ये हि संस्पर्शजा भोगा दुःखयोनय एव ते । आद्यन्तवन्तः कौन्तेय न तेषु रमते बुधः ॥
ye hi saṃsparśajā bhogā duḥkhayonaya eva te | ādyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ ||
Translation
The enjoyments born of sense-contacts are truly sources of suffering alone. They have a beginning and an end, O son of Kunti — the wise do not delight in them.
Interpretation
Krishna does not condemn sense pleasures as sinful in a moralistic sense; he reveals them as inherently unsatisfying from a practical standpoint. Every pleasure born of sensory contact has a beginning (arises) and an end (ceases). This built-in obsolescence is the source of suffering — we experience pleasure, then its loss, then the craving for more. The wise (budha — the awakened one) sees this mechanism clearly and chooses not to be caught in its loop, not through ascetic denial but through the discovery of a deeper, inexhaustible joy.