By Caitanya Carana Dasa
Material desires are like parasites because they almost always subvert, even sabotage, our best interests. When they divert us from our goals, they are the sources of distraction, as explained above. And when they themselves become our goals, their effect is even more deleterious: they become sources of frustration and even devastation. This is the surprising and challenging assertion of the Bhagavad-gita (5.22), which states that the intelligent stay away from material pleasures the goals of material desires because they recognize that such pleasures lead not to happiness but to misery. We can make our intelligence fit to realize the truth of this Gita verse by using as a contemplation tool the acronym FIT (Futile, Insubstantial, Temporary), which encompasses the three kinds of possible results when we seek material pleasures: