Bhagavad Gita 3.34
इन्द्रियस्येन्द्रियस्यार्थे रागद्वेषौ व्यवस्थितौ । तयोर्न वशमागच्छेत्तौ ह्यस्य परिपन्थिनौ ॥
indriyasyendriyasyārthe rāga-dveṣau vyavasthitau | tayor na vaśam āgacchet tau hy asya paripanthinau ||
Translation
Attachment and aversion towards the objects of every sense are fixed; one should not come under their dominion, for they are his enemies.
Reflection
Where do you keep being caught at the same threshold, by the same pull?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Three
Each sense, each object, fixed by attraction and aversion. Vyavasthitau, set in place, already there before you arrive. Paripanthin, highway-robber. The verse uses a sharp metaphor: attraction and aversion are bandits stationed along the road, waiting. Do not fall under their power. Shankara reads this with care: the verse is not asking for indifference. It is asking the traveler to recognize where the ambush sits. The ambush sits at the meeting of the sense and the object, every time, before any thought. The work is at the meeting, not after.