विवेचन सारांश

Bhagavān reveals about the immortal nature of the Soul and the temporal nature of the Shell (our physical body), explaining our journey through sorrow and joy

"Śrī Bhagavān uvāca " has appeared in the multiple times before this Shloka in Gītā. They were in simple conversations between Śrī Krishna and Arjuna; like Bhagavān asking Arjuna if he thought that he would be disgraced if he does not partake in the battle.

However, it is different in this Shloka. Here, it is a sermon. Here Bhagavān starts by saying, aśhochyān which translates into “Don’t Worry.” HE is advising Arjuna not to be anxious about what will happen if he does not fight in the battle.

Later, in the sixty-sixth Shloka of Chapter 18, Bhagavān Śrī Krishna again tells Arjuna to not worry.

sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣhayiṣhyāmi mā śhuchaḥ

HE asks Arjuna to perform his obligatory duties with diligence and surrender it, irrespective of the outcome of the war, to HIM and take refuge in HIM. HE says in the end of the Shloka, that Arjuna should not have any fear, as if Arjuna does as advised by HIM without any uncertainty in his mind, Bhagavān HIMSELF will take care of the rest and ensure his Mokṣha, his liberation.

Bhagavān Śrī Krishna says, "Arjuna, you are talking like the pundits when you say, 'If I do this, I will commit a sin, if I do that, I will be disgraced.’ Those for whom you are mourning are not worthy of mourning. There is no need for mourning. Pandits never mourn for those who are about to die or have already died.”

HE assures that once we surrender our actions to Bhagavān, we need not worry about it anymore. We should have a firm belief that if we have done any deed with right intention and have offered it to the Paramātmā, then it will surely be right.

Bhagavān Śrī Krishna explains to Arjuna that when we have a relationship with someone as our own, we become happy or sad because of their presence or parting. We feel grief at the death of a loved one. HE tells Arjuna that it is not that we never existed at some point in time or that we will never exist in the future. The soul is eternal.

Whether it is a king or an ordinary person, every person has existed in every era, in the past, in the present, and will exist in the future. We all have existed in every era and will exist in the future.

In Chapter 4, when Bhagavān says that HE existed even before the Sun God, we find a confused Arjuna asking HIM in the fourth Shloka of the chapter,

aparaṁ bhavato janma paraṁ janma vivasvataḥ
katham etad vijānīyāṁ tvam ādau proktavān iti

Arjuna wants to know how is it possible that Śrī Krishna existed from the beginning of time when HE was born recently, maybe a few years before Arjuna himself.

To this question, Bhagavān responds in the next Shloka of Chapter 4 as 

bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava chārjuna
tānyahaṁ veda sarvāṇi na tvaṁ vettha parantapa

Bhagavān Śrī Krishna explains to Arjun that although he incarnates in this world an infinite number of times, yet he always remains omniscient. It is just that Arjuna is not aware of it.

Here too, in this Shloka, Bhagavān Śrī Krishna tells Arjuna that There is no destruction of the soul as the soul does not get destroyed with the body. Bhagavān Śrī Krishna explains to Arjun that both he and Bhagavān HIMSELF have had infinite births, though the body that we are seeing today will not be there tomorrow. The soul will take over another body in the future. He strongly advises Arjuna to thus prepare for war, as it is his bounden duty to fight in the war.

Bhagavān Krishna tells Arjuna that the body undergoes changes such as childhood, youth, and old age. The soul does not undergo any change. The soul however is permanent.

All these stages mentioned here are associated only with the body. The body is perishable and gets destroyed after a certain stage. The time for existence of the body is fixed.

Karmas that we perform are connected within the confines of the body and remain with it, but the soul changes over to another body. Therefore, wise men, knowing this difference, do not get deluded by attachment to the physical body. They know that the body is perishable, temporary whereas the soul is imperishable, eternal.

In this Shloka, Bhagavān Śrī Krishna addressing Arjuna as Kaunteya (son of Kunti) explains that the senses that exist in us have distinct functions, and that which can be measured.

Our five senses perform different functions viz. touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste. When something is perceived as good through these senses, it brings us pleasure. When something is contrary to these senses, it causes us pain. Cold and heat, love and hatred, happiness, and sorrow, good and bad—all these objects are impermanent, temporary. Excessive pleasure brings joy, and excessive pain brings sorrow. We can thus measure the perception of the senses. functions. However, these experiences of pleasure and pain are connected to our senses and are uncertain and not eternal.

To rise above these, we must endure them. To remain equanimous, we need to do Sādhanā and practice the behavior of self-control consistently. Continuous practice is required so that we can keep our minds equanimous. If someone praises us a lot then we become happy and if suddenly someone criticizes us and we get upset, then these are not the signs of being equanimous.

Sages and saints continuously do penance and practice this. For this reason, they remain equanimous in favorable and unfavorable circumstances. Common people like us tend to become very happy when someone praises us for a very good discourse but on the other hand, we get disturbed and sad if there is any mistake in pronunciation and someone criticizes us for that.

This is not the right temperament. We should always work in the direction to endure the pain, the negative emotion or situation and try correcting our mistakes through continuous practice. Progressing in the right direction will be the right step which will ultimately be of benefit to us.

Bhagavān further expands on this in the next Shloka.

Addressing Arjuna as Puruṣha-ṛiṣhabha (the noblest amongst men), Bhagavān Śrī Krishna say that wise men who remain equanimous in happiness and sorrow constantly practice experiencing favorable and unfavorable circumstances and they are not distressed by them. This state of equanimity makes them immortal. Only those who remain equanimous in both situations become eligible to attain salvation. Remaining equanimous once and then becoming distracted the next time is not correct. This is achieved through austerity and continuous spiritual practice. Every person who wants to attain salvation must work towards it.

In this Shloka, Bhagavān Śrī Krishna explains to Arjuna the characteristics of the soul.

HE introduces a profound insight into the nature of reality, distinguishing between what is temporary and what is eternal.

There is no existence for the unreal (Asat), and the real (Sat) never ceases to be.

Bhagavān explains that the unreal which the fleeting, the changing aspects of the world does not have a true existence, while the real, the eternal essence, is always present and never ceases to exist.

The wise, or tattva-darśis (seers of Truth), understand this distinction and can see beyond surface appearances to grasp the unchanging reality beneath all transient forms.

This body did not exist in the past and will not exist in the future. However, the soul that existed in the past exists in the present and will continue to exist in the future. The soul being eternal will not remain in one perishable body, but leaving one body will pass into another.

The wise have understood this knowledge, and therefore they remain equanimous. The soul is subtle and does not change, whereas the body being inert undergoes changes. We move from childhood to youth and into old age, and after a certain time, the body perishes, whereas the soul being the Chetana, the consciousness, the essence is imperishable.

Just as our mobile phone is inert if it is not connected to a network. It becomes useful only when it gets connected to a tower. Likewise, Bhagavān is the consciousness, and as consciousness spreads within the body, this inert body becomes functional. Without the soul, this body has no existence of its own.

That is why Bhagavān advice’s Arjuna to not mourn the possible obliteration of the physical being of his kith and kin, but to do his duty as a warrior and fight in the battle.

Here, Bhagavān Śrī Krishna tells Arjuna that this world is perpetual and exists forever. It is only Bhagavān who can create or destroy it at HIS will.

By understanding the qualities of the body and soul, one will not feel sorrow as he will know that body as unreal and mortal and the soul as real and eternal.

HE reiterates his advice to Arjuna to not mourn anyone's death but to perform his duty and fight in the war, as the body notwithstanding the war, will eventually and inevitably perish.

Bhagavān Śrī Krishna addresses Arjuna as Bharata (descendant of Bharata, belonging to the Bharata clan) and says that the soul needs some form of body to function. However, this body temporarily housing the imperishable soul is itself perishable. This is the only bond between the body and the soul. Due to our ignorance, we are bound to this particular bond and hence the physical body.

We learn to understand and appreciate this when we hear a discourse on the Bhagavadgītā. However, after a while we tend to gradually forget them and get ensnared in the bond again.

To free ourselves from this bond, we must constantly and with diligent discipline perform spiritual Sādhanā or practice detachment. We must continue to strive, because this consciousness carries forward and serves us in our next lives. The sooner we assimilate this knowledge, the better. Without it, no matter how much knowledge we have, we remain ignorant.

As we have learnt earlier, the body changes through many stages from childhood to old age that we can measure. The soul on the other hand is subtle and cannot be measured.

Just as we cannot measure the sky, we cannot measure the soul either. If we fill a pot with water and try to see the reflection of the Sun in it, we will indeed see the reflection. If we take out the water from the pot, the reflection of the Sun will not be visible anymore. This does not mean that the Sun does not exist. The Sun does continue to exist; only that we cannot see it in that pot. Śrī Krishna tells Arjuna that like the sun, the soul too is real and indestructible. Hence it is not correct to believe that one can kill the essence or that it dies. The soul does not die, nor can anyone kill it.

In the forty-sixth Shloka of Chapter 1, Arjuna had said,

yadi mām apratīkāram aśhastraṁ śhastra-pāṇayaḥ
dhārtarāṣhṭrā raṇe hanyus tan me kṣhemataraṁ bhavet

It would be better if, with weapons in hand, the sons of Dhritarashtra kill him unarmed and unresisting on the battlefield.

Bhagavān clarifies this point here when HE says that which gets killed and perishes is not the real you. The real self, which resides within the body, is not only unaffected by death, but also is immortal. One need not mourn for those who fall in battle. None are truly slain. What appears as death is merely a change of location from one body to another.

Those who believe the soul is dead or that the perpetrator is dead do not know that the soul is immortal and eternal. Bhagavān Śrī Krishna says that if both the attacker and the one being attacked think that someone died because of their action, then they are mistaken. No one can kill the soul within the body. Whoever is killing is actually killing the body only.

This act of killing someone wrongfully is however sinful and one must face the karmphala or the resultant punishment for it.

In the case of the Battle of Kurukshetra, Śrī Krishna as the peace-envoy had gone to Duryodhana with the proposal to give five villages to the Pāṇḍavas and therefore avoid such a big battle. Duryodhana could have accepted the proposal and avoided the war, but he did not do that and hence it was an act of Adharma or iniquity on his part.

What could the Pāṇḍavas do in this circumstance except to fight the battle. If they did not do this to protect their people, then it too would be an act of Adharma on their part. Hence to uphold Dharma or righteousness it was the bounden duty of the Pāṇḍavas to fight in the battle.

Here it is very important to understand the context to ascertain what is right and what is wrong. What is wrong for one can be right for another.

Bhagavān says that the soul is never born nor can it be created as it is eternal and immortal. It does not die even when the body dies. Humans can learn to remain equipoised in any situation even if it is very sorrowful like a death in the family, by understanding the teachings of Bhagavadgītā. They would then experience normal levels of happiness and sorrow because they know that the soul is eternal, everlasting, and indestructible. It is therefore especially important to assimilate the teachings of the Gītā into one’s life.

Śrī Krishna tells Arjuna that the person who believes that the soul as unborn, eternally indestructible becomes equipoised and always in balance. This body is perishable even without war; it will eventually have to die one day. If not today, then tomorrow. One must understand this truth. Therefore, HE again advises Arjuna to do his duty and prepare for war instead of mourning the imminent death that may occur in the battle.

Śrī Krishna addressing Arjuna as Pārtha (son of Pritha another name for Kunti) says that the soul leaves one body and enters another.

One may imagine this as a painful process for the soul.

To them, Bhagavān says, that just as we shed old clothes and wear new ones, the soul too leaves the old body and takes on a new one. A child cries when its clothes get dirty or wet and the mother immediately changes the child's clothes even while the child keeps crying.

Similarly, Bhagavān knows how long a soul is required in a particular body. As soon as that soul's work in that body is complete, it leaves it. The soul's transition into another body is like changing clothes. A person who understands this attains an equipoised mind.

There is a story from the life of Bal Gangadhar Tilak that explains this point very well. Tilak Ji used to publish a newspaper called Kesari and one day; while working on it he received news that his son had passed away. He, however, continued to do his work, saying it was very important and left only after completing it. Everyone working around him was very surprised by this action of Tilak Ji.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak had studied and assimilated the teachings of Bhagavadgītā into his life. He thus simply told everyone present, "This is an offering from my household in the face of the plague raging in Pune." He had convinced himself that the body had just been transformed as per Bhagavān's wishes. Ordinary people, however, often criticize such individuals without thinking about what may have led to such an action.

By living life with the teachings Gītā as their goal, human life can indeed become blessed.

The enlightening vivechan session was offered to the lotus feet of Bhagavān Śrī Krishna and was followed by a Questions and Answers session. It concluded with prayer to Bhagavān Śrī Krishna and rendition of Hanuman Chalisa.

Question & Answer

Sushma Gupta Ji

Q: What is meant by antavanta ime dehā in the eighteenth Shloka of this chapter?

A: It means that the body is perishable. It is bound to perish. Bhagavān tells Arjuna to not grieve for this mortal body.

Devaki Nair Ji

Q: What is indicated by Sat and Asat in the sixteenth Shloka?

A: The body is indicated as Asat because it is perishable. The soul is indicated as Sat because it is indestructible; it is eternal.

Santosh Ji

Q: In what form should we constantly worship Bhagavān?

A: The feeling with which one worships Bhagavān is the feeling with which one meets upon HIM. For example, if we worship Him in the form of a father, we will meet HIM in the form of a father. The soul element is present in everyone. We can worship them in whatever form we like. That becomes our Ista form.

Hemlata Thakkar Ji

Q: Are the Jihadis right in their action since they believe what they are doing is to uphold their Dharma or faith.

A: Yes, from their point of view, they may be right just as Duryodhana thought when he refused the peace proposal brought by Śrī Krishna. Such people act out of ignorance, and we must strongly retaliate to such wrongful actions. This is what Param Pujya Swami Ji tells us just as Śrī Krishna told Arjuna when he advised him to fight in the battle.