Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 7, Verse 27

Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Visnuswami

Sridhara Swami's Commentary

Thus the ignorance of embodied beings and their lack of cognisance in regard to the Supreme Lord due to the influence of maya or illusory impressions superimposed upon the mind has been stated. The reason for the severity of such ignorance is spoken by Lord Krishna with the words sarva bhutani sammoham meaning all forms of life are completely deluded. At one's very birth when the physical body comes into existence the delusion begins due to the influence of dualities. The external perceptions of happiness and misery, heat and cold, success and failure which arise out of the desire for what is pleasing and the aversion for that which is displeasing, deeply binds an embodied being to primarily identify with their physical body and thus the delusion increases. Always occupied with how to acquire happiness and constantly worrying about how to avoid misery people take no time to acquire knowledge about the Supreme Lord and having no knowledge they remain deluded never knowing who He is and worshipping Him.

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Madhvacarya

Madhvacarya's Commentary

Embracing the delusion of the dualities such as pleasure and pain, praise and ridicule, joy and grief along with desire and attachment to sense objects it impossible to acquire the awareness of atma tattva or soul realisation which is the essential and exclusive prerequisite to God consciousness. All these obstacles and hindrances were mandated as Lord Krishna reveals by the word sarge meaning at the very beginning of creation as soon which means for us as soon as our atma or eternal soul became an embodied being. With the acceptance of a physical body dualities, desires and attachments arise and before the acceptance of a the physical body there was no awareness of them.

Now begins the summation.

The delusions of duality are illusionary and opposed to knowledge. As in darkness everything appears similar so in the case of delusion everything is in illusion. The Mahabharata has discussed this point in detail as follows. There is duality between the Supreme Lord and the embodied being and this is real knowledge. All other dualities are illusory and are known as dvanda-moha or a delusion of dualities. Avidya or non-knowledge is its effect and because its effect leads to even greater delusions there is a resultant mixture of anger. The Agni Purana states that: The embodied being who assumes that they are the same as the Supreme Lord or that the Supreme Lord is the same as the embodied being or that there is no difference between the Supreme Lord and the embodied being is one who is beguiled and bewildered by maya or illusory impressions superimposed upon the mind.

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Ramanuja

Ramanuja's Commentary

By word sarge meaning at the onset of universal creation Lord Krishna is indicating that at the very start of incarnate existence all creatures are inveigled into the net of various dualities such as joy and grief, heat and cold, honour and dishonour which are generated by the desire for what is agreeable and the aversion to what is disagreeable. The purport is that whatever one has experienced in their myriad of past existences which includes all the loving exchanges and all the hateful exchanges are all transmitted into succeeding lives as tendencies and predilections at the time of the next birth. These same loving and hating influences arise and develop in the same manner as they were enacted in a previous life and ensnares an embodied being to follow the pattern. The embodied beings that are caught under the sway of this enchantment appear to be constituted of these very natures and feel foreign to the spiritual feeling and tendencies associated with the Supreme Lord such as the happiness experienced in closeness with Him and the misery experienced in separation from Him. But the nature of the enlightened one's possessing spiritual wisdom is that they experience bliss only when in association with the Supreme Lord and feel grief only when bereft in separation from Him. Such an exalted being possessing this nature is rarely ever born into material existence.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Nimbaditya

Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary

In this way human beings are ignorant and kept in the dark about knowledge of the Supreme Lord. This is due to maya or illusory impressions superimposed upon the mind. This is what is being stated by the words dvanda-mohena or the delusion arising due to dualities such as joy and sorrow, success and failure, pleasure and pain, etc. When all beings take birth in their gross physical bodies they acquire an ego sense and fall prey to infatuation. In situations where the transitory body feels happiness from sense objects there is attraction and in situations where it feels unhappiness from sense objects there is aversion. Hence bewildered and befuddled constantly the embodied being thinks of themselves as the physical body and never attempts for self-realisation to discover the atma or immortal soul within themselves. The subsequent reactions from these two mentalities of attraction and aversion have been accumulated from all an embodied beings previous lifetimes through the delusion of I am happy because of this; or I am unhappy because of that. This is why most humans do not recognise Lord Krishna's supreme position and propitiate Him, they are consumed by the reactions to their past actions while busily performing new actions based on the infatuation of attraction and aversion ceaselessly increasing more and more future reactions.