A Forgetful Soul Deluded By Maya
TEXT 8
न हि प्रपश्यामि ममापनुद्याधच्छोकमुच्छोषणमिन्द्रियाणाम्।
अवाप्य भूमाक्सपत्नमृद्धं राज्यं सुराणामपि चाधिपत्यम्॥८॥
TRANSLATION
" I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to dispel it even if I win a prosperous, unrivaled kingdom on earth with sovereignty like the demigods in heaven."
PURPORT
Although Arjuna was putting forward so many arguments based on knowledge of the principles of religion and moral codes, it appears that he was unable to solve his real problem without the help of the spiritual master, Lord Sri Krsna.
He could understand that his so-called knowledge was useless in driving away his problems, which were drying up his whole existence; and it was impossible for him to solve such perplexities without the help of a spiritual master like Lord Krsna.
Academic knowledge, scholarship, high position, etc., are all useless in solving the problems of life; help can be given only by a spiritual master like Krsna. Therefore, the conclusion is that a spiritual master who is one hundred percent Krsna conscious is the bona fide spiritual master, for he can solve the problems of life. Lord Caitanya said that one who is master in the science of Krsna consciousness, regardless of his social position, is the real spiritual master.
kiba vipra, kiba nyasi, sudra kene naya
yei krsna-tattva-vetta, sei 'guru'haya
"It does not matter whether a person is a vipra [learned scholar in Vedic wisdom] or is born in a lower family, or is in the renounced order of life---if he is master in the science of Krsna, he is the perfect and nona fide spiritual master." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 8.128) So without being a master in the science of Krsna consciousness, no one is a bona fide spiritual master. It is also said in Vedic literature.
sat-karma-nipuno vipro
mantra-tantra-visaradah
avaisnavo gurur na syad
vaisnavah sva-paco guruh
"A scholarly brahmana, expert in all subjects of Vedic knowledge, is unfit to become a spiritual master without being a Vaisnava, or expert in the science of Krsna consciousness. But a person born in a family of a lower caste can become a spiritual master if he is a Vaisnava, or Krsna conscious."(Padma Purana)
The problems of material existence--birth, old age, disease and death--cannot be counteracted by accumulation of wealth and economic development. In many parts of the world there are states which are replete with all facilities of life, which are full of wealth and economically developed, yet the problems of material existence are still present.
They are seeking peace in different ways, but they can achieve real happiness only if they consult Krsna, or the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam--which constitute the science of Krsna--through the bonafide representative of Krsna, the man in Krsna consciousness.
If economic development and material comforts could drive away one's lamentations for family, social, national or international inebrieties, then Arjun would not have said that even an unrivaled kingdom on earth or supremacy like that of the demigods in the heavenly planets would be unable to drive away his lamentations.
He sought, therefore, refuge in Krsna consciousness, and that is the right path for peace and harmony. Economic development or supremacy over the world can be finished at any moment by the cataclysms of material nature.
Even elevation into a higher planetary situation, as men are now seeking on the moon planet, can also be finished at one stroke. The Bhagavad-gita confirms this; ksine punye martya-lokam visanti.
"When the results of pious activities are finished, one falls down again from the peak of happiness to the lowest status of life." Many politicians of the world have fallen down in that way. Such downfalls only constitute more causes for lamentation.
Therefore, if we want to curb lamentation for good, then we have to take shelter of Krsna, as Arjuna is seeking to do. So Arjuna asked Krsna to solve his problem definitely, and that is the way of Krsna consciousness.
TEXT 9
सञ्जय उवाच
एवमुत्त्का हृषीकेशं गुडाकेशः परन्तपः।
न योत्स्य इति गोविन्दमुत्त्का तूष्णीं बभूव ह ॥९॥
TRANSLATION
"Sanjaya said: Having spoken thus, Arjuna, chaitiser of enemies, told Krsna, "Govinda, I shall not fight," and fell silent."
PURPORT
Dhrtarastra must have been very glad to understand that Arjuna was not going to fight and was instead leaving the battlefield for the begging profession.
But Sanjaya disappointed him again in relating that Arjuna was competent to kill his enemies (parantapah). Although Arjuna was, for the time being, overwhelmed with false grief due to family affection, he surrendered unto Krsna, the supreme spiritual master, as a disciple.
This indicated that he would soon be free from the false lamentation resulting from family affection and would be enlightened with perfect knowledge of self-realization, or Krsna consciousness, and would then surely fight.
Thus Dhrtarastra's joy would be frustrated, since Arjuna would be enlightened by Krsna and would fight to the end.
TEXT 10
तमुवाच हृषीकेशः प्रहसन्निव भारत
सेनयोरूभयोर्मध्ये विषीदन्तमिदं वचः॥१०॥
TRANSLATION
"O descendant of Bharata, at that time Krsna, smiling, in the midst of both the armies, spoke the following words to the grief-striken Arjuna."
PURPORT
The talk was going on between intimate friends, namely the Hrsikesa and the Gudakesa. As friends, both of them were on the same level, but one of them voluntarily became a disciple. As Lord of all, He is always in the superior position as the master of everyone, and yet the Lord agrees to be a friend, a son, or a lover for a devotee who wants Him in such a role. But when He was accepted as the master--with gravity, as it is required. It appears that the talk between the master and the disciple was openly exchanged in the presence of both armies so that all were benefitted.
So the talks of Bhagavad-gita are not for any particular person, society, or community, but they are for all, and friends or enemies are equally entitled to hear them.
TEXT 11
श्रीभगवानुवाच
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्र्च भाषसे।
गतासूनगतासूश्र्चं नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः॥११॥
TRANSLATION
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead."
PURPORT
The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him, indirectly, a fool. The Lord said, "You are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned-- one who knows what is body and what is soul--does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition."
As explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies. And because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man.
As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation. The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation regardless of the condition of the material body.
TEXT 12
नत्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः।
न चैव नभविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम्॥१२॥
TRANSLATION
"Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."
PURPORT
In the Vedas, in the Katha Upanisad as well as in the Svetasvatara Upanisad, it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the maintainer of innumerable living entities, in terms of their different situations according to individual work and reaction of work. That Supreme Personality of Godhead is also, by His plenary portions, alive in the heart of every living entity. Only saintly persons who can see, within and without, the same Supreme Lord can actually attain to perfect and eternal peace.
nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam
eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman
tam atma-stham ye 'nupasyanti dhiras
tesam sanith sasvati netaresam
The same Vedic truth given to Arjuna is given to all persons in the world who pose themselves as very learned but factually have but a poor fund of knowledge. The Lord says clearly that He Himself, Arjuna and all the kings who are assembled on the battlefield are eternally individual beings and that the Lord is eternally the maintainer of the individual entities both in their conditioned and in their liberated situations.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme individual person, and Arjuna, the Lord's eternal associate, and all the kings assembled there are individuals eternal persons. It is not that they did not exist as individuals in the past, and it is not that they will not remain eternal persons.
Their individuality existed in the past, and their individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Therefore, there is no cause for lamentation for anyone.
The Mayavadi theory that after liberation the individual soul, separated by the covering of maya, or illusion, will merge into the impersonal Brahman and lose its individual existence is not supported herein by Lord Krsna, the supreme authority. Nor is the theory that we only think of individuality in the conditioned state supported herein.
Krsna clearly says herein that in the future also the individuality of the Lord and others, as it is confirmed in the Upanisads, will continue eternally. This statement of Krsna's is authoritative because Krsna cannot be subject to illusion.
If individuality were not a fact, then Krsna would not have stressed it so much--even for the future. The Mayavadi may argue that the individuality spoken of by Krsna is not spiritual, but material. Even accepting the argument that the individuality is material, then how can one distinguish Krsna's individuality?
Krsna affirms His individuality in the past and confirms His individuality in the future also. He has confirmed His individuality in many ways, and impersonal Brahman has been declared to be subordinate to Him. Krsna has maintained spiritual individuality all along; if He is accepted as an ordinary conditioned soul in individual consciouness, then His Bhagavad-gita has no value as authoritative scripture. A common man with all the four defects of human frailty is unable to teach that which is worth hearing.
The Gita is above such literature. No mundane book compares with the Bhagavad-gita. When one accepts Krsna as an ordinary man, the Gita loses all importance. The Mayavadi argues that the plurality mentioned in this verse is conventional and that it refers to the body. But previous to this verse such a bodily conception is already condemned.
After condemning the bodily conception proposition on the body again? Therefore, individuality is maintained on spiritual grounds and is thus confirmed by great acaryas like Sri Ramanuja and others. It is clearly mentioned in many places in the Gita that this spiritual individuality is understood by those who are devotees of the Lord.
Those who are envious of Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead have no bona fide access to the great literature. The nondevotee's approach to the teaching of the Gita is something like that of a bee licking on a bottle of honey.
One cannot have a taste of honey unless one opens the bottle. Similarly, themysticism of the Bhagavad-gita can be understood only by devotees, and no one else can taste it, as it is stated in the Fourth Chapter of the book.
Nor can the Gita be touched by persons who envy the very existence of the Lord. Therefore, the Mayavadi explanation of the Gita is a most misleading presentation of the whole truth. Lord Caitanya has forbidden us to read commentations made by the Mayavadis and warns that one who takes to such an understanding of the Mayavadi philosophy loses all power to understand the real mystery of the Gita.
If individuality refers to the empirical universe, then there is no need of teaching by the Lord. The plurality of the individual soul and of the Lord is an eternal fact, and it is confirmed by the Vedas as above mentioned.
TEXT 13
देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा।
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुद्यति॥१३॥
TRANSLATION
"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."
PURPORT
Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man.
Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates to another body; and since it is sure to have another body in the next birth--either material or spiritual--there was no cause for lamentation by Arjuna on account of death, neither for Bhisma nor for Drona, for whom he was so much concerned.
Rather, he should rejoice for their changing bodies from old to new ones, thereby rejuvenating their energy. Such changes of body accoun for varieties of enjoyment or suffering, according to one's work in life. So Bhisma and Drona, being noble souls, were surely going to have spiritual bodies in the next life, or at least life in heavenly bodies for superior enjoyment of material existence. So, in either case, there was no cause of lamentation.
Any man who has perfect knowledge of the constitution of the individual soul, the Supersoul, and nature--both material and spiritual--is called a dhira, or a most sober man. Such a man is never deluded by the change of bodies.
The Mayavadi theory of oneness of the spirit soul cannot be entertained, on the ground that the spirit soul cannot be cut into pieces as a fragmental portion. Such cutting into different individual souls would make the Supreme cleavable or changeble, against the principle of the Supreme Souls' being unchangeable.
As confirmed in the Gita, the fragmental portions of the Supreme exist eternally (sanatana) and are called ksara; that is, they have a tendency to fall down into material nature. These fragmental portions are eternally so, and even after liberation, he lives an eternal life in bliss and knowledge with the Personality of Godhead.
The theory of reflection can be applied to the Supersoul, who is present in each and every individual living entity. When the sky is reflected in water, the reflections represent both the sun and the moon and the stars also. The stars can be compared to the living entities and the sun or the moon to the Supreme Lord.
The individuality fragmental spirit soul is represented by Arjuna, and the Supreme Soul is the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna. They are not on the same level, as it will be apparent in the beginning of the Fourth Chapter. If Arjuna is on the same level with Krsna, and Krsna is not superior to Arjuna, then their relationship of instructor and instructed becomes meaningless.
If both of them are deluded by the illusory energy (maya), then there is no need of one being the instructor and the other the instructed.
Such instruction would be useless because, in the clutches of maya, no one can be an authoritative instructor. Under the circumstances, it is admired that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Lord, superior in position to the living entity, Arjuna, who is a forgetful soul deluded by maya.