Deuteronomy 7:25 Meaning You Shall Burn the Engraved Images

Indriya-saṃvara: Guarding the sense doors Guarding the sense doors is the watch kept at the moment of seeing. Gold plating catches the light, and the eye is on it before anything has been decided; from that first look everything else follows on its own. Burning the whole thing outright spares a man the job of standing in front of the shine and appraising it, since by then, like a moth already circling the lamp, he has lost the argument.

Abhijjhā: Covetousness Covetousness leans the mind toward what is sitting on someone else's altar. Silver and gold keep their weight long after the god they cover has been discredited, so the appetite outlives the religion. The hand that reaches for the metal and the knee that bends to the image start in the same place, which is why the warning goes after the wanting and not only the worship.

Mārapāsa: Māra's snare A snare works by offering something worth taking. Gold lying in the ashes is bait set where it will certainly be found, and it holds for one reason: a hand closes on it first. These are people who watched their own earrings come out of a fire as a calf, so they know how quickly a pile of jewelry acquires a claim on whoever keeps it.

Anusaya: Latent tendency Latent tendencies lie below the surface, asleep until something wakes them. Melt the figure down and bank the silver, and nothing at all has been surrendered; the pull that fastened on the shine is intact, waiting for its next occasion. Weeds cut off at ground level come back from the root, so the command reaches past the carving to the metal on it.

Āditta: Aflame Everything the senses lay hold of is already burning. Setting a torch to the images adds nothing new, it only makes the fire visible, since the overlay had been consuming the people who looked at it long before anyone gathered wood. A fire goes out when its fuel is taken away, and silver kept back in a tent goes on quietly feeding one.