Just as bigotry can blind emotionally, ideology can blind intellectually Gita 18 22

Transcript

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just as bigotry can blind emotionally ideology can blind intellectually we all have probably met people who are prejudiced, bigoted, biased and if say they are biased against a particular group of people a particular race a particular religion a particular nation a particular community then they just maybe they have had bad experiences with some people from that community and that is the way they filter everyone and they presume that everybody belonging to that group must be like that some groups are labeled as selfish some groups are labeled as stingy it’s not that everybody in that group is like that but that’s how bigotry works now usually when people are bigoted it is because they have had some probably negative emotional experiences but it is not only emotional people who can become bigoted even people who seem to be intellectual who seem to be rational they can also become bigoted ideology can also blind intellectually what happens when we become sold out to some ideology then we see the whole world through the filter of that ideology rather than use the ideology to gain some better understanding of the world rather than using it as one vision one perspective of looking at the world we make that the soul’s perspective and then we look at the world through that ideology when that happens then the world gets reduced so then people become blinded to everything that opposes their ideology and they accept only those things that harmonize with their ideology so such people may even write books where they will do cherry picking they will only provide the evidence that supports their ideology and reject everything else or distort everything else so Krishna talks about such perception as such way of looking at the world as knowledge in the mode of ignorance in 1822 he says यत्तु कुछ नवद एकस्मिन् कार्ये सक्तम है तुकम् अतत्वार्थवदल्पम् च तत्ताम समुधारतम् यत्तु कुछ नवद एकस्मिन् that if one considers one thing to be everything कार्ये सक्तम अहै तुकम् without any considering any cause and effect one becomes irrationally obsessed with only one thing अतत्वार्थवदल्पम् च without considering the complete reality one gets attached to a fragment of reality and that is knowledge in the mode of ignorance so ideology especially ideological obsession ideological brainwashing that happens when we let ourselves be so fixated with the ideology that it blinds us to everything else so when our consciousness expands and at that time we can see various ideologies for what they are the world is irreducibly complex and every ideology is a tool by which we try to make the complicated reality manageable but reality transcends every ideology and this is because reality ultimately reflects Krishna’s omnipotence Krishna’s infinity is reflected in many ways in the complexity of reality even material reality so those who are devoted to Krishna they don’t become devoted to ideologies they remember that the ultimate purpose is Krishna and every ideology is like a frame in which we might take a picture but the object being pictured is bigger than the frame within which we see it and devotee is say devoted to Krishna not to any ideologies and thus those who are devoted can avoid the blinding effect of ideologies.
Thank you