Our emotions shape us significantly. What enlivens us, what enrages us, what enchants us — all this reveals who we are. What triggers attraction in one person may trigger aversion in another. Because different people can have different emotions about the same situation, we usually treat emotions as subjective. 

That our emotions are subjective doesn’t, however, mean that they can be wished away. Emotions themselves are objective in that they are real states in our mind. And our mind is real, although it is not physically tangible like our body. Understanding that emotions are objective is critical for treating emotional wounds effectively. 

Emotional wounds usually refer to the things that make us feel distressed. Additionally, they can refer to the things that impel us to act in ways that cause distress, to us and others. To varying degrees, we all are wounded by self-destructive drives such as lust, anger or greed. Pointing to the objectivity of such drives, the Bhagavad-gita (03.40) assigns them specific locations: the senses, the mind and the intelligence. What agitates us specifically may be subjective to us, but if we are especially vulnerable to a particular agitation, that is an objective reality which can’t be wished away or willed away. 

On being exposed to stimuli that agitate us, when we feel the corresponding emotions rising, we can’t rely only on willpower to control ourselves — just as when a person with a fractured arm tries to lift a heavy object, they can’t rely on willpower alone to suppress the resulting pain. 

Once we recognize the objectivity of our emotional wounds, we can take the spiritual processes for treating ourselves seriously, as seriously as we might treat a fractured arm. 

One-sentence summary:

Our emotions are subjective, but emotions themselves are objective — our emotional wounds need to be seriously healed, not just casually wished away. 

Think it over:

  • How are emotions both subjective and objective?
  • How does the Gita point to the objectivity of emotions?
  • Why is understanding the objectivity of emotions important for us?

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03.40: The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.

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