Bhagavad Gita · 7.27 · Self-Knowledge and Enlightenment·27 of 30
इच्छाद्वेषसमुत्थेन द्वन्द्वमोहेन भारत।सर्वभूतानि संमोहं सर्गे यान्ति परन्तप ॥
ichchhā-dveṣha-samutthena dvandva-mohena
bhārata sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ sarge yānti parantapa
Sanskrit recitation
What you worship shapes you · 7.20–7.30 · Teaching
Translation
O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth due to the delusion of the pairs of opposites arising from desire and aversion, O Parantapa.
Meaning
Where there is pleasure there is Raga or attachment where there is pain there is Dvesha or aversion. There is the instinct in man to preserve his body. Man wishes to attain those objects which help the preservation of the body. He wishes to get rid of those objects which give pain to the body and the mind. On account of delusion caused by the pairs of opposites, desire and aversion spring up and man cannot get the knowledge of the things as they are, even of this external universe of senseexperience and it needs no saying that in a man whose intellect is overwhelmed by desire and aversion there cannot arise the transcendental knowledge of the innermost Self.Raga (attraction) and Dvesha (repulsion), pleasure and pain, heat and cold, happiness and misery, joy and sorrow, success and failure, censure and priase, honour and dishonour are the Dvandvas or the pairs of opposites. Desire and aversion (or attraction and repulsion) induce delusion in all beings and serve as obstacles to the dawn of the knowledge of the Self.He whose intellect is obscured by the delusion caused by the pairs of opposites is not able to realise I am the Self. Therefore he does not adore Me as the Self.He who is a victim of RagaDvesha loses the power of discrimination. He wishes that pleasant objects should last for ever and that disagreeable or unpleasant objects should disappear immediately
After Swami Sivananda
What you worship shapes you· 7.20–7.30→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 7.20Those whose wisdom has been taken away by this or that desire, go to other gods, following this or that rite, led by their own nature.
- 7.21Whatever form any devotee desires to worship with faith, I make that same faith of his firm and unflinching.
- 7.22Endowed with that faith, he engages in the worship of that form and obtains his desired outcome, which is ordained by Me alone.
- 7.23Verily, the reward (fruit) that accrues to those men of small intelligence is finite. The worshippers of the gods go to them, whereas My devotees come to Me.
- 7.24The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having manifestation, not knowing My higher, immutable, and most excellent nature.
- 7.25I am not manifest to all, veiled as I am by the Yoga-Maya. This deluded world does not know Me, who am unborn and imperishable.
- 7.26I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, the present, and the future; however, no one knows Me.
7.27O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth due to the delusion of the pairs of opposites arising from desire and aversion, O Parantapa.
- 7.28But those men of virtuous deeds, whose sins have come to an end and who are freed from the delusion of the pairs of opposites, worship Me steadfastly, with their vows.
- 7.29Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me, realize in full that Brahman, the whole knowledge of the Self, and all action.
- 7.30Those who know Me with the Adhibhuta (pertaining to the elements), Adhidaiva (pertaining to the gods), and the Adhiyajna (pertaining to the sacrifice) know Me even at the time of death, remaining steadfast in mind.
Word-by-word→
- sarge
- since birth
- sarva
- all
- mohena
- from the illusion
- yānti
- enter
- dvandva
- of duality
- bhārata
- Arjun, descendant of Bharat
- dveṣha
- aversion
- ichchhā
- desire
- sammoham
- into delusion
- bhūtāni
- living beings
- parantapa
- Arjun, conqueror of enemies
- samutthena
- arise from
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