Gita 07.27 – Don’t let inconsequential dualities become consequential

Iccha Dvesha Samuthena Dandamohena Bharata Sarvabhutani Sammoham Sargeyantiparantapa Bhagavad Gita chapter 7 verse 27 here Krishna is telling about how we become deluded and Iccha Dvesha Samuthena Iccha Dvesha desire and aversion Iccha Dvesha attachment and aversion Samuthena along with this Dandamohena Bharata Dandamoha the delusion of duality from the spiritual perspective nothing material has any speciality in terms of having the capacity to provide us pleasure material can also be valuable if it is usable in Krishna's service usable on the path of yoga but duality is pursued when we have got materialistic consciousness based on which we see certain things as desirable and undesirable so Dandamohena Bharata of Arjuna descendant in the Bharata dynasty Sarvabhutani Sammoham Sarvabhutani is all living beings, it's not just human beings duality is there even in animals grass eating animals which is a deer will find a pasture as likable and sandy surface as unlikable a bird or a honey bee will find a flower filled garden as likable and flowerless garden as unlikable in the animals of course the likes and dislikes are determined primarily by their bodily necessities and bodily preferences bodily drives basically in humans also the bodily drives are important but we have our mental drives also so say a south Indian may like idli sambar and a north Indian may like paratha and now both are meant for subsistence so both south Indian and north Indian will have aversion for say something which is not human food but even within what is human food what will serve as a source of sustenance we have further aversions and attachments so in that sense the attachments and our aversions rule human behavior much more than animal behavior all living beings even human beings especially human beings sammoham so the word moha is coming for the second time here dandamoha and here is sammoha completely bewildered sarge yanti parantapa sarge yanti sarga is creation yanti they appear like this parantapa or arjuna was a chastiser of the enemy learned to chastise the enemy of duality which causes delusion so you are saying some people as your friends some people as your enemies this is a duality so actually its not that a devotee arjuna as a devotee will embrace both virudhana and yudhisthira equally there is a natural reciprocation of affection depending on the warmth or otherwise of the other person but devotee is uniformly the well wisher of everyone and understanding this enables us to rise in our spiritual consciousness dualities are inconsequential but they are consequential inconsequential means they don't really matter all that much whether someone eats idli sambar or somebody eats paratha the point is to eat and to get on with life but when we are caught in dualities then they consume our mental energy too much and this can be especially distracting and debilitating when we are trying to fix our consciousness on Krishna we often find ourselves distracted from absorption in Krishna and one of the main sources of distraction is our is caused by our dualities our attachments and aversions which make us subject to a variety of unnecessary emotions so unnecessary means or rather inconsequential emotions so they are not necessary for our survival and they don't matter but they become consequential in the sense that they can actually distract us from Krishna minute after minute, hour after hour month after month day after day, month after month year after year lifetime after lifetime so therefore it's important that we recognize the nature of dualities in this world that they are inconsequential unless we let them become consequential so it's not that we have to rigidly suppress all our likes and dislikes no, even while practicing bhakti, if we like a particular food we can take it if the likes and dislikes are harmonizable within bhakti we can act accordingly but we shouldn't let them govern our entire life by remembering their ultimate inconsequentiality we can focus on that which is actually consequential that is our relationship with Krishna, our devotion to Krishna our remembrance of Krishna and our service to Krishna which will actually strengthen our relationship which will deepen our devotion by keeping ourselves philosophically clear about the inconsequentiality of dualities and the ultimate consequentiality of our relationship with Krishna we can ensure that we are not deprived of Krishna because of unnecessary mental agitation over unavoidable dualities sometimes the weather is too hot sometimes the weather is too cold now we can get so caught up in it that we can't concentrate we can make some practical arrangement if it's too hot, sit under a fan and do devotional service if it's too cold wear a sweater the point is there is no need to talk about it think about it too much just let the dualities do with whatever we can practically to deal with them and to create as conducive situation as possible for serving Krishna but beyond that by remembering the inconsequentiality of dualities we can march on steadily in our devotion.