MindKshetraby LogitsLab
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Bhagavad Gita · 7.27 · Self-Knowledge and Enlightenment·27 of 30

इच्छाद्वेषसमुत्थेन द्वन्द्वमोहेन भारतसर्वभूतानि 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.

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

Related verses

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