Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad

यस्मै देवाः प्रयच्छन्ति पुरुषाय पराभवं
बुद्धिं तस्यापकर्षन्ति सोऽपचीनानि पश्यति। ३८
बुद्धौ कलुषभूतायं विनाशे प्रत्युपस्थिते
अनयो नयसङ्काशो हृदयान्नापसर्पति॥३९
श्रीमहाभारते उद्योगपर्वणि प्रजागरणपर्वणि विदुरनीत्यां अध्यायः  ३४
yasmai devāḥ prayacchanti puruṣāya parābhavaṁ
buddhiṁ tasyāpakarṣanti so'pacīnāni paśyati| 38
buddhau kaluṣabhūtāyaṁ vināśe pratyupasthite
anayo nayasaṅkāśo hṛdayānnāpasarpati||39
śrīmahābhārate udyogaparvaṇi prajāgaraṇaparvaṇi viduranītyāṁ adhyāyaḥ  34

This is a thought- provoking statement from Viduraniiti, where the wise minister and statesman of India is giving a discourse of  human life and good governance to Dhirtarashtra, his elder brother and the King.

"When Gods have decided to give defeat to a person, first he is made paranoid and he loses to view things in the right perspective.  His faculty to identify the right things is lost and he embraces willingly wrong things and makes wrong decisions
When a person's  mind is turbulent and  his destruction is in sight, things which are patently wrong would look right to him and such wrong impression will never leave his heart."

The first sign of fall for a human being is his loss of good sense.  When defeat is facing him he becomes either angry or jittery. In both cases his capacity to make proper decisions and follow the safest way out is affected adversely.  He goes from fall to fall. 
The blessed Lord in Gita echoes the same idea.
" krodhaat bhavati sammohaH sammohaat smritivibramaH, smritibramsaad buddhinaash, buddhinaasaat pranasyati.  anger malke one delirious, and in such a state he loses the power of thought, and damage to the proper thought process leads to  a state of complete indiscretion, which in turn ensures one's annihilation."

--

।श्रीकृष्णो रक्षतु।
|śrīkṛṣṇo rakṣatu|
Have a nice and happy day
with profound respect and warm regards
K V Ananthanarayanan
blog   http://kanfusion.blogspot.com/
त्यजन्तु बान्धवाः सर्वे निन्दन्तु गुरवो जनाःI
तदापि परमानन्दो गोविन्दो मम जीवनंII
let all my relatives abandon me, let the great people insult me, still I am in supreme bliss since my life  is GOVINDA alone.
Iकृष्णात् परं किमपि तत्वं अहं न जाने"I
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु।
lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu|