Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14, Text 26
Some readers of the Bhagavad-gita are struck by a paradox: “The Gita asks us to be neutral towards emotions like happiness and distress. But it also recommends bhakti, which is through and through an emotion. How can we be both unemotional and emotional?
By being unemotional materially and emotional spiritually, answers Gita wisdom.
The Bhagavad-gita explains that we are souls who have an emotionally rich life with Krishna at the spiritual level. Presently however, we are misidentifying with our temporary material bodies. This misidentification cuts us off from spiritual emotions and fills us with material emotions.
We are like movie spectators who due to identifying with a movie character become cut off from their real life emotions and get filled with reel-life emotions. To return to normalcy, the spectators need to stop being emotionally involved in the movie and start having emotionally stimulating exchanges with others in real life. The Gita recommends these same two steps by urging us to be unemotional materially and emotional spiritually.