Vyasa said There is a wonderful tree in the heart of man, called Desire. It is born of the seed called Error. Anger and Pride from its large trunk. The desire for work is the hollow ground around its foot.

Ignorance is the root of that tree, and carelessness is the water which nourishes it. Envy forms its leaves. The evil acts of pristine lives supply it with vigour.

Loss of judgement and anxiety are its twigs; grief forms its huge branches; and fear it is sprout. Thirst which seems agreeable, forms the creepers which twine round it on all sides.

Avaricious men, fettered in chains of iron, sitting around that fruit-producing tree, worship it, in expectation of its fruit.

He who, subduing those chains, cuts down that tree and seeks to renounce both sorrow and joy, succeeds in attaining to the end of both.

That foolish wight who nourishes this tree by enjoying the objects of the senses is destroyed by those very objects like a poisonous pill destroying the patient to whom it is given.

However, by the help of Yoga, a clever man forcibly cuts off with the sword of concentration, the far-reaching root of this tree.

One who understands that the end of all acts performed from the desire of fruit is rebirth or chains that bind, succeeds in getting over all sorrow.

The body is compared to a city. The understanding is its mistress. The mind living within the body is the minister of that mistress whose chief duty is to decide.

The senses are the citizens who are employed by the mind. For maintaining those citizens the mind shows a strong inclination for various sorts of acts. Two great faults are seen in those acts, namely, Darkness and ignorance.

Upon the fruits of those acts depend those citizens along with the chiefs of the city. The two faults live upon the fruits of those acts which are done by forbidden means.

Such being the case, the understanding, which of itself is unconquerable, goes down to a state of equality with the mind. Then again the senses, moved by the stained mind, lose their own firmness.

Those objects again to acquire which the understanding tries, tries, produce grief and ultimately meet with destruction. Those objects, after destruction, are remembered by the mind, and accordingly they afflict the mind even after they are lost.

The understanding is also afflicted, for the mind is said to be different from the understanding only when the mind is viewed regarding its chief function of getting impressions about whose certainty it is no judge. In sooth, however, the mind is identical with the understanding. The quality of Darkness which is in the understanding then overwhelms the Soul itself that lies over that understanding sullied by Darkness like an image upon a mirror.

It is the mind that first becomes united with darkness. Having united itself, it attacks the soul, the understanding, and the senses, and surrenders them to Rajas."