Bhagawad Gita Chapter 2: Verses 12 to 15 Swami Chinmayananda's Commentary

[Guest guest]

Greetings:

 

Sri Madhavaji, the coordinator of Gita Satsang has requested me to post these

verses for this week. Lord Krishna elaborates that the human bodies come and

go but the soul is eternal. The forms and names of Atman appear and disappear

but the formless Atman is free from sorrow, pain, birth and death! In the rest

of chapter Gitacharya develops a framework for the intellect (Arjuna) to

understand and to use it for human liberation.

 

regards,

 

--

Ram Chandran

Burke, VA

 

 

"Why Do They Deserve No Grief? Because They Are Eternal. How?" The Lord Says:

 

na tvevAhaM jAtu nAsaM na tvaM neme janAdhipAH

na cAiva na bhaviSyAmaH sarve vayam ataH param 2.12

 

It is not that at any time (in the past) , indeed, was I not, nor were you,

nor these rulers of men. Nor, verily, shall we all ever cease to be

hereafter. Krishna here declares, in unequivocal terms, that the embodied

Self in every one is set on a great pilgrimage in which It comes to identify

itself with varied forms, temporarily to gain a limited but determined, set

of experiences. He says that neither He Himself nor Arjuna nor the great

kings of the age that have assembled in both the armies, are mere accidental

happenings. They do not come from nowhere and, at their death, do not become

mere non- existent nothingness. Correct philosophical thinking guides man's

intellect to the apprehension of a continuity from the past --- through the

present --- to the endless future. The Spirit remaining the same, It gets

seemingly conditioned by different body-equipments and comes to live through

its self-ordained environments. It is this conclusion of the Hindu

philosophers that has given them the most satisfactory

 

Theory of Reincarnation. The most powerful opponents of this idea do not seem

to have studiously followed their own scriptres. Christ Himself has, if not

directly, at least indirectly, proclaimed this doctrine when He told His

disciples: "John, the Baptist, was Elijah." Origen, the most learned of the

Christian Fathers, has clearly declared: "Every man received a body for

himself according to his deserts in former lives." There was no great thinker

in the past who had not, nor any in the present who has not accepted,

expressly or tacitly, these logical conclusions about the DOCTRINE OF

REINCARNATION. Buddha constantly made references to his previous births.

Virgil and Ovid regarded the doctrine as perfectly self-evident. Josephus

observed that the belief in reincarnation was widely accepted among the Jews

of his age. Solomon's BOOK OF WISDOM says: "To be born in sound body with

sound limbs is a reward of the virtues of the past lives." And who does not

remember the famous saying of the learned son of Islam who declared, "I died

out of the stone and I became a plant; I died out of the plant and became an

animal; I died out of the animal and became a man. Why then should I fear to

die? When did I grow less by dying? I shall die out of man and shall become

an angel!!" In later times, this most intelligent philosophical belief has

been accepted as a doctrine by the German philosophers Goethe, Fichte,

Schelling and Lessing. Among the recent philosophers, Hume, Spencer, Max

Mueller, have all recognised this doctrine as incontrovertible. Among the

poets of the West also, we find many burnished intellects soaring into the

cloudless sky of imagination and within their poetic flights they too have

intuitively felt the sanction behind this immortal doctrine-Browning,

Rossetti, Tennyson and Wordsworth, to mention but a few names.

 

The REINCARNATION THEORY is not a mere dream of the philosophers, and the day

is not far far off when, with the fast-developing science of Psychology, the

West will come to rewrite its Scripture under the sheer weight of observed

phenomena. An uncompromising intellectual quest for understanding life

cannot satisfy itself if it is thwarted at every corner by "observed

irregularities." We cannot, for long, ignore them all as mere 'chances.' The

prodigy Mozart is a spectacular instance which cannot be explained away; to

be logical we must accept the idea of the continuity of the embodied souls.

This genius. wrote Sonatas at the age of four, played in public at the age

of five, composed his first Opera at the age of seven! Without the

REINCARNATION THEORY, we will have to label this wondrous incident as an

accident and throw it into the dust-bin of chance and bury it there!!

Examples are often noticed, but rarely recorded as evidences, to prove this

great THEORY OF REINCARNATION. The modern world, as I said, has yet to

discover this great and self- evident LAW OF LIFE. Therefore, to an

uninitiated student, this theory may seem too staggering for quiet

appreciation. When Krishna declared that none of them, including himself,

Arjuna and the great kings, even after their deaths on the battle-field

"shall cease to exist in future," Arjuna, a typical man-of-the world could

not grasp it as a self-evident fact. His questioning eyes made the Lord

explain again the idea through an example in the following stanza.

 

 

"Why Do They Deserve No Grief? For They Are Eternal in Essence.

How?"... the Lord Says:

 

dehino 'smin yathA dehe kAumAraM yAuvanaM jarA

tathA dehAntaraprAptir dhIras tatra na muhyati 2.13

 

13. Just as in this body the embodied (soul) passes into childhood, youth and

old age, so also does he pass into another body; the firm man does not grieve

at it. It is the law of memory that the experiencer and the memoriser must

both be the same entity; then alone can memory power function. I cannot

remember any of YOUR experiences nor can YOU remember any of MY experiences;

I can remember my experiences as readily and easily as you can remember your

experiences. In old age, everyone of us can remember the main incidents of

his own childhood and youth. In the progress of growth, childhood dies away

and youth appears, and youth dies before old age can assert itself. In the

old man, it is self-evident that neither his childhood nor his youth is with

him, and yet, he can remember his own early days. Applying the principle of

memory, it becomes quite clear then that 'SOMETHING' in us is common in all

the different stages of our growth so that the same entity remembers the

experiences gained by it in the past through the childish body, and later,

through the youthful structure. Thus, youthfulness may be considered as a

birth, when childhood has met with its death. So too, old age is born when

youth is dead. And yet, none of us is the least disturbed by these changes;

on the other hand, we feel, in fact, happier due to the wealth of experiences

we have gained as the status of the body rose from innocent childhood to

matured old age. Using this subjective experience of every one in the world

as a standard of comparison, Krishna is trying to bring home to Arjuna that

wise men do not worry when they leave one body for the purpose of taking

another one. This stanza is again asserting, in unequivocal terms, the truth

behind the Reincarnation Theory. And thus viewed, death can no more be a

threat to a wise man. We do not moan at the death of childhood following

which alone can we come to experience youth; we are confident in our

knowledge that though youth is entered into and childhood has ended, there is

a continuity of existence of the same one only, so, a child has now become a

youth. So too, at the moment of death, there is no extinction of the

individuality, but the embodied-ego of the dead-body leaves its previous

structure, and according to the vasanas (mental impressions) that it had

gathered during its embodiment, it gets identified with a physical equipment,

where it can express itself completely, and seek its perfect fulfilment.

mAtrAsparSAs tu kAunteya SItoSNasukhaduHkhadAH

AgamApAyino 'nityAs tANs titikSasva bhArata 2.14

 

14. The contacts of senses with objects, O son of Kunti, which cause heat and

cold, pleasure and pain, have a beginning and an end; they are impermanent;

endure them bravely, O descendant of Bharata. According to the accepted

theory of perception in Vedanta, an object is perceived not BY the

sense-organs but THROUGH them. The Indriyas are instruments through which the

perceiving- ego gathers the knowledge of the various objects. If the perceiver

is not actually contacting the objects through the sense-organs, the

objects, as such, cannot bring any perception to him. That the same objects

can give two different types of experiences to two different individuals is

very well-known. The object remaining the same, if it can give different

experiences, it is evident that it is because of the difference in the mental

composition of the individuals. It is also observed that, objects of one's

intense fancy during a certain stage in one's life, become a nuisance to the

same individual after a time; for, as time passes on, the mental constitution

of the individual also changes. In short, it is very clear that the external

objects can convey their stimuli and give us an experience only when our

minds come in contact with the objects through the sense-organs. He who can

understand that the objects of the world are in a state of flux, are

constantly coming into existence and perishing --- he will not allow himself

to be tossed about by the existence or non-existence of the finite things of

the world. In the flood of time, things and incidents, circumstances and

environments flow up to our present from the unknown FUTURE, to give us

vivid experiences of varied intensity, and they, in their very nature, cannot

remain permanently, but must, of necessity, pass on to become one with the

entire PAST. Nothing can remain the same, even for a short period, in the

world-of-objects where change alone is the changeless law. Having

understood this finite nature of the changeable objects-of-the-world, wherein

everyone of them has a beginning and an end, on no occasion need a wise man

despair the least, of things THAT ARE, or of things THAT ARE NOT. Heat and

cold, success or failure, pain or joy --- none of them can be permanent.

Since every situation, of its own nature, must keep on changing, it would be

foolish to get ourselves upset at every change noticed. It is wisdom to

suffer them meekly with the comfort and consolation of the knowledge of

their finite nature. It is the attitude of the wise to go through life, both

in joy and sorrow, in success and failure, in pain and joy, with the constant

awareness: "Even this will pass away." The external world of challenges is

finite inasmuch as it has a beginning and an end. Not only that, Krishna

adds, "they are impermanent by their very nature." By the term 'impermanent'

used here, the Lord means that the same object which gives pleasure at one

moment starts yielding, at another moment, pain to the experiencer. This

inconsistency is indicated by the term 'anitya' in the stanza.

 

WHAT GOOD WILL ACCRUE TO HIM WHO IS INDIFFERENT TO HEAT AND COLD AND THE

LIKE? --- LISTEN:

 

yaM hi na vyathayantyete puruSaM puruSarSabha

samaduHkhasukhaM dhIraM so 'MRtatvAya kalpate 2.15

 

15. That firm man whom, surely, these afflict not, chief among men, to whom

pleasure and pain are the same, is fit for realising the Immortality of the

Self. Calm endurance, both in pleasure and pain, is a condition necessary for

right knowledge of the true Self; this is the technique of Self-realisation,

as explained in the Upanishadic lore. Based upon that fact, here Lord

Krishna explains that one who has found in himself a mental equipoise,

wherein he is not afflicted or disturbed by circumstances of pain and

pleasure, he alone "IS FIT FOR ATTAINING IMMORTALITY." When the

TRANSCENDENTAL TRUTH or the ETERNAL PERFECTION has been indicated by the term

Immortality, the term is not used in its limited sense of 'deathlessness' of

the body. Here the term 'death' not only indicates the destruction of the

physical embodiment but also includes and incorporates within its

significance, the entire range of finite experiences, where, in each one of

them, there is an extinction-experience. No experience gained through either

the body, or the mind, or the intellect is permanent. In other words, each

experience is born to live with us for a short period and then to die away

in us. These chains of finite experiences stretch out in front of us as the

paths of sorrow and pain in our life. The term 'Immortality,' used by the

Rishi to indicate the 'Supermanhood,' indicates a state wherein one, walking

the path of endless sorrows, as the individual ego, transcends that state to

attain the Infinite experience of THE ETERNAL AND THE PERMANENT. Through the

Geeta, our poet-seer Vyasa is making Lord Krishna declare that the purpose of

life for every one is the attainment of PERFECTION, and to evolve oneself to

it one must make use of every little chance in one's allotted span of life.

To endure meekly, with magnanimous joy, the little pin-pricks of life ---

heat and cold, success and failure, pain and joy - -- is the highest training

that life can provide to all of us. An incompetent idler's hapless endurance

of life, is not in itself what is indicated here. It is especially said that

the equipoise of the mind, both in pleasure and sorrow, entertain by a "wise

man" (Dheerah) makes him fit for the highest cultural self-development. That

is to say, the equanimity should not flow from the dark caves of one's

stupidity and inertia, but it must gurgle forth from the open sunny fields

of wisdom and understanding. When one understands the essential nature of

the objects-of-the-world to be finite, out of that realised knowledge one

gains enough balance for calm endurance and does not feel exalted in pleasure

nor dejected in pain. So long as we live in the body, as the body, we are

not able to ignore or calmly endure the sorrows of the body. But, when we

are fired by a sentiment of love or hatred, we invariably make ready

sacrifices of bodily pleasures. Because of my love for my son, I am ready to

make any sacrifice of my physical needs, so that I may give him a good

education, etc. When, intellectually, one gets fired by some idea or

ideology, for the satisfaction of it, one readily ignores and overlooks the

comforts and pleasures of one's body and mind. The martyrs and

revolutionaries in the world could, with pleasure, face physical persecutions

and mental agonies for the satisfaction of their intellectual lives and for

the fulfilment of their ideals and ideologies.

[Guest guest]

namaste,

 

The importance of such questions is that they direct our attention to

what our scriptures say about this.

 

The riuals referred to are known collectively as 'shrAddha':

shraddhayA kriyate yat tat shrAddham.h . is the definition given.

[ that which is done in faith is known as the obsequies].

 

It is because of the subtlety of the concept and the phenomena

that majority of us are unwilling to accept the authority of the

shastras(scriptures). This science is "atiindriya"[supra-sensory],

and "visible only to the eye of wisdom"[pashyanti j~nAnachakshuShaH .]

 

This life is a pilgrimage that never ends till the destination of

Truth/Brahman is reached.

 

The rituals are intended for the successful onward march of the

deceased pilgrim, in the same manner that we try to help our living

compatriots.

 

This science is fairly extensive, and verifiable by specialised

disciplines.

 

There are refernces in the writings of some saints, that one

'liberated' in this life achieves the liberation of 21 generations of

ancestors on the mother's and the father's side.

 

The saints themselves have the capability of liberating anyone

they initiate.

 

Regards,

 

s.

 

 

 

>"P B Varadharajan" <pbvrajan

>advaitin

>advaitin

>Re: Bhagawad Gita Chapter 2: Verses 12 to 15 Swami

>Chinmayananda's Commentary

>Wed, 15 Mar 2000 14:21:40 AST

>

>To : Gita Satsang & One List members.

>

>Hari Om & Pranams.

>

>Encouraged by Shri Ramchandranji's recent posting to raise questions, even

>stupid ones, I have this query:

>

>As per Chapter 2 Verse 12 to 14, the soul is reprocessed. If this is our

>core Hindu Belief, then what is the logic of various rituals on the death

>anniversaries of our parents and grandparents (Davasam - in Tamil) as they

>will be reprocessed any way and their new life will be guided more by their

>own actions in their life than by any of our rituals.

>

> >Krishna here declares, in unequivocal terms, that the embodied

> >Self in every one is set on a great pilgrimage in which It comes to

> >identify itself with varied forms, temporarily to gain a limited but

> >determined, set of experiences.

>

>____

>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

>

 

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To : Gita Satsang & One List members.

 

Hari Om & Pranams.

 

Encouraged by Shri Ramchandranji's recent posting to raise questions, even

stupid ones, I have this query:

 

As per Chapter 2 Verse 12 to 14, the soul is reprocessed. If this is our

core Hindu Belief, then what is the logic of various rituals on the death

anniversaries of our parents and grandparents (Davasam - in Tamil) as they

will be reprocessed any way and their new life will be guided more by their

own actions in their life than by any of our rituals.

>Krishna here declares, in unequivocal terms, that the embodied

>Self in every one is set on a great pilgrimage in which It comes to

>identify itself with varied forms, temporarily to gain a limited but

>determined, set of experiences.

 

____

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Hari Om PBVji:

 

Namaskaram,

 

First, your question is quite important and relevant

for all of us to understand the role of rituals in

Hindu traditions.

 

When the child asks a question, from the child's point

of view, it is not stupid. Since the child has no ego

(thank god!) and is fearless to ask any question to

the elders. Actually, parents love stupid questions

from their children and feel quite happy to answer

them also! Sometimes, if the child an intelligent

question, the parents feel that they are stupid and

even become angry. (This observation comes from my

personal experience.) According to Vedanta,

'stupidity' is always in appearance and will disappear

with knowledge! Most important, all these problems

are own creation by judging others using our invented

standard. All such creations are illusions due to our

ignorance!

 

Here is my understanding of your question regarding

the rituals during and after the death: First, all

these rituals to a greater extent bring peace to the

persons who participate those ceremonies. One of the

human weakness is 'attachment' and the attachment

can't disappear completely but it is possible to

switch from one attachment to another. Consequently,

we have to find ways to move our attachment to higher

aspects of life. Rituals help us to suppress the

sorrow due to the loss of the loved ones. It is quite

painful for anyone to release the stored attachment

and rituals smoothen the process. Rituals after death

in varying forms and names do exist in all religions.

The names and forms are not important and all of them

have the same ‘common cause' - relieving the pain and

suffering.

 

The Vedic prescription for the death rituals is quite

elaborate and highly disciplined. The mourning for the

death is observed for 12 days and the 13th day is

concluded with worship and celebration. A small lamp

is lit continuously for ten days to indicate the

presence of the soul and it is believed that

ceremonies provide the vehicle to the soul for the

safe journey. A number of books elaborate the

significance for these ceremonies and are readily

available.( Check for example at the site:

http://users.erols.com/nataraj/ under the title Vedas)

I do not believe that there is any inconsistency

between Gita and Vedas both compiled by the eminent

sage Vyasa!

 

Regards,

 

Ram chandran

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