LUST: The emotion that launched a thousand ships

You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.. (Gospel of Matthew 5:27–28) 

Lust is a common emotion felt by every single entity. It is the desire to live. When extended, it becomes the desire to grow, reproduce, make the world, the world. Lust it the single emotion which causes growth for any particular field. The world lust has been misused by Abhramic religions to connotate purely and only sex, but by extension, lust is anything which is motivated by desire. This includes a lust for power, lust for blood, and so on. 


Before we get into the depths of understanding the destructive nature of Lust, we must first examine its crucial difference with sinister cousin Greed. Take for example, a delicious cake. Enjoying the taste and thoroughly eating the cake, licking it from the plate would be an example of lust. Greed on the other hand, its nefarious cousin, is not wanting OTHERS to have said cake regardless of whether you like it or not. Therefore, Desire (Kama) or Lust is INDULGENCE and it is usually associated with sexual intercourse quite simply because this is the one activity which genuine indulgence leads to more indulgence (we shall soon see why). Let us first find out whether there is any scientific basis for the destructive nature of lust, or is it just another one of religions sadistic intent on control? 

A famous scientific experiment was conducted on the effect of dopamine on lab rats. Dopamine, is a biochemical hormone which accelerates (or increases motivation) the desire for pleasure. Put it simply, it makes you "WANT"something. It is one of the primary motivating factor of having a chocolate ice-cream over celery. With a basic understanding of dopamine, let us take a look at the famous Coolidge experiment (brown et al). In this experiment, a male rat (breeding age) was put into a cage with a female rat (same age). Within a matter of minutes, the magical union began. However, after sex the rat was not interested in the female, it was also not interested in sex, that is until another female rat was placed in the cage and in an instant, the libido was infused and the bull of a rat began round 2. The amazing thing was that, as long as another female was being inserted, the male continued to have libido. This is not the disastrous part, as the rat continually increased its libido, it even avoided food and eventually died of exhaustion. Point to note: Sex (lust of any kind) is addictive. If it were not, there would be no sexoholics annonymous,  and various other support groups.

This experiment also proved an interesting aspect of the mammalian nature, we are designed to breed. It is one of our primary instincts and we thrive in polygamous relationships over monogamous ones as the animal experiment shows. The average mammalian male has 2 - 4 times the amount of libido than that of a female. This is mainly because of testosterone pumping through his bloodstream. One of the reason the warrior class of the Hindus (kshatriyas) were allowed polygamy was because of high levels of testosterone required for the muscle mass and the ratio of women to men were 4:1 as most of the men died in war. One of the more compelling evidences to the fact that the average human male has more libido than female is explained in the fact that almost all rape, harassment and abuse are caused by males.

Now that we have understood the drive behind sex, what about the aftermath? Mammalian males exhibit a post ejaculatory refractory period. During this period, a male temporarily cannot mate with the same female again and requires some time to recover full sexual function. The Coolidge effect further goes to state that upon the acquisition of another viable female, the refractory period is reduced and eventually eliminated. 


Here is where religion comes in. Most Vedantic and Abrahmic religions stress on one life partner. Too much of any thing is not a good thing. You wouldn't need a Biblical scripture or Quranic verse to tell this to you. As there is an increase to a specific stimuli, the body builds a resistance ultimately making the experience less and less enjoyable. This phenomenon is common amongst drug users and also applies to sex. The disinterest in ordinary sex would start to occur upon the attainment of different partners, and eventually, in order to keep up with the levels of dopamine, different fetishes would need to be carried out. Eventually risks would begin to be taken which involve attempts at extramarital affairs, rape, abuse, the list goes on to the extent of child pornography and bestiality. Ultimately, the enjoyment of marital union eventually begins to suffer and morality eventually disintegrates. 


Thus the propagators of religion must have understood that Lust is dangerous when not controlled. Indeed, Ravana, the demon king of Lanka in the Ramayana meets his ultimate downfall due to lust. To ensure that the snare of lust cant seep in to the average human, religions preached chastity, monks took to celibacy and renunciation  to further their spiritual development. The problem with celibacy is that curiosity acts as an aid to the overpowering nature of lust. This demonic emotion forces the average man into committing atrocious acts upon children, rape, affairs and eventually destroy the individual. Hence Krishna mentions "The three gates of Hell are LUST, ANGER and GREED" BG16:21. 

REFS

*Brown, R. E. (1974), "Sexual arousal, the Coolidge effect and dominance in the rat (Rattus norvegicus)", Animal Behaviour 22 (3): 634–637,

 Lester, GL; Gorzalka, BB (1988), "Effect of novel and familiar mating partners on the duration of sexual receptivity in the female hamster",Behavioral Neural Biology 49 (3): 398–405, 

Hergenhahn, B. R.; Olson, Matthew H. (2003), An introduction to theories of personality, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, pp. 396–397,ISBN 0130992267