we are burnt out by desire, but ..

भोगा न भुक्ता वयमेव भुक्ताः तपो न तप्तं वयमेव तप्ताः।
कालो न यातो वयमेव याताः तृष्णा न जीर्णा वयमेव जीर्णाः॥
bhogā na bhuktā vayameva bhuktāḥ tapo na taptaṁ vayameva taptāḥ |
kālo na yāto vayameva yātāḥ tṛṣṇā na jīrṇā vayameva jīrṇāḥ ||


from Vairagyashatakam of Bhartruhari

A very thought provoking subhashitam by the great philosopher poet king..

We pride ourselves in hoarding and enjoying objects and thing of pleasure.. we expect a lot of befits and good results.. but ultimately if we look back in the end, we would find that instead of enjoying the sense objects, they have drained us in the process of enjoyment but finally have left us with little or no satisfaction.
We claim that we have undergone a lot of penance and gained so much of benefit and virtue.. But in fact we have rather burnt ourselves out in the end..
We feel that time is running fast and going away from us.. But in fact, it is not time that goes away but we are just racing away from time, to face the end of life.
And we sharpen and encourage our desires in the hope that we can satisfy them.. but the desires never get consumed or satisfied.. but ultimately we consumed and even shredded by the desires..

अस्माभिः भोगा न भुक्ता ( even though we may thing that we are enjoying,) we are not really enjoying or consuming the objects of pleasure.
भोगवस्तुभिः वयं भुक्ता एव actually we are getting drained or consumed by the sense objects
अस्माभिः तपः न तप्तं ( even though we feel we are undergoing austerities) we are not actually doing any effective penance.
वयं एव तपसा तप्ताः we are just burnt out by the austerities and penance.
कालः न यातः we feel that time is running fast.. But time actually does not get affected by our existence
वयं एव याताः but as time advances we get drained out and are racing towards the ends of our innings.
तृष्णा न जीर्णा we feel that our desires would get satisfied with our constant enjoyment .. But desires never get completely fulfilled.
वयं एव जीर्णाः However we alone get consumed by desires and find our nemesis..