Moha: Infatuated Love for One's Own Body, Wife, Children, etc.

Swami Sivananda: "Here comes another great obstacle which troubled even Sri Sankara. He had to attend the sick-bed and funeral rites of his mother, though he was a Sannyasin. A great sage, Pattinattu Swami of South India, sang when his mother died: "There was fire at first in Tripura-Samhara. Then there was fire in Lanka by Hanuman. Now the death of my beloved mother has caused burning fire in my stomach and heart. Let me also apply fire to this corpse of my mother." Moha is infatuated love for one's own body, wife, children, father, mother, brothers, sisters and property. Moha, like greed, takes various subtle forms. The mind gets attached to one name and form or other. If it is detached from one name and form, it clings tenaciously to another name and form.

"Look at the Moha of monkeys. If the baby-monkey dies, the mother-monkey will carry the dead skeleton for two or three months. Such is the power of Moha! Mysterious is Maya! If the father receives a telegram that his only son is dead, he gets immediately a shock and faints. Sometimes he dies also. This is the power of Moha. The whole world runs through Moha. It is through Moha one is bound to the wheel of Samsara. One gets pain through Moha. Moha creates attachment. Moha is a kind of powerful liquor that brings intoxication in the twinkling of an eye. Even Sannyasins develop Moha for their Ashram and disciples. Moha should be eradicated by Viveka, Vairagya, Vichara, Atma-Chintana, devotion, seclusion, study of Vedantic literature, etc. Moha can only be removed in toto by renunciation and Sannyasa and Self-realisation.

"You never wept when millions of people died in the world war. But you weep bitterly when your wife dies. Why? Because you have Moha for her. Moha creates the idea of ‘mineness.' Therefore you say: "my wife, my son, my horse, my home." This is bondage. This is death. Moha creates infatuated love for sensual objects. Moha produces delusion and perverted intellect. Through the force of Moha, you mistake the unreal, dirty body for the real, pure Atman; you take the unreal world as a solid reality. These are the functions of Moha. Moha is a strong weapon of Maya."

(Source: pgs. 214-215, Concentration & Meditation)

mOgathai kondru vidu allaal
endran moochchai niruthividu
mOgathai kondru vidu allaal
endran moochchai niruthividu
dhegathai saaithividu allaal
adhil sindhanai maaithuvidu

mOgathai kondru vidu allaal
endran moochchai niruthividu

bandhathai neekki vidu allaal
uyir baaraththai pOkki vidu
bandhathai neekki vidu allaal
uyir baaraththai pOkki vidu

sindhai theLivaakku allaal
idhai seththa udalaakku
sindhai theLivaakku allaal
idhai seththa udalaakku
seththa udalaakku

mOgathai kondru vidu allaal
endran moochchai niruthividu
thoondir puzhuvinai pol
veLiyae sudar viLakinai pol
neenda pozhudhaaga
enadhu nenjam thudithadhadi
koondu kiLiyinai pol
thanimai kondu migavunondhaen
vaendum poruLai ellaam
manadhu veruththu vittadhadi
veruththu vittadhadi

mOgathai kondru vidu allaal
endran moochchai niruthividu
dhegathai saaithividu allaal
adhil sindhanai maaithuvidu
mOgathai kondru vidu allaal
endran moochchai niruthividu 

Meaning:

Kill the lust, or stop my breath
Smite the body, or banish the thoughts.
Discipline the senses, or demolish the flesh
You that does everything in all the worlds.

Destroy the bonds, or remove the burden of life
Cleanse my thoughts, or make me a corpse.
Oh, why do I have to depend on these mere mortals?
You that is the life force inside everything.

Will my heart not calm down? Will this deceptive body not leave me?
O Mother! Will the tears of devotion not flow?
In the flood that is your love, will this dog's thirst not quench?
You that is too precious to be uttered - the Omnipresent.