Lust (endless desires) pushes a person to a very vigorous activity. This activity very often evades the Laws of the Lord. Influenced by passion, a person makes laws for others and always foresees back channels for him/herself. The main desire of such people is to get the pleasure from everything surrounding him/her, be it a cheerful conversation, wealth, sensual pleasures and others. The axis of their activity is sexual pleasure. With this, sexual pleasure does not mean only sexual relationships literally, but also everything providing them. Absorption in these pleasures makes problems.

In the Vedas there is one story which clearly describes the attempts to solve problems by satisfying needs. In a small hut there lived one yogi (a person who tries to reach perfection in self-realization through physical and breathing exercises). A mouse intruded into his hut and started to distract him from meditation process (mind concentration). Once he met a friend and complained to him. The friend advised to get a cat which could catch the mouse. The yogi did as said. After a while he met the friend again. The friend inquired about his things. The yogi complained that then the cat mewed all day long in his ears asking for milk. The friend advised to get a cow. The yogi did as said. But the care for the cow took much time, then the friend advised to bring a wife who would take care of the cow. The yogi, thus, got married. Soon the wife gave birth to children and the yogi left his practice and immersed in activities to support them. One day sitting on the porch he thought, “I’d rather have tolerated the mouse’. This is a good example showing which circle of activity one will get trying to solve problems by satisfying needs.

Passion, therefore, is based on envy and lust and “grants” temporary pleasures and constant worries and miseries. In this guna one cannot distinguish religiosity from irreligiosity because he/she does not see any difference between them. For such person all living beings are simply different material bodies with the need for food, rest, sex and self-defense and that is why any talks about perfection are not serious.

The guna of ignorance is based on illusion. This guna leads to violence, madness, laziness. This is the guna of people who reject any behavior restrictions (ethics). Violence, stubbornness, rudeness, habits to hurt others, vengefulness arising from self-righteousness is the short list of the qualities of people influenced by this guna. If the intellect in the guna of goodness distinguishes well religiosity from irreligiosity, the truth from a lie, and in the guna of passion the intellect does not distinguish these, then the intellect in the guna of ignorance is confident that it is right though it takes irreligiosity for religiosity, a lie for the truth and so on. This is the type of existence when the truth is hidden from a living being to the uttermost. The most typical specimens of this type are animals.

The Bhagavad-Gita sees lust (desires) as the most important defect and the state of a living being is defined by its availability. A virtuous person satisfies “innocent” desires and keeps those desires which can cause inconveniences to others. A passionate person looks for ways to satisfy all desires. An ignorant person without a second thought satisfies desires using violence. A virtuous person follows godly laws, a lustful person considers in his/her actions opinions of necessary people, an ignorant person just do what he/she wants not keeping with any law. Thus, a virtuous person builds a God-centered society, a lustful person builds a secular or pseudo-religious society and an ignorant person builds an atheistic or demonic society. A virtuous person likes to follow the laws of the Lord, a lustful person likes to use the Lord for satisfaction of desires and an ignorant person simply does not believe in His existence and acts as he/she wants to.