degenerates in this way, it becomes very difficult to recover its natural condition. However, the conscience of God is so powerful that even those who adopt it late can rekindle their love for God by observing the regulatory principles of devotional service. We can therefore, at any time of its existence, or as soon as we grasp its importance and urgency, start to master its senses by developing the conscience of God, by serving the Lord with love and devotion , thus transforming concupiscence into love of God: such is the perfection of human life.
Logos 241
The Eternal Supreme says: “the pure conscience of the being is veiled by its eternal enemy, concupiscence, insatiable and brilliant like fire. It is in the senses, the mind and the intelligence that this concupiscence which loses being is lodged by stifling its true knowledge”.
It is written in the science of God that lust can never be satisfied by the search for new material pleasures, just as it is impossible to put out a fire by constantly sprinkling it with petrol. The center of all material activities is sex life; this is why the material world is called “the chains of sexual life”. Criminals in society are thrown into prison and kept behind bars; similarly, those who break the laws of the Lord endure the chains of sex life. The progress of materialist civilizations is based on the pleasure of the senses; it implies, for being, an extension of material existence. Concupiscence therefore symbolizes the ignorance that keeps the prisoner of the material world. By providing pleasures to one's senses, one can experience some form of satisfaction, but this false sense of happiness is ultimately the ultimate enemy of the one who experiences it.
The enemy occupies various strategic points in the body of the conditioned soul, and God points them out to us so that whoever wants to defeat the enemy knows where to find him. The mind is the center of activity of the senses where all the ideas of material enjoyment rest; he and the senses therefore become the first seats of lust. Intelligence, meanwhile, becomes the metropolis of these lust trends. And as she is close to the soul, once consumed by lust, she will encourage him to develop a false ego and to identify with matter, therefore with the mind and the senses. The soul, gradually accustomed to enjoying its material senses, comes to believe that true happiness is there.