Gita 12.16 Complement spiritual devotion with material dispassion

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devotion. And those devotees who do like this, they are dear to Krishna.

Thank you. Krishna is describing here the qualities of these devotees which endear the devotees to him. As he says in the last line, such devotees are dear to me.

So, his party, his group, means one who is not having a mentality of groupism, one who is neutral, one who is disinterested. There are two words which is sometimes used interchangeably, but they usually have different meanings, disinterested and uninterested. So, uninterested means one who has no interest in a particular subject.

Disinterested means that person has no, that person is neutral, that person has no selfish interest or vested interest in a particular subject. It is not that they are not interested in the subject, that if it is required, they will investigate something, but they do not have any vested interests over there. So, anapeksha means that a devotee is focused on spiritual cultivation and does at the material level, a devotee does not get caught in taking sides.

Anapeksha So, rather than getting, the material world is a place of conflict. And one major way if conflict is aggravated is by the practice of making mountains out of Moses, by taking small things and making them big and thus people fight and fight. In the Bhagavatam, there is a verse where we say that it is the Lord s illusory energy which makes people fight ultimately.

So, anapeksha, so a devotee does not get caught in groups like this. A devotee focuses on the purpose of serving Krishna. Shuchi, a devotee maintains purity, external and internal purity.

External purity comes by bathing and other acts of cleanliness. Internal purity comes by purging out impure thoughts whenever they come into the consciousness. Daksha is expert.

A devotee needs to be expert in order to be able to, in order to deal with various situations that one may come across in one s life. Serving Krishna in the material world, carrying forward Krishna s mission in the material world is not easy. And in order to be able to do so, we need expertise for balancing our various sides and for knowing with shrewdness what is to be done where.

By the word shrewd has negative connotation. The word diplomatic definitely has a lesser negative connotation as compared to political. And daksha simply means expert.

So, devotee may have to be diplomatic at times. And what to say when, that is something which nobody can give an absolute formula for. We would become like robots if we are programmed from somewhere and go there and just do those things.

If you have programs, then there will be no farewell notes or talks, valedictory talks. And also, while there will be no possibility of misuse, but there is no possibility of relishable use also. There is no relish coming from their use.

So, although at one level, the mechanization of many things around us can bring us comfort. At another level, it is often stepping off the treadmill of getting more and more, getting the new, the better, the more. That is what comprises material life.

Getting off the treadmill and moving onwards towards life's more important things. So, that is dakshata. Dakshata is not simply expertise in speaking the right thing.

That is fine. Some people, people who are daksha like that, they can be manipulators also. But dakshata actually refers to expertise in doing what needs to be done, doing what is important and avoiding the things which are not all that important.

So, if we are impartial, if we are neutral, if we are detached, then it is possible to avoid getting caught, then it is possible to daksha. Somebody who has any vested interests, that person will be one, somebody is attached to a particular material thing, then an attachment to the material thing will make the person act in particular ways and prevent that person from acting in other ways. So, our attachments control us.

And often they make us act not only in expert ways, but actually they make us act in injurious ways for ourselves. So, detachment is a great strength in providing us the emotional stability for making wise decisions. So, there are many sources of distress in this world, but it is only when we invest our consciousness in those objects that our suffering becomes more and more.

But if we can shift our focus somewhere else, then we will be able to move forward much more. So, we cannot ultimately sarvarambha parityagi, arambha means endeavour, it refers to material endeavour. So, sarvarambha parityagi means that one who gives up all material endeavours.

So, this verse highlights the contrast between spiritual devotion and material dispassion, that when people may sometimes mistake devotion to be emotionality, but yes, devotion involves emotion, but emotion is not just sudden or arbitrary or uncontrolled, rather emotion is properly channelled after material emotion, properly channelled towards Krishna after material emotion is regulated. And Bhagavad Gita just talks about material unemotionality, which accompanies spiritual emotionality. So, that material emotionality is what is stressed here in the attributes.

So, not being partial towards anyone's material interest. Not being so attracted, infatuated with material things that one is not conscientious of proper cleanliness considerations. Daksha, expert in knowing how, what is to be done without being influenced by material emotions.

Udasino gatavyatha, udasino explicitly being detached from material things. Gatavyatha, the extent we are attached to material things, to that extent we will be, we will go through a whole gamut of emotions of pleasure and pain associated with them. But if we are detached in gatavyatha, they cannot cause us any distress.

And sarvaarambha parityagi, and one gives up the endeavour for gaining material things. And in this way, one can move steadily in one's journey towards Krishna and as I said over here,.