Hari OM
From 8/4/19 to 12/4/19, Pujya Swami
Swaroopananda-ji presented evening discourses to the public at the Merrylands
Civic Centre, NSW Australia. The focus of his talks this year was Chapter 2 of
the Bhagavad Gita, and more specifically, shlokas 1-32. Some of the learning
and insights will be shared over several posts.
Yesterday we saw Shri Krishna continuing his attempts at the description
of the Immutable. Transcendental Truth is an extremely esoteric concept and not
at all relatable for most people - language has its limitations, being bound by
the limited, finite world in which it developed. How do we manage to convey
what is beyond that?!
By constant repetition, rewording, sorting and sifting and rejigging
our phrases. By the use of simile and examples from the finite which
approximate the Infinite.
Even the Lord Manifest in the form of Krishna the Charioteer has to
do this and did it well in the previous two shlokas; a thing that cannot be cut
but also cannot cut in return, a thing which cannot burn or be burned and so
on. Then the tone has to be raised once more. He continues in shlokas 25-28,
bringing things back to the focus of Arjuna's current plight:
The Aatmaa is said to be unmanifest,
Unthinkable and unchanging.
Knowing this Aatmaa as such, you should not grieve.
If you think that this (body) takes birth
And dies perpetually, even then, O Arjuna,
You should not grieve like this.
Because death is certain for the one who is born,
And birth is certain for the one who dies.
Therefore, you should not lament over the inevitable.
All beings, O Arjuna, are unmanifest
Before birth and after death.
They are manifest between birth and death only.
What is there to grieve about?
In earlier posts here you have been introduced to the panchabhutas
and the upaadhis, the different levels of subtlety that all things manifest
have. The most subtle thing which we are capable of perceiving with our very
physical senses is ether (space) - and that really only by inference from the
lack of anything more substantial, for intellectually even ether is not easy to
grasp - no pun intended! We are being told here by the Lord that the Aatmaa is
subtler still than even that fifth element (remember?
Earth, fire, water, air, ether.) So subtle, in fact, it can be called as
Unmanifest, this means it is imperceptible.
If something is imperceptible, how are we to think about it? Very
difficult, is it not? However, the human intellect is capable of abstraction,
so is this really unthinkable? No, instead think here in the context of
"incomprehensible". Furthermore, This about which we are learning is
said to be Unchangeable. No modification, suggesting no separate parts. In
knowing nothing can touch the Aatmaa or harm it or cause any change in it, and
knowing that we are That, where is the need for grief?
Taking up this theme and applying it on the level of the finite,
which is more accommodating to the poor human critter, Krishna then tells
Arjuna that even knowing the physical body takes birth, lives and then dies,
there is no need for grief. Why? Since being born automatically
means there will be death; but also that having died, it is likely there will
again be birth for the jiiva (individual self) and what purpose is served in
expending energy upon grief for that which is unavoidable? He continues in s.28
by making it clear that there is a 'being' which exists outside of this
manifestation we call life. It is only during the period between birth and
death - the period called 'life' - in which that being can be considered as
manifest. Knowing that it exists beyond this, why grieve?
