The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

╭ introduction
There is a causal connection, for example, between the things
we see and the physical organ of seeing, the eye and its related
branches of the nervous system: both depend on the underlying
form in the mind that conditions how we perceive light.
The objects we see are shaped by the way we see. So senses
and sense objects “make sense” only together: each is incomplete
without the other. That is why there is such a strong pull
between senses and sense objects.
On the other hand, the Gita says, this pull has nothing to
do with us – the Self, the knower. When Krishna keeps telling
Arjuna to train his mind to be alike in pleasure and pain, he
is simply being practical: to discover unity, consciousness has
to be withdrawn from the hold of the senses, which ties it to
duality.
When the senses contact sense objects, a person experiences
cold or heat, pleasure or pain. These experiences are
fleeting; they come and go. Bear them patiently, Arjuna.
Those who are not affected by these changes, who are the
same in pleasure and pain, are truly wise and fit for immortality.
(2:14–15)
The sensory attraction of pleasure is just an interaction
between inert elements of similar stuff, very much like a magnetic
pull between two objects. We are not involved. When
I look at a fresh, ripe mango, it is natural for my senses to
respond; that is their nature. But I should be able to stand
aside and watch this interaction with detachment, the way
╭ 42