched) where senses are fondled and their objects are freely enjoyed as in Bacchanalia, causing destruction by burning of the orchard of religious merit and those sins then take the being to Hell. In this way that pleasure causes harm in the other world (also). Even though venom is given the name “sweet” (mahura [madhura?]), yet in the end it causes loss of life disclosing its real nature; in that way, that pleasure tastes sweet in the beginning but proves bitter in the end. Such pleasure, Oh Partha, is formed of Rajas, and therefore, take care you do not touch it!