On the spiritual path, we understand that attachments are temptations. When we are too attached to someone, we are always thinking about that person and so are not emotionally available for thinking about Krishna.

Significantly however, that same effect of being emotionally unavailable to Krishna happens when we feel the emotion opposite of attachment – aversion. When we have strong negative emotions such as resentment, hatred and vengeance towards someone, we become emotionally consumed by that person. Unwittingly, we give as much, if not more, of our emotional energy to that person as we give to someone to whom we are attached.

Normally, we think of temptation as something that diverts us with pleasure. As aversion fills us with negativity and misery, we don’t easily identify it as a temptation. But essentially, anything that keeps us away from Krishna is a temptation. That’s why aversion is as much a temptation as is attachment.

Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (03.34) cautions that both attachment and aversion are obstacles on the path of spiritual growth. Gita wisdom explains that we are at our core souls who are eternally parts of Krishna. During our life-journey, we encounter, by our past karma, different kinds of people. Some of them trigger attachment; some, aversion. Through it all, our life’s ultimate purpose remains the same: to connect with Krishna and therein relish eternal love.

Undoubtedly, some people may cause us inordinate trouble, and we need to take appropriate action. Still, while doing so, we don’t need to let them take over our mind. To prevent aversion from consuming us, we need to remember our life’s primary purpose of growing towards Krishna. With our eyes thus fixed on divinity, we can do the needful for dealing with the troublemaker while moving on with our life of constructive contribution in service to Krishna.

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