Bhagavad Gita 18.21

pṛthaktvena tu yaj jñāna

nānā-bhāvān pṛthag-vidhān

vetti sarveṣu bhūteṣu

taj jñānaṁ viddhi rājasam

 

That perception sees each form apart,

As separate beings, part by part;

It sees distinctions, fragments the whole,

Know this as passion’s seeing role.

 

My dear Lord, please help me appreciate how perception and passion work so that they may work harmoniously for my growth toward you.

O omnipresent Lord, while perception can be significantly cognitive, it frequently arises from passion and results in passion. That is, I tend to see what my desires draw me to seek, and I tend to seek what shines most in what I see. And my entire life is often lived within the perimeter of my seeking and seeing.

O omniscient Lord, please protect my perception from being captivated and consumed by the passions that pervade this mundane world and by the varieties of forms evident in it. The more I get fixated on those forms, the more I become blinded to deeper realities, especially the spiritual reality of you.

O merciful Lord, please elevate my perception so that I can break free from the polarizing dualities of the likeable and the unlikable that populate both my outer world as I seek within it and my inner world as I see through it.

O all-attractive Lord, please help me always appreciate that you are the supreme reality for whom I need to have a supreme passion. May my mundane passions for this world never obscure my divine passion for you. Bless me so that my perception becomes pure and potent, so that my passion is redirected from the world to you.

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18.21 That knowledge by which one sees that in every different body there is a different type of living entity you should understand to be in the mode of passion.