The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

╭ introduction
objects and senses are not separate; they are two aspects of
the same event. Mind, energy, and matter are a continuum,
and the universe is not described as it might be in itself, but as
it presents itself to the human mind. As they say in the “new
physics,” it is not just an observable universe but a participatory
universe.
Let me illustrate. This morning I had a fresh mango for
breakfast: a large, beautiful, fragrant one which had been
allowed to ripen until just the right moment, when the skin
was luminous with reds and oranges. You can see from that
kind of description that I like mangoes. I must have eaten
thousands of them when I was growing up, and I probably
know most varieties intimately by their color, shape, flavor,
fragrance, and feel.
Sankhya would say that this mango I appreciated so much
does not exist in the world outside – at least, not with the
qualities I ascribed to it. The mango-in-itself, for example, is
not red and orange; these are categories of a nervous system
that can deal only with a narrow range of radiant energy. My
dog Bogart would not see a luscious red and orange mango.
He would see some gray mass with no distinguishing features,
much less interesting to him than a piece of buttered toast.
But my mind takes in messages from five senses and fits them
into a precise mango-form in consciousness, and that form
– nothing outside – is what I experience. Not that there is no
“real” mango! But what I experience, the objects of my sense
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