How can one be neutral?

Those who claim to be materially neutral are hypocrites. The concept of neutrality, so much cherished by the constantly conflicting residents of Kali Yuga is a mental scheme only. Nobody is neutral as even the preachers of neutrality will oppose those who don’t agree with them. That means they are not neutral.

This illusory idea of neutrality, another version of mayavada oneness arriving finally at the point of sunyavada, making everybody and everything to zero, is making any spiritual attempt impossible. Unfortunately this paranoia to be "judgmental" and finally "offensive" found its way even into the ranks of devotees, who often unconsciously quote this hallucinatory dogma in name of "peaceful progress".

Quotes like "chapatti has two sides" and the feverish attempt to find "the other side of the truth" leaves everybody who seeks final and absolute verdict of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his shelter frustrated.

There is right and there is wrong. Arjuna was awakening from the dream of his "neutrality" and had to face the facts. His challenge was of such a dimension that not only he had to kill others, but he had also to kill the very same personalities he learned to respect, his teachers… and even other vaisnavas. What more could be more challenging as to attack those who were as much devoted to the Supreme Lord as he was but unfortunately preferred to follow more the social code, being obliged to Duryodhana and his party.

What a clear lesson regarding sentimental neutrality! It seems that some of our preachers didn’t made it beyond the first chapter of Bhagavad Gita and want to tell us that perfection of life is to retire and spend one’s life in some sort of japa-retreat. Srila Prabhupada and Bhaktisiddhanta maharaja would certainly not be very pleased by that idea of "transcendental neutrality".

The true neutrality is described by Srila Prabhupada in Sixth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Chapter 16, text 11. Here we find everything to be known regarding being neutral:

The Supreme Lord (atma), the creator of cause and effect, does not accept the happiness and distress that result from furtive actions. He is completely independent of having to accept a material body, and because He has no material body, He is always neutral. The living entities, being part and parcel of the Lord, posses His qualities in minute quantity. Therefore one should not be affected by lamentation.

PURPORT: The conditioned soul has friends and enemies. He is affected by the good qualities and the faults of his position. The Supreme Lord, however, is always transcendental. Because He is the isvara, the supreme controller, He is not affected by duality. It may therefore be said that He sits in the core of everyone’s heart as the neutral witness of the causes and effects of one’s activities, good or bad. We should also understand that udasina, neutral, does not mean that He takes no action. Rather, it means that He is not personally affected. For example, a court judge is neutral when the opposing parties appear in front of him, but he still takes action as the case warrants. To become completely neutral, indifferent, to material activities, we should simply seek the shelter at the lotus feet of the supreme neutral person.

Maharaja Citraketu was advised that remaining neutral in such trying circumstances as the death of one’s son is impossible. Nevertheless, since the Lord knows how to adjust everything, the best course is to depend upon Him and do ones duty in devotional service to the Lord. In all circumstances, one should be undisturbed by duality. As stated in Bhagavad Gita:

“You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.“

One should execute ones devotional duty, and for the results of one’s actions one should depend upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

END OF THE PURPORT

Despite the opinion of all those who always try to "point to the other side", there is finally right and wrong and there is ultimately the final verdict of the Krsna and His pure devotee. That a devotee sees things equally doesn’t mean that he treats them equally. Being materially "equal" leads to insanity.