Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa now explains where kāma operates. Desire does not function in a vague way. It has three bases: indriyāṇi, the sense organs; manaḥ, the mind; and buddhiḥ, the intellect.

The sense organs are the first base. They present sense objects to us: forms, sounds, tastes, touches, and smells. The eyes see an object, the ears hear praise, the tongue tastes something, the skin enjoys comfort, the nose receives fragrance. The senses do not decide whether the object is truly good or bad. They simply bring the object into our field.

Then the mind takes over. The mind is the emotional and dwelling faculty. It repeats, remembers, imagines, likes, dislikes, doubts, and broods. The object may have appeared only for a moment, but the mind keeps replaying it: “That was nice. I want it. It is worth having.” By repeated dwelling, the mind creates a stronger impression — saṁskāra or vāsanā. What began as a passing contact becomes an inner pull.

Then the intellect becomes involved. The buddhi is the judging and discriminating faculty. Ideally, it should guide the mind by asking, “Is this dharmic? Is this necessary? Will this help my growth? Is this really a source of lasting happiness?” But when kāma influences the buddhi, the intellect gives a wrong judgment: “This object will make me happy. This will make me secure. Without this, I cannot be fulfilled.”

This is the crucial distinction. The mind says, “I like it; I want it; I keep thinking about it.” The intellect says, “This is truly good for me; this will make me complete.” The mind creates the emotional pull; the intellect gives the false approval. Once the buddhi wrongly certifies the object as a source of happiness, desire becomes powerful.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says etaiḥ vimohayati eṣaḥ — through these three bases, kāma deludes the person. It first uses the senses to present the object, then the mind to dwell on it, and finally the intellect to misjudge it. Having covered jñānam, discriminative knowledge, it deludes the dehin, the embodied individual.

So the verse gives a practical map of temptation: sense contact, mental dwelling, intellectual misjudgment, and then delusion. To handle kāma, we must watch all three levels: regulate the senses, prevent the mind from brooding, and educate the intellect so it does not falsely declare external objects to be the source of lasting happiness.