BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:20

[Guest guest]

BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:20

 

na jayate mriyate va kadacin

nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah

ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano

na hanyate hanyamane sarire

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

na--never; jayate--takes birth; mriyate--dies; va--either; kadacit--at

any time (past, present or future); na--never; ayam--this;

bhutva--having come into being; bhavita--will come to be; va--or;

na--not; bhuyah--or is again coming to be; ajah--unborn;

nityah--eternal; sasvatah--permanent; ayam--this; puranah--the oldest;

na--never; hanyate--is killed; hanyamane--being killed; sarire--the

body.

 

TRANSLATION

 

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not

come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into

being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not

slain when the body is slain.

 

PURPORT

 

Qualitatively, the small atomic fragmental part of the Supreme Spirit

is one with the Supreme. He undergoes no changes like the body.

Sometimes the soul is called the steady, or kuta-stha. The body is

subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth from the

womb of the mother's body, remains for some time, grows, produces some

effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The

soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born,

but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth.

The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die.

Anything which has birth also has death. And because the soul has no

birth, he therefore has no past, present or future. He is eternal,

ever-existing, and primeval--that is, there is no trace in history of

his coming into being. Under the impression of the body, we seek the

history of birth, etc., of the soul. The soul does not at any time

become old, as the body does. The so-called old man, therefore, feels

himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth. The

changes of the body do not affect the soul. The soul does not

deteriorate like a tree, nor anything material. The soul has no

by-product either. The by-products of the body, namely children, are

also different individual souls; and, owing to the body, they appear

as children of a particular man. The body develops because of the

soul's presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change.

Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body.

 

In the Katha Upanisad (1.2.18) we also find a similar passage, which

reads:

 

na jayate mriyate va vipascin

nayam kutascin na babhuva kascit

ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano

na hanyate hanyamane sarire

 

The meaning and purport of this verse is the same as in the

Bhagavad-gita, but here in this verse there is one special word,

vipascit, which means learned or with knowledge.

 

The soul is full of knowledge, or full always with consciousness.

Therefore, consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Even if one does

not find the soul within the heart, where he is situated, one can

still understand the presence of the soul simply by the presence of

consciousness. Sometimes we do not find the sun in the sky owing to

clouds, or for some other reason, but the light of the sun is always

there, and we are convinced that it is therefore daytime. As soon as

there is a little light in the sky early in the morning, we can

understand that the sun is in the sky. Similarly, since there is some

consciousness in all bodies--whether man or animal--we can understand

the presence of the soul. This consciousness of the soul is, however,

different from the consciousness of the Supreme because the supreme

consciousness is all-knowledge--past, present and future. The

consciousness of the individual soul is prone to be forgetful. When he

is forgetful of his real nature, he obtains education and

enlightenment from the superior lessons of Krsna. But Krsna is not

like the forgetful soul. If so, Krsna's teachings of Bhagavad-gita

would be useless.

 

There are two kinds of souls--namely the minute particle soul

(anu-atma) and the Supersoul (vibhu-atma). This is also confirmed in

the Katha Upanisad (1.2.20) in this way:

 

anor aniyan mahato mahiyan

atmasya jantor nihito guhayam

tam akratuh pasyati vita-soko

dhatuh prasadan mahimanam atmanah

 

"Both the Supersoul [Paramatma] and the atomic soul [jivatma] are situated

on the same tree of the body within the same heart of the living

being, and only one who has become free from all material desires as

well as lamentations can, by the grace of the Supreme, understand the

glories of the soul." Krsna is the fountainhead of the Supersoul also,

as it will be disclosed in the following chapters, and Arjuna is the

atomic soul, forgetful of his real nature; therefore he requires to be

enlightened by Krsna, or by His bona fide representative (the

spiritual master).

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.