Arjuna At Instruction Of Sri Krsna
TEXT 14
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः।
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत॥१४॥
TRANSLATION
"O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."
PURPORT
In the proper discharge of duty, one has to learn to tolerate nonpermanent appearances and disappearances of happiness and distress. According to Vedic injunction, one has to take his bath early in the morning even during the month of Magha (January-February). It is very cold at that time, but in spite of that a man who abides by the religious principles does not hesitate to take his bath.
Similarly, a woman does not hesitate to cook in the kitchen in the months of May and June, the hottest part of the summer seasons. One has to execute his duty in spite of climatic inconveniences.
Similarly, to fight is the religious principle of the ksatriyas, and although one has to fight with some friend or relative, one should not deviate from his prescribed duty. One has to follow the prescribed rules and regulations of religioud orinciples in order to rise up to the platform of knowledge, because by knowledge and devotion only one can liberate himself from the clutches of maya(illusion).
The two different names of address given to Arjuna are also significant. To address him as Kaunteya signifies his great blood relations from his mother's side; and to address his as Bharata signifies his greatness from his father's side. From both sides he is supposed to have a great hertiage. A great hertiage brings responsibility in the matter of proper discharge of duties; therefore, he cannot avoid fighting.
TEXT 15
यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरूषं पुरूषर्षभ।
समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते॥१५॥
TRANSLATION
"O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation."
PURPORT
Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation.
In the varnasrama institution, the fourth stage of life, namely the renounced order (sannyasa), is a painstaking situation. But one who is serious about making his life perfect surely adopts the sannyasa order of life in spite of all difficulties.
The difficulties usually arise from having to sever family relationships, to give up the connection of wife and children. But if anyone is able to tolerate such difficulties, surely his path to spiritual realization is complete.
Similarly, in Arjuna's discharge of duties as a ksatriya, he is advised to preserve, even if it is difficult to fight with his family members or similarly beloved persons.
Lord Caitanya took sannyasa at the age of twenty-four, and His dependents, yung wife as well as old mother, had no one else to look after them. Yet for a higher cause he took sannyasa and was steady in the discharge of higher duties. That is the way of achieving liberation from material bondage.
TEXT 16
नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः।
उभयोरपि द्वष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः॥१६॥
TRANSLATION
Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studing the nature of both.
PURPORT
There is no endurance of the changing body. That the body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of the different cells is admitted by modern medical science; and thus growth and old age are taking place in the body.
But the spirit soul exists permanently, remaining the same despite all changes of the body and the mind. That is the difference between matter and spirit. By nature, the body is ever changing, and the soul is eternal.
This conclusion is established by all classes of seers of the truth, both impersonalists and personlist. In the Visnu Purana (2.12.38) it is stated that Visnu and His abodes all have self-illuminated spiritual existence (jyitimsi visnur bhuvanani visnuh). The words existent and nonexistent refer only to spirit and matter. That is the version of all seers of truth.
This is the beginning of the instruction by the Lord to the living entites who are bewildered by the influence of ignorance. Removal of ignorance involves the reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable and the consequent understanding of the difference between the part-and-parcel living entites and the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
One can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself, the difference between oneself and the Supreme being understood as the relationship between the part and the whole.
In the Vedanata-sutras, as well as in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Supreme has been accepted as the origin of all emanations. Such emanations are experienced by superior and inferior natural sequences.
The living entities belong to the superior nature, as it will be revealed in the Seventh Chapter. Although there is no difference between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is accepted as the Supreme, and energy or nature is accepted as the subordinate.
The living entities, therefore, are always subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as in the case of the master and the servant, or the teacher and the taught. Such clear knowledge is impossible to understand under the spell of ignorance, and to drive away such ignorance the Lord teaches the Bhagavad-gita for the enlightenment of all living entities for all time.
TEXT 17
अविनाशि तु तद्विद्वि येन सर्वमिदं ततम्।
विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्र्चित्कर्तुमर्हति॥१७॥
TRANSLATION
"That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul."
PURPORT
This verse more clearly explains the real nature of the soul, which is spread all over the body. Anyone can understand what is spread all over the body: it is consciousness.
Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body in part or as a whole. This spreading of consciousness is limited within one's own body. The pains and pleasures of one body are unknown to another. Therefore, each and every body is the embodiment of an individual soul, and the symptom of the souls' presence is perceived as individual consciousness.
This soul is described as one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair point in size. The Svetasvatara Upanishad (5.9) confirms this:
balagra-sata-bhagasya
satadha kalpitasya ca
bhago jivah vijneyah
sa canantyaya kalpate
"When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul." Similarly the same version is stated:
kesagra-sata-bhagasya
satamsah sadrsatmakah
jivah suksma-svarupo 'yam
sankhyatito hi cit-kanah
[Cc. Madya 19.140]
"There are innumerable particles of spiritual atoms, which are measured as one ten-thousandth of the upper portion of the hair."
Therefore, the individual particle of spirit soul is a spiritual atom smaller than the material atoms, and such atoms are innumerable. This very small spiritual spark is the basic principle of the material body, and the influence of such a spiritual spark is spread all over the body as the influence of the active principle of some medicine spreads throughtout the body.
This current of the spirit soul is felt all over the body as consciousness, and that is the proof of the presence of the soul. Any layman can understand that the material body minus consciousness is a dead body, and this consciousness cannot be revived in the body by any means of material administration.
Therefore, consciousness is not due to any moment of material combination, but to the spirit soul. In the Mundaka Upanishad (3.1.9) the measurement of the atomic spirit soul is further explained:
eso 'nur atma cetasa veditavyo
yasmin pranah pancadha samvivesa
pranais cittam sarvam otam prajanam
yasmin visuddhe vibhavaty esa atma
"The soul is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of air (prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana), is situated within the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entites. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air its spiritual influence is exhibited."
The hatha-yoga system is meant for controlling the five kinds of air encircling the pure soul by different kinds of sitting postures--not for any material profit, but for liberation of the minute soul from the entanglement of the material atmoshpere.
So the constitution of the atomic soul is admitted in all Vedic literatures, and it is also actually felt in the practical experience of any sense man. Only the insane man can think of this atomic soul as all-pervading visnu-tattva.
The influence of the atomic soul can be spread all over a particular body. According to the Mundaka Upanisad, this atomic soul is situated in the heart of every living entity, and beause the measurement of the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material scientists, some of them assert foolishly that there is no soul.
The individual atomic soul is definitely there in the heart along with the Supresoul, and thus all the energies of bodily movement are emanating from this part of the body. The corpuscles which carry the oxygen from the lungs gather energy from the soul.
When the soul passes away from this position, the activity of the blood, generating fusion, ceases. Medical science accepts the importance of the red corpuscles, but it cannot ascertain that the source of the energy is the soul. Medical science, however, does admit that the heart is the seat of all energies of the body.
Such aromic particles of the spirit whole are compared to the sunshine molecules. In the sunshine there are innumerable radiant molecules. Similarly, the fragemental pats of the Supreme Lord are atomic sparks of the rays of the Supreme Lord, called by the name prabha, or superior energy.
So whether one follows Vedic knowledge or modern science, one cannot deny the existence of the spirit soul in the body, and the science of the soul is explicitly described in the Bhagavad-gita by the Personality of Godhead Himself.
TEXT 18
अन्तवन्त इमे देहा नित्यस्योत्काः शरीरिणः।
अनाशिनोऽप्रमेयस्य तस्माद्युध्यस्व भारत॥१८॥
TRANSLATION
"The material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is sure to come to an end; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata."
PURPORT
The material body is perishable by nature. It may perish immediately, or it may do so after a hundred years. It is a question of time only. There is no chance of maintaining it indefinietely. But the spirit soul is so minute that it cannot even be seen by an enemy, to say nothing of being killed.
As mentioned in the previous verse, it is so small that no one can have any idea how to measure its dimension. So from both viewpoints there is no cause of lamentation, because the living entity as he is cannot be killed nor can the material body be saved for any length of time or permanently protected.
The minute particle of the whole spirit acquires this material body according to his work, and therefore abservance of religious principles should be utilized. In the Vedanta-sutras the living entity is qualified as light because he is part and parcel of the supreme light.
As sunlight maintains the entire universe, so the light of the soul maintains this material body. As soon as the spirit soul is out of this material body, the body begins to decompose; therefore it is the spirit soul which maintains this body. The itself is unimportant. Arjuna was advised to fight and not sacrifice the cause of religion for material, bodily considerations.
TEXT 19
य एनं वेत्ति हन्तारं यश्र्चैनं मन्यते हतम्।
उभौ तौ न विजानीतो नायं हन्ति न हन्यते॥१९॥
TRANSLATION
"Neither he who thinks the living entity the slayer nor he who thinks it slain is in knowledge, for the self slays not nor is slain."
PURPORT
When an embodied living entity is hurt by fatal weapons, it is to be known that the living entity within the body is not killed. The spirit soul is so small that it is impossible to kill him by any material weapon, as will be evident from subsequent verses. Nor is the living entity killable, because of his spiritual constitution.
What is killed, or is supposed to be killed, is the body only. This, however, does not at all encourage killing of the body. The Vedic injunction is ma himsyat sarva bhutani: never commit violence to anyone.
Nor does understanding that the living entity is not killed encourage animal slaughter. Killing the body of anyone without authority is abominable and is punishable by the law of the state as well as by the law of the Lord.
Arjuna, however, is being engaged in killing for the principle of religion, and not willingly.
TEXT 20
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः।
अजो नित्यः शाश्र्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे॥२०॥
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 souls' presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change. Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body.
In the Katha Upanishad (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[Bg. 2.20]
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 lgiht in the sky early in the morning, we can understand that the sun in the sky. Similarly, since there is some consciousness in all bodies--whether man or animal--we can understant 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 conciousness of the individual soul is prone to be forgetful. When he is forgetful of his real nature, he obtains education and enlightment 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).
TEXT 21
वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं य एनमजमव्ययम्।
कथं स पुरूषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम्॥२१॥
TRANSLATION
"O Partha, how can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable kill anyone or cause anyone to kill? "
PURPORT
Everything has its proper utility, and a man who is situated in complete knowledge knows how and where to apply a thing for its proper utility. Similarly, violence also has its utility, and how to apply violence rests with the person in knowledge. Although the justice of the peace awards capital punishment to a person condemned for murder, the justice of the peace cannot be blamed, because he orders violence to another person according to the codes of justice.
In Manu-samhita, the lawbook for mankind, it is supported that a murderer should be condemned to death so that in his next life he will not have to suffer for the great sin he has committed.
Therefore, the king's punishment of hanging a murderer is actually beneficial. Similarly, when Krsna orders fighting, it must be concluded that violence is for supreme justice, and thus Arjuna should follow the instruction, knowing well that such violence, committed in the act of fighting for Krsna, is not violence at all because, at any rate, the man, or rather the soul, cannot be killed; so for the administration of justice, so-called violence is permitted.
A surgical operation is not meant to kill the patient, but to cure him. Therefore the fighting to be executed by Arjuna at the instruction of Krsna is with full knowledge, so there is no possibilty of sinful reaction.