In this chapter, the author describes attachment (rati), the sixth of the ten states of passion which are as follows:

dṛṅ-manaḥ-saṅga-saṅkalpā jāgaraḥ kṛśatā ratiḥ
hrī-tyāgonmāda-mūrcchāntā ity anaṅga-daśā daśa

“Sight, emotional attachment, resolute determination, wakefulness, emaciation, attraction, rejection of shyness, insanity, delusion and death—these are the ten stages of passion.”¹

Dharmātmā and kāmopahata-cetanaḥ indicate that kāma that does not oppose dharma is not reprehensible [unlike kāma that does oppose dharma].² “Mighty-armed” indicates that the Lord had lifted His arms up. Kamala-locanaḥ indicates that His eyes were similar to lotuses that ooze out honey, which [further] indicates that His eyes were brimming with tears.³

Śrī Rāma became “mentally confused due to passion” because He was separated from Sītā-devī.

NOTE. This mental confusion due to passion is exhibited by the Lord here to teach us that we, the conditioned souls of this world, should not come under the influence of the mode of passion or rajo-guṇa which confuses the minds of conditioned souls.

The effects of the three guṇas of material nature are well delineated in Chapters 14, 17 and 18 of Bhagavad-gītā. How the living entities come under the control of the modes of material nature is explained by Prabhupāda in his purport to Bhagavad-gītā 3.37 as follows:

When a living entity comes in contact with the material creation, his eternal love for Kṛṣṇa is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion. Or, in other words, the sense of love of God becomes transformed into lust, as milk in contact with sour tamarind is transformed into yogurt. Then again, when lust is unsatisfied, it turns into wrath; wrath is transformed into illusion, and illusion continues the material existence. Therefore, lust is the greatest enemy of the living entity, and it is lust only which induces the pure living entity to remain entangled in the material world. Wrath is the manifestation of the mode of ignorance; these modes exhibit themselves as wrath and other corollaries. If, therefore, the mode of passion, instead of being degraded into the mode of ignorance, is elevated to the mode of goodness by the prescribed method of living and acting, then one can be saved from the degradation of wrath by spiritual attachment.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead expanded Himself into many for His ever-increasing spiritual bliss, and the living entities are parts and parcels of this spiritual bliss. They also have partial independence, but by misuse of their independence, when the service attitude is transformed into the propensity for sense enjoyment, they come under the sway of lust. This material creation is created by the Lord to give facility to the conditioned souls to fulfill these lustful propensities, and when completely baffled by prolonged lustful activities, the living entities begin to inquire about their real position.

This inquiry is the beginning of the Vedānta-sūtras, wherein it is said, athāto brahma-jijñāsā: one should inquire into the Supreme. And the Supreme is defined in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as janmādy asya yato ’nvayād itarataś ca, or, “The origin of everything is the Supreme Brahman.”

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam abundantly clarifies that the Supreme Brahman is none other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Kṛṣṇa whose eternal Viṣṇu expansions include Rāma, Nṛsiṁha and so on.