Chapter 2 Contents of Gita Summarized (Verses 11-20)

  Chapter 2

Contents of Gita Summarized
Verses 11-20

Verse 11

श्री भगवानुवाच
अशोच्यनन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे ।
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥ ११ ॥

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

 

Translation

The Supreme Personality of Godhead stated, "You are mourning for what is not worthy of grief while speaking learned words." Wise people weep neither for the living nor for the dead.

Purport

The Supreme personality of Godhead chastised his student Arjuna by indirectly calling him a fool , because he was talking like a learned men but was lacking in knowledge, for he was lamenting for the imminent death of his clan which is going to happen today or tomorrow, for he did not realise that the religious formularies were above the politics and sociology , and above religious formularies was the knowledge of Matter, Soul and Supreme. He was weeping about something that was undeserving of lamentation because he was not a very learned man. The soul is more significant than the body because the body was created and is doomed to perish today or tomorrow. Knowing this makes one truly learned, thus regardless of the state of one's physical body, he need not bemoan anything.

Verse 12

न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः ।
न चैव नभविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ॥ १२ ॥

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ
na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ
sarve vayam ataḥ param

 

Translation

Neither I nor you or any of these rulers have ever been without existence, and neither will any of us ever cease to exist in the future.

Purport

The identical Vedic truth that was shown to Arjuna is revealed to everyone other in the world who seems to be extremely intelligent but in reality only possesses a meagre store of knowledge. The Lord says that all the great warriors who have gathered onto the battlefield are eternally individual living entities and lord himself is the maintainer of individual living entities both in their conditioned and in their liberated situations. Their individuality already existed in the past, and it will continue uninterruptedly into the future. There is therefore no need for anyone to be sad. The plurality of the individual soul and the Lord is an eternal fact.

 

Verse 13

देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा ।
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ १३ ॥

dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

 

Translation

At death, the soul similarly transitions into a new body in the same way that the embodied soul continuously progresses through this body from boyhood to youth to old age. A sober individual is unperturbed by such a change.

Purport

Lord Kṛṣṇa, is acknowledged as superior to the living entity, Arjuna, who is considered a forgetful soul deluded by the illusory energy known as māyā. It is emphasized that if both Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are equally deluded, then their relationship of instructor and instructed becomes meaningless. The concept of reflection is introduced, where the sky reflected in water represents the sun, moon, and stars. Similarly, the Supersoul, known as Paramātmā, is present in each individual body. It also argues against the Māyāvādī theory of oneness of the spirit soul, as the spirit soul cannot be divided into fragments. Arjuna represents the individual fragmental spirit soul, while Lord Kṛṣṇa represents the Supreme Soul or Personality of Godhead. It is stated that the notion of authoritative instruction is futile in the clutches of māyā, but once liberated, the individual soul can live eternally in bliss and knowledge with Lord Kṛṣṇa. The concept of transmigration or changing of bodies is discussed, highlighting that every living entity is an individual soul continually changing their body, from child to youth to old age. Therefore, there is no need for lamentation over death as the soul is assured to have another body in the next birth, be it material or spiritual. Ultimately, the document concludes that a person who understands the nature of the individual soul and the Supreme Lord is not deluded by these changes of bodies.

 

Verse 14

मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः ।
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥ १४ ॥

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ’nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

Translation

O son of Kunti, the temporary appearance of happiness and suffering, as well as their eventual absence, are comparable to the arrival and departure of the winter and summer seasons. O son of Bharata, they result from sense perception, and one must learn to put up with them without getting upset.

Purport

One must learn to bear the temporary appearances and disappearances of happiness and misery in order to carry out one's duties properly. Even in the Magha month (January–February), one must take their morning bath, according to a Vedic admonition. Even if it is quite cold at that time, a man who follows religious values doesn't hesitate to take a bath. Similar to this, a woman does not hesitate to prepare food in the kitchen during the hottest months of the summer, May and June. Despite climatic difficulties, one must carry out their duties.

Similar to this, the ksatriyas' religious concept is to battle, and even though one must engage in combat with a friend or relative, one should not break from his assigned task. To reach the level of knowledge, one must adhere to the specified laws and regulations of religious principles since only through knowledge and devotion is it possible to free oneself from the grip of my (delusion).

The fact that Arjuna was addressed by two separate names is also noteworthy. Addressing him as Kaunteya or Bhrata, respectively, denotes his great blood relations on his mother's side and his magnificence on his father's side. He is said to have a rich heritage on both sides.

Verse 15

यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ ।
समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते ॥ १५ ॥

yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete
puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha
sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ
so ’mṛtatvāya kalpate

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 firm in their pursuit of the higher levels of spiritual realisation and who is able to tolerate both joy and pain in equal measure is surely capable of attaining liberation. In the Vararama institution, the fourth stage of life, the relinquishing order (sannyasa), is a challenging situation. But despite all challenges, a person who is dedicated to leading a perfect life will follow the sannyasa way of life. The difficulties often arise from having to sever family ties and give up the wife-child connection. But if someone can persevere despite these difficulties, his journey towards spiritual awareness is unquestionably over.

Similar to this, Arjuna is exhorted to fulfil his ksatriya obligations even if it means fighting his family or other dearly loved individuals. At the age of 24, Lord Caitanya took up sannyasa, leaving no one to take care of His dependents—a young wife and a sick mother. Nevertheless, he persisted in doing so in order to carry out his greater tasks. By doing this, you can free yourself from material slavery.

Verse 16

नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः ।
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः ॥ १६ ॥

nāsato vidyate bhāvo
nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ
ubhayor api dṛṣṭo ’ntas
tv anayos tattva-darśibhiḥ

Translation

Truth-seekers have come to the conclusion that there is no change in the eternal [the soul] and no endurance in the nonexistent [the physical body]. They came at this conclusion after looking into the nature of both.

Purport

The shifting body cannot be endured. Modern medical science acknowledges that the body changes constantly due to the actions and interactions of the various cells, and that this causes the body to develop and age. However, despite these changes to the body and mind, the spirit soul continues to exist. The distinction between matter and spirit is this. The soul is everlasting by nature, whereas the body changes constantly. All classes of truth-seekers, both impersonalist and personalist, support this conclusion. It is written in the Visnu Purana (2.12.38) that Visnu and all of His abodes have self-illuminated spiritual existences (jyotīṁṣi viṣṇur bhuvanāni viṣṇuḥ). Only spirit and matter are discussed when using the terms existent and nonexistent. All truth-seekers subscribe to such interpretation.

The Lord is now beginning to enlighten the living things who are perplexed by the effects of ignorance. The process of eliminating ignorance entails the restoration of the eternal bond between the worshipper and the worshipped, as well as the ensuing comprehension of the distinction between the individual living beings and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By carefully examining oneself, one can come to grasp the nature of the Supreme, with the distinction between oneself and the Supreme being interpreted as the relationship between the part and the whole. The Supreme has been acknowledged as the source of all emanations in the Vedanta-sutras and the Bhagavatam. Both better and inferior natural sequences encounter these emanations. As will be made clear in the seventh chapter, living things are a part of the superior nature. The energetic is acknowledged as the Supreme and the energy or nature is acknowledged as the subordinate, despite the fact that there is no distinction between the two. As a result, living things are constantly subject to the Supreme Lord, just like a master and servant or a teacher and pupil. Under the sway of ignorance, such obvious wisdom is impossible to comprehend. In order to dispel such ignorance, the Lord teaches the Bhagavad gita for the eternal enlightenment of all living things.

Verse 17

अविनाशि तु तद्विद्धि येन सर्वमिदं ततम् ।
विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्चित्कर्तुमर्हति ॥ १७ ॥

avināśi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
vināśam avyayasyāsya
na kaścit kartum arhati

Translation

That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. That imperishable soul cannot be destroyed by anyone.

Purport

This shloka illustrates the true nature of the soul, which is distributed throughout the body. Anyone may understand what is spreading throughout the body: consciousness. Everyone is aware of the aches and pleasures of the body, either in part or in whole. This spread of consciousness is restricted to one's own body. The pleasures and sufferings of one body are unknown to another. As a result, each and every body is the incarnation of an individual soul, and individual consciousness is seen as a symptom of the soul's presence.

 

Verse 18

अन्तवन्त इमे देहा नित्यस्योक्ताः शरीरिणः ।
अनाशिनोऽप्रमेयस्य तस्माद्युध्यस्व भारत ॥ १८ ॥

antavanta ime dehā
nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ
anāśino ’prameyasya
tasmād yudhyasva bhārata

Translation

The material body of the indestructible, infinite, and immortal living essence will undoubtedly perish; so, battle, O Bharata's descendant.

Purport

Nature has made the material body perishable. It could perish immediately or after a hundred years. It is simply a matter of time. There is no way to keep it going permanently. But the spirit soul is so small that it cannot even be seen by an opponent, let alone killed. It is so little, as described in the preceding stanza, that no one knows how to measure it. So there is no cause for grief from either perspective, because the living individual as he is cannot be slain, nor can the material body be saved for any period of time or permanently protected. Because the minute particle of the complete spirit receives this bodily body by his effort, religious ideals should be followed. The living entity is referred to as light in the Vedanta-sutras because he is a portion of the divine light. As sunshine sustains the entire cosmos, so does the light of the soul sustain our physical body. As soon as the spirit soul leaves this material body, the body begins to decay; thus, it is the spirit soul that keeps this body alive. The body is unimportant in and of itself. Arjuna was instructed to battle rather than give up the cause of faith for material or corporeal reasons.

Verse 19

य एनं वेत्ति हन्तारं यश्चैनं मन्यते हतम् ।
उभौ तौ न विजानीतो नायं हन्ति न हन्यते ॥ १९ ॥

ya enaṁ vetti hantāraṁ
yaś cainaṁ manyate hatam
ubhau tau na vijānīto
nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate

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 thing is injured by lethal weapons, the living entity within the body is not killed. As will be seen in the following lines, the spirit soul is so little that it is impossible to kill him with any material weapon. Because of his spiritual constitution, the living entity cannot be killed. The body is the only thing that gets killed, or is meant to be killed. This, however, does not condone the murdering of the body. Never commit violence against anyone, according to the Vedic injunction The Vedic injunction is mā hiṁsyāt sarvā bhūtāni: 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 an abomination that is punished by both state and Lord's law. Arjuna, on the other hand, is killing for religious reasons, not for the sake of killing.

Verse 20

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि-
न्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः ।
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ॥ २० ॥

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

Translation

There is no birth or death for the soul at any time. He has not come into existence, will not come into existence, and has not come into existence. He is unborn, everlasting, ever-present, and primordial. He is not killed when the body is killed.

Purport

Qualitatively, the Supreme Spirit's little atomic fraction is one with the Supreme. He does not change in the same way as the body does. The soul is also known as the steadfast, or kuta-stha. Six types of changes can occur in the body. It emerges from the mother's womb, lingers for a while, grows, causes some effects, progressively dwindles, and eventually goes into oblivion.

The soul, on the other hand, does not go through such transformations. The soul is not born, but the body is born because he takes on a material body. The soul does not give birth there, nor does it die. Everything that has life also has death. Because the soul does not have a birth, he has no history, present, or future. He is everlasting, ever-existing, and primaeval, which means there is no record of his birth in history. We seek the history of the soul's birth, etc., through the impression of the body. The soul does not age in the same way that the body does. As a result, the so-called old man perceives himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth.

The changes in the body have no effect on the soul. The soul, unlike trees and other material things, does not degrade. The soul, too, has no by-product. Children, which are the body's byproducts, are each a unique individual soul; nevertheless, because of the body, they appear to be the offspring of a certain man. The soul's presence causes the body to develop, but the soul neither produces nor undergoes change. The six modifications to the body are therefore not applicable to the soul.

To be continued..

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 if you would like to read more do check following links

1. Welcome to the journey of Bhagvad Gita, Hare Krsna!!
2. All about Ekadashi - The Holy Day
3. Gita Mahatmya (Glories) by Shri Adi Shankaracharya and Kamika Ekadashi
4. Sacred Invocations
5. Krishna Janamashtmi
6. 125th Birth Anniversary of Srila Prabhupada Ji - Founder of ISKCON
7. Chapters Of Bhagavad Gita and its division
8. Bhagavad Gita In brief
9. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 (Verses 1-10)
10. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 (Verses 11 -20)
11. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 (Verses 21-30)
12. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 (Verses 31-46)
13. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2  Contents of Gita Summarized  (Verses 1-10)