Desire is the enemy of Self-knowledge
41.Therefore, O Arjuna, by controlling the senses first, slay this enemy called desire, the destroyer of knowledge (indirect knowledge of Atman, right understanding) and wisdom (direct knowledge or realisation of Atman)!
Bhagavad Gita Ch. III
Comment of Ramanuja (a great Sage of India)
‘For whatever reason a person is engaged in Jnana Yoga, which is of the nature of abandoning the activities of all the senses, should control this enemy in the shape of desire which turns him away from the Self (Atman, Consciousness) through creating infatuation for objects of the senses. By the same reason, you, which are attached to the activities of the senses, should, at the beginning of the practice, control the senses by the practice of Karma Yoga, which is the practice of regulating the functioning of the senses. And then you must destroy, i.e., slay this sinful enemy, which is in the shape of desire and which destroys knowledge and discrimination, i.e., knowledge relating to the nature of the self and of the discriminative power, which is the means to gain this knowledge’.