What is wrong with aversion to sense objects?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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discussing this point. Hare Krishna. This is attraction, the Bhagavad Gita disapproves attraction with sense objects.
It also tells us to give up aversion. So, what is the problem with aversion with sense objects? Actually, attraction and aversion are both essentially phases of material consciousness. We are experiencing material emotions when there is attraction and that means there is attachment.
I want this, I want this, I want this because this will give me pleasure. And if there is aversion, this is not giving me pleasure, this is giving me misery. This is giving me misery, this is giving me misery.
That is aversion. Now, both are very body-centered, self-centered visions of things. So, for example, sometimes people say that we are in love with each other and I can’t live without you.
Sometimes those same people who are initially madly in love, then they come close to each other, they start finding out, you know, this person has this problem, this person has that problem and they say, earlier they say I can’t live without you, now they say I can’t live with you. Just go to the other extreme. This is what Raga and Leisure.
When they have this extremity, their emotions are moving like this extremely, then one cannot have sustainable relationships. So, both of them are phases of material consciousness and the whole message of the Bhagavad Gita is to rise to spiritual consciousness. So, what the Bhagavad Gita asks us to do is not be enamored that the world will give us pleasure, nor be disgusted with the world, thinking that it will cause me misery.
There are broadly three attitudes towards the world, the attitude of Karma, the attitude of Jnana and the attitude of Bhakti. The attitude of the Karma is to romanticize the world. Oh, there is so much pleasure in this world.
If I just do some adjustments, then we romanticize the world. Jnana goes to the other extreme and Jnana demonizes the world. This world is full of entanglement, full of misery, full of danger.
The path of Bhakti is to utilize the world. Don’t romanticize it, don’t demonize it. If something is going to be used in Krishna’s service, we use them.
So, Dvesha can actually become problematic. Suppose somebody thinks that Krishna lived in a forest, in a simple rural place and that is where we should practice Bhakti. And somebody becomes too averse to city life.
If one’s service requires one to be in a city, that’s where most of the outrage is going to happen. If somebody is averse, that might limit one’s service. So, aversion is based on a self-centered vision of things, whereas the Bhagavad Gita urges us to have a Krishna-centered vision of things.
Of course, this does not mean that if we are averse to some things, we deliberately have to do those things. No, Bhakti is not about making ourselves miserable. Bhakti is about keeping the focus on Krishna.
So, naturally, we may be attracted to some things, we may not be attracted to some things. So, a Brahmana will not be attracted to money the same way as a Vaishya is attracted to money. But that doesn’t mean a Brahmana is averse to money.
A Brahmana is not that absorbed in money. So, we focus on the whole. So, Krishna talks about that in the second chapter.
And the third chapter also says, So, Raga and Dvesha are there, but don’t let them determine one’s life, one’s life trajectory. So, by keeping our life trajectory centered on how I can best serve Krishna, we can avoid succumbing to both Raga and Dvesha. Does it address the question? Yes, sir.