Bhakti Shastri (052) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02 Text 22 to 28

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Hare Krishna, sārtyam arjuna syodham, kurvan nītāṁ ritaṁ dadaṁ, yo patrayopakāraya, tasmai kriṣṇātmanena mahā. Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Bhagavad Gita class.
We are discussing on the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna is responding to Arjuna’s various arguments. So the first argument is about compassion, how can I kill my relatives. So Krishna is responding from 2.11 to 2.30 by saying that actually your relatives are souls who are indestructible and their bodies are unavoidably destructible.
Therefore, do not give up your duty. That’s the crux of the argument. And Krishna is essentially using the strategy of naiti naiti, not this, not this, to explain the soul by negation of the material so that some indication of the spiritual will be given, will be conveyed.
So now let us look at the process by which the soul moves from one body to another body. vāsāṁsī jīrṇāni yathā vihāya nāvān krihṇāti naroparāṇi tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāni anyāni sanyāti navāni dehi So, vāsāṁsī jīrṇāni, vāsāṁsī is dress, jīrṇāni is when they become old, yathā vihāya, vihāya is to give up. So just as a person gives up old garments, nāvāni new krihṇāti, naroparāṇi, a human being takes another garment which is new, tathā śarīrāṇi, similarly this body, vihāya jīrṇāni, when old is given up, anyāni sanyāti is accepted new, navāni dehi, the occupier of the body, the soul.
So here essentially the process of transmigration is being described. So, now generally we talk about, we use the words reincarnation and transmigration interchangeably. So, are the two exactly the same? Not necessarily.
The emphasis is different. In transmigration, the focus is on the journey. So as we hear the word migration, so birds migrate when the seasons change, or when there are say some natural calamities, people migrate from one place to another.
So migrate is basically travel. So transmigration talks about the travel of the soul from trans, trans means across, so from one body to another body. So in transmigration, the focus is on the journey aspect.
The transmigration of the soul through 8.4 million species. There the word, we will use the word transmigration. Whereas in reincarnation, the focus is on coming into flesh.
So as we have discussed earlier, incarnation means to come in flesh. So reincarnation means to come in flesh again. So in reincarnation the focus is on coming into a body, whereas in transmigration the focus is on the going from one body to another body.
Now this word, in the philosophical terms, there is also a word metempsychosis, which also refers to the journey of the soul. So there are different words, but the essential point is that life does not begin with birth and life does not end with death. So what happens thereafter, that is conveyed through an example in this verse.
So this example is used to convey the point of how the body is peripheral and superficial to the soul. Now when we are wearing a dress, our dress is important to us. But at the same time, we don’t have a permanent relationship with the dress.
I will wear a dress today and after it gets old I will change to another dress. So the essential person is different from the dress. Similarly, if we consider the body to be a dress, then the essential person is different from the body.
And then the different bodies are like different dresses, which serve different purposes. So we wear different dresses based on what we are going to do. If somebody is going to the polar areas, then people may wear warm clothes, a cool and other things.
If people are going to work, they may wear a particular kind of clothes. If they are going to a formal occasion, a party, they may wear a tie and a coat or some other formal attire. So depending on the purpose that is to be served, then accordingly the inclinations that we have, we choose a dress.
But the essential point is that we and the dress are different. We remain the same, whereas the dress keeps changing. So similarly, the soul remains the same, whereas the dress changes.
Now when the dress changes, the person, what does the person do? The person discards the old dress and takes the new dress. Similarly, if you look at the process of reincarnation, there are three stages in it. The first stage is the soul leaves the body.
The second stage is the soul goes to the stage where the next body is. And the third stage is the soul enters into a situation where it will get a next body. Or the soul acquires a next body.
So for example, if a person has done karma by which the person is going to say again be reborn as a human being, the first stage would be giving up the old dress. So the person gives up the body. And then after that, under the guidance of the Supersoul, the person travels to the next body.
And this is also arranged by various factors. And finally, the soul acquires a new body. So if it is a human body, in the third canto, in the teachings of Kapilayat, it is described that under the supervision of the divine eye is referring to the arrangement of destiny.
The living entity gets a The living entity gets a body. And what kind of body it will be? How does it get the body? So the soul enters into the womb of a woman. How? by taking shelter of a particle of semen in a male.
So now, the essential point is that when the procreational act happens, at that time, the soul is in the sperm. And then through the sperm, the soul enters into the egg. Then the zygote is formed.
The embryo is formed. And then the child is born. So now, in these three stages, the first stage is, the soul leaves the body.
Now how does the soul leave the body? Generally, it leaves through one of the nine holes. So, of course, the soul can, the soul has the power to break through and also go. But generally, the soul leaves through one of the nine holes.
So generally, in the Upanishads, it’s said that the soul, if it leaves through one of the lower holes, then that is considered an auspicious departure. The soul is going towards one of the lower destinations, lower species, lower planets. The soul leaves through one of the upper holes.
Then, it’s considered auspicious. So, the eyes, the ears, even the nose, the mouth. The realised yogis who attain Samadhi, they aim that actually when the soul leaves, they will burst the skull and go out.
And if they go out that way, then they will attain liberation. That’s the understanding. So, of course, now for most of, most people, most of us, we don’t have such awareness of the soul.
And we don’t have, we don’t seem to have any control over how the soul will leave the body. So, it’s not so important for us. The most important thing is that we remember Krishna.
In the 8th chapter, Krishna will talk about this. And he says, नईते सुति पार्थ जानन् योगी महियति कश्चन तस्मात सर्वेशु कालेशु योग युप्तो भवार्जुना So, he says, there are various ways, different, Krishna has, in the previous verse, talked about the two different ways, देव्यान and पित्रयान. We’ll discuss about them in the 8th chapter.
But then essentially, Krishna says, don’t worry about all this. Just practise yoga. And it’s already earlier mentioned that the best yoga is भक्ति योगा.
He mentioned this in 6.47 as well as 8.14. So, as devotees, we don’t have to bother from which hole the soul is leaving the body. We have to bother whether we are remembering Krishna or not. So, now, the soul leaves the body and generally the soul goes to the next body depending on the two factors.
There is the काम and there is the कर्म. काम is the desire and कर्म is the destiny. What kind of karmic destiny one has got.
So, just as we want to purchase a new dress, we look at what is my desire and then what is my budget. So, similarly, all of us have a karmic budget and accordingly, the soul gets a new body. So, we are actually dressed for and dressed by our desires.
That means, we are dressed for our desires means that actually, say, if a male is attracted to a female, a female is attracted to a male, then if a male dies thinking of the female, then the male will get a new body in the next life which will be a female body. Or a female dies thinking of the male, then the female will get a male body. If a human being dies thinking of a pet dog and the pet dog dies thinking of its master, then both of them may well interchange their positions on the rope, on the ledge.
The dog may become the master and the master may become the dog. So, the important point is that actually it is determined by what we remember at the time of death and what we remember at the time of death is also determined by what we have remembered throughout our life, what have been our desires throughout our life. So anyway, the important point in this discussion is that the relationship between the body and the soul shouldn’t be given too much emphasis.
It’s actually peripheral. It is not an eternal relationship. It is a temporary relationship.
So, this is something which many traditions do not understand. Like we were earlier discussing about the Abrahamic religions. So, the clear understanding of the soul as a as an ontological, concrete, higher dimensional entity, the clear understanding of that soul is not there that way.
And because of that, there is some kind of conflation, mixing up of the soul and the body. And in some of these traditions, the idea is that they bury the body because somehow the idea is that at the time of judgement, eventually when people will be taken back to heaven, they will all be taken back at the time when in the body that they have right now. So the idea is the body that we have right now is the body that we will have in heaven for all the time to come.
So now, because there is no clear understanding of the difference between the body and the soul, and that’s why some people have the idea that the body has to be preserved in a coffin when it is buried. Now of course, even if you preserve it in a coffin, the body doesn’t stay. And actually, not only the body doesn’t stay, all the particles in the body, they get destroyed.
And they may all be in different bodies now. So, it’s a little simplistic idea that the body and the soul are somehow eternal and in the kingdom of God, we will have the same body that we have right now. And of course, this body poses various serious problems that if a person is born with, say, a crippled or a blind or a deformed body, and that’s the body that the person has, will that person have the same body throughout all of eternity? That would be hell.
Or if a child, some people say, no, no, the person will have a young, youthful, healthy body. But then you may get the question, but then what if somebody dies before the person becomes youthful and healthy? What kind of body will the person have at that time? Will it be the body that the person may have got when the person grew up? How do we know that? What kind of body that person will have? So, actually speaking, the whole understanding here is based on a too clear, too strong misidentification or a conflation between the body and the soul. And when people have a bodily conception of life, then even if there is religion and there is religious belief, still that religious belief can also be misunderstood.
There are some atheists who say that religion is extremely dangerous because there are these terrorists, jihadis, and they become suicide bombers and they are ready to destroy themselves. And why are they ready to destroy themselves? Because they have been brainwashed into believing that we will enjoy with seventy-three virgins in heaven, in Jannat, for all time to come. And that’s why we can… what’s wrong in dying ones if we are going to have eternal life and eternal enjoyment? So, the atheists argue that see how dangerous religious belief is.
Nothing else will make a person become a suicide bomber like this and not in such large numbers. religion contaminates the human mind with such dangerous imaginations that people are ready to kill others in the hope of some imaginary pleasure in the future life. So, is this the effect of belief in afterlife? Actually, any belief can have any effect depending on how it is interpreted.
So, actually the problem here is not afterlife. The problem is material conception of life. The fundamental difference between the two.
See, afterlife means that there is some life after this. So, the problem here it’s not that all people who believe in afterlife will become jihadis. There are so many people who have believed throughout history in reincarnation, in future lives and afterlife in general.
But, how many of them have become militants? So, actually what causes a person to develop this kind of ideas is a material conception of life. Because of the material conception of life, people think that okay, enjoyment means sensual enjoyment. And I’m not getting sensual enjoyment.
In the future, I’ll get sensual enjoyment. And therefore, let me do this. Let me become a suicide bomber and in future I’ll be able to enjoy.
So, the point is the clear understanding of the difference between the body and the soul ensures that the person doesn’t continue in a material conception of life. And when the person doesn’t continue in the material conception of life, the person acquires a spiritual conception of life. That actually real enjoyment is not just in sensuality.
It is in loving service. Love and service. And love and service centred in God and connected with all living beings.
So, if the belief in afterlife is based on a simplistic white washing of the future as immaterial enjoyable based on some belief system, then that can be perverted. But when the entry in the future life is dependent on a thorough re-education of our head and a re-direction of our heart, then, that means, from matter to God, then this sort of misunderstandings will never happen. So, these are disastrous misunderstandings and that way if we see any belief system can be distorted.
The world’s greatest killers in recent times were, if we see, there were Mao Zedong in China, Stalin in Russia, and such people, if we see, they were the biggest killers and they were atheists. They were atheists. So, actually, atheism itself has that.
Hitler was an atheist and he killed so many millions of people. So, actually speaking, if we look at it, the religion, if it’s properly understood, it tells us that life is sacred and because life is sacred, it must be valued. Whereas, spirituality, whereas, atheism, it says that life is a chance product and then if enjoyment in this life is the goal, then what is the point in doing anything which will obstruct that enjoyment? What is the point in preserving this? Morality obstructs the enjoyment.
Put it aside and just enjoy. So, actually, it’s not reincarnation or afterlife. It’s a material conception of life that causes problems and here we see material conception of life is removed, shattered by the Bhagavad Gita right in the beginning where it describes that we are different from the body.
We are actually souls. And Prabhupada again quotes the verse about the two birds in the paraport to illustrate how the soul’s journey takes place from one body to another by the guidance of the Supersoul. Now let’s look at the next verse.
nayanam chindanti shastrani nayanam dhahati pavakhah na jainam kli nayantyapo na shoshayati marutah So, na enam not this chindanti is penetrated by shastrani the soul is not destroyed by weapons the soul is not dhahati pavakhah burned by fire the soul is not kli nayantyapo is not watered away it is not destroyed by dissolved by water na shoshayati marutah it is not withered away by the wind. So essentially what is the emphasis of these four statements it is that the things which destroy the body things which harm the body do not harm the soul that is the important point so again and again Krishna is driving home the point that the soul is indestructible so in continuing with the previous verse the point is that that the just as when you discard the dress and when you take a new dress the person remains unharmed in the process so similarly when the person discards the body and goes to a new body the person will remain unharmed so when Arjuna is going to shoot the arrows at that time the soul is going to be unharmed the soul will go to the next body so the soul is not going to be destroyed by any weapons so Prabhupada explains in the purport about how there are different kinds of weapons which the Vedic literature talks about so today we have lots of weapons of mass destruction and these are extremely dangerous in many ways but in the and these are considered to be enormously powerful extremely destructive and after after the world war 2 in which the in which the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki after that there have been further many weapons developed in fact America developed a weapon and they tested it on a island and there when this weapon was several several many many times more powerful than the bomb that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the result of that explosion was that it exploded on the island and the whole island disappeared from the world map it was just shattered and the debris just sunk into the ocean so the destruction of the weapon obliterated the whole island from the world map so we have weapons of tremendous destructive power now these weapons are there in today’s time in the past there are other weapons so we had the brahmastra we had the suryastra there are many weapons like that so that is also technology this is also technology is there any difference between the two? there is a major difference the difference is that the technology today is in untrained hands often it is in hands that are irresponsible more dangerous the weapons that say terrorists have the greater terror they will cause so in the vedic culture to ensure that the weapons would not be in the hands of people who could cause such terrible destruction so the kshatriyas would have skills in fighting and they would fight but they were trained so that they will act in a responsible way and the kshatriyate those who protect from hurt they are called kshatriyas that is what they are meant to do so unless there is proper training the use or the invention or the development of weapons can lead to enormous damage in society now Prabhupada explains in the purport how there are different kinds of weapons see the current idea of weapons is today’s weapons the atomic weapons that are developed is that the whole process involves understanding there is a lot of energy within an atom so by a process we tap that energy and when you tap that energy then that can be used for peaceful purposes or it can be used for destructive purposes so either way the important point is that these weapons are used for by manipulating things at atomic level so the primary kind of energy that we know about is based on radiations and in the elemental theory of matter earth, water, fire, air, ether, radiation, electromagnetic waves, they fall in fire so most of the weapons that we know about today are fire weapons but there are different kinds of weapons so for example if somebody wanted to destroy a village so you could drop a bomb on it or that person could if a tornado comes over there a tornado can also destroy that village now of course we may say that tornado is a force of nature we cannot cause a tornado yes that is true we cannot cause a tornado but in this way when a tornado comes it is not just a chance force of nature there are factors involved which involve karmic causality those people have done some karma and they are getting the reactions but anyway even the movement of the wind is controlled by the devatas so just as those who control the devatas can cause a tornado similarly they have the they can give the power to cause something like a tornado for those who do the appropriate kind of tapasya and worship so that means here we understand that there is jiva there is prakriti there is prakriti there is jiva so prakriti is material nature jiva is we living entities so now we living entities can manipulate prakriti we can manipulate prakriti for various purposes you can use it for good purposes or we can use it for bad purposes so we manipulate it using technology now when we use it with our technology say we make some atomic weapons or something like that we are trying to understand the principles from a reductionistic point of view reductionistic means we reduce the whole universe down to particles and forces operating according to laws so and we try to get power over that and we try to control nature so that is one way of looking at it the other way is that we understand that there is a hierarchy in the universe and the matter is controlled by devatas and those devatas also have devatas also have power powers which are far greater than what we have and devatas use that power they can use it for doing their universal functions but if we satisfy them so in this hierarchy of prakriti and jiva in the jiva there is hierarchy of jivas we have certain level of control over prakriti and we can use our intelligence to increase that power if we want that is what we try to do with technology but there are other jivas who have greater control over prakriti and when those jivas they gain control and then they already have control by the power of nature and when they we satisfy them by satisfying them by doing certain rituals by doing certain tapasya by religious practises then they give us that power when they give us that power then similarly we are able to control material nature so when we say that there is a vayu astra weapon which causes a tornado like storm to come then we may say this is all mythology how can you can take out an arrow and that causes a storm no its not mythology there are subtle principles involved and the principle is that actually there is a devta in charge of vayu and if we invoke that devta and got that astra then that astra can enable us to do that so like that the living entity can try to control matter in different ways one is independently of any higher controller higher knowledge or higher purpose or it can be in cooperation with the higher purposes with the higher beings so either way the important point is that none of these weapons can ever destroy the soul there have been many different weapons throughout history in the future there will be different weapons but the important point is none of those weapons can destroy destroy the soul now why they can’t destroy the soul I will describe in the next verse so here in the verse the soul cannot be it cannot be dried away it cannot be dissolved it cannot be dried it cannot be withered away so these are the characteristics which explain what has been told in the previous verse and after that Krishna also described nityah eternal he has talked about it earlier sarvagatah sarvagatah is the soul is present everywhere so now again what does this mean does it mean that the soul is all pervading now it’s very clear that Krishna has stated he is talking about how the soul goes from one body to another body how the soul actually is in just in the soul just we have one dress and we give up one dress and take up another dress similarly the soul goes from soul gives up one body and acquires another body now if the soul is already sarvagatah in the sense of being everywhere then what is the point of saying that the soul will give up one body and take another body the whole point of saying that it will give up one body and another body that implies that the soul is going from here to there the soul is acquiring another body there is no point in if the soul is already all pervading then what is the point of saying the soul will give up one body and take another body it’s like saying that the person is already wearing all dresses the person is already there everywhere so what is the point of giving up one dress and taking another dress so sarvagataha if we see that’s what Prabhupada explains he follows the acharya kaldevidya bhushan chakravarti path over here and he explains that sarvagataha is not to be taken literally as meaning that the soul is all pervading but the soul is capable of going everywhere and sarvagataha means the soul is capable of living everywhere so Prabhupada uses this to say that how there is life on other planets also the soul is there in various species in bodies that are suitable to the climates atmospheric situations in different places so how is this possible now all that honest scientists can say is that life as we know it is not possible on other planets that means that how can scientists infer that there is no life on other planets they may say oh there is no oxygen over there there is no water over there the temperature is too high over there so based on this they can say life is not possible over there so now all that this means is we are assuming that life requires oxygen life requires a particular temperature range life requires a particular say particular material items like say water only then life can survive but this is not necessary in the previous so as Krishna has told you the soul is a source of consciousness the soul is not destructible destroyable by anything material so therefore the soul can if it gets the appropriate bodies for being in a particular locale in a particular environment the soul can stay in that locale so if the soul is say in the vicinity of the sun in the planet then there the sun will there it will get a body that is primarily made of fire and it will survive in that place also even in the modern scientific point of view all that can be said is that life as we know it doesn’t exist so there are some scientists who have proposed that scientists claim to have gone to the moon and they say that we can find life over there but then the question arises some scientists have said that we have not really searched beyond the surface of the moon what about under the surface of the moon there will be life over there be buried we have found lots of forms of life they are called extremophiles extremophiles means they live in extreme conditions feel means to love so extreme is severe extreme conditions so for example there are life forms which survive in extremely hot situations so they are called as a fire bacteria for example they survive in such hot conditions in which humans can’t conceive of surviving what to speak of human beings most human beings can’t survive the extremophiles in fact when the temperature decreases it becomes too cold for them to live so the temperature at which we can’t we will find them intolerably hot they find those temperatures to be intolerably cold similarly deep within the ocean ocean surface ocean body actually there are organisms not just microscopic organisms but visible organisms who live breathing in nitrogen dioxide and they basically get their nourishment from the rocks that are there in the ocean bed so this was inconceivable but extremophiles more and more extremophiles have been discovered by researchers and this indicates that actually things are not as simple as we have been led to believe when we talk about life on other planets so if we assume that life has to be like this like this like this then when we find that then we may say that ok these conditions are not there so life is not there but if we find out that actually there are no conditions required for life in the sense that in any environment the soul can acquire appropriate body suitable for that environment get nourishment from that environment and continue to live then sarvagata is entirely possible and so Prabhupada would use a simpler logic also he said that if we look at the earth we see that life is crowding everywhere look at the small crack on the earth and the crack is filled with some ants and insects and things like that so in so much life is there everywhere on in evidence small crack of space on the earth small crack in the earth now there are thousands of planets why would god create and do such a waste of space so many planets why would god create them and leave them as it is so god is an efficient designer and he would do things in such a way that they are productive so sarvagata soul is capable of living everywhere sthanu unchangeable so unchangeable can have various meanings in the context what it means over here is that it it prabhupada this can be used as well as future verses can also be used to explain that the soul does not undergo the changes you know we see akshara will be talked about next in the future also so the soul does not undergo the changes the body undergoes now achala what does achala mean now achala means immovable we know the mind is said to be chanchala restless chanchala krishna krishna tells to arjuna in 6.35 6.34 that mind i can’t control this it’s impossible so chanchala the mind is restless but krishna is saying the soul is achala it is immovable it is not restless so now if this is immovability means one complete permanent absolute immovability again if you are meaning that then the whole point of the soul giving up one body and going to another body that would have no meaning and krishna tells also later in the bhagavad gita in the 14th chapter he talks about urdhvam gacchanti satvastha madhyatishthanti rajasa yaghanya guna gattistha adho gacchanti tamasaha so krishna says that those who live in goodness they go upwards those who live in passion stay over here only and those who live in ignorance go downwards now such statements would have no meaning if krishna if the soul were immovable if the soul were absolutely immovable then what is the point in saying that the soul will go up or the soul will go down or the soul will go in the serena itself so what it means is achala means the soul cannot be moved by anything material so the soul can be moved only by its own will when the atma is to be taken from one body to another for example when yamuntas come and yamuntas are to catch the person and drag the person away so what do they do the yamapasha is material the yamapasha cannot catch the soul the yamapasha catches the subtle body and yamuntas drag the subtle body out and the soul is attached to the subtle body and because the soul is attached to the subtle body the soul goes with the subtle body to wherever the soul is to wherever the subtle body is taken so for example to understand this you can say that if a person is watching say a match on TV a cricket match is going on a person is completely attached to watching the cricket match and then suppose some thieves come along and the thieves come along the thieves just pick up the TV and go away and the person keeps watching the TV and goes along with the thieves so like that basically the yamuntas come and take the subtle body and because the soul is hooked to the subtle body the soul also goes along with it so achaloyam so sanatanah so soul is immovable and is eternal now prabhupada uses here the masculine gender for the soul several places he uses the word he in several places now this is just a conventional use it is not referring to the soul’s gender per se in some other places soul may use the word lit it also the living entity is and it goes so now soul uses now soul the reference to the masculine for the soul is just conventional in the for most of history actually he was used as a reference for everyone the male was an inclusive reference for all of humanity but due to the trends of modernity and post modernity you know often now the he is considered as a reference to males and therefore many times when we talk we use he or she she or he so this is just a reference based on total current conventions but he itself was not meant he earlier was all inclusive so man is so for example if we say that man is the maker of his own destiny so if that is the case then that man includes woman in it so earlier the he masculine gender the male was considered inclusive and so Prabhupada wrote the books when the masculine gender was inclusive so this is not referring to the wherever in this section Prabhupada refers to the soul masculine that is just a reference to the all living beings in a generic inclusive sense of the use of the word he the soul is actually having no gender it is neither masculine nor feminine the soul is transcendental of course in the spiritual world the soul has a swaroopa and in that swaroopa the soul does have some form so that may also be a particular gender the gopis are female gender the gopas are male gender but that is completely spiritual and transcendental so here the he is used in an inclusive sense not in a specific sense of belonging to a particular gender the soul is transcendental now Krishna gives some further descriptions of the soul avyaktoyam achintyoyam avikaryoyam uchyate tasmadevam viditvaynam nanushochitum arhaseem so avyaktoyam avyakta means the soul is invisible or unmanifest so we can’t perceive the soul with our senses we can’t perceive the soul with our gross sensory faculties then achintyoyam the soul is also inconceivable if the soul is inconceivable achintyoyam then how can we conceive it in fact we could say that what is the need to conceive it also let me just live happily in the world of the conception of life let me not bother about the soul business but the point is that unless we think about the soul we cannot understand what life is ultimately meant for because life at the level of the body will soon be destroyed will be terminated so achintyoyam achintyoyam Prabhupada explains it means inconceivable means that we cannot really conceive the soul by our own independent endeavours we need scriptural guidance with our logical inference we can think of something about the soul we can get some understanding of the soul but if you want deeper understanding we need to look at the tradition at the scriptural tradition and therein we get an understanding so achintya does not mean entirely inconceivable it simply means that it is not conceivable by our independent speculation we get some indication but for a deeper understanding we need scripture abhikaryoyam ujjate abhikarya abhikar is change so sthanu is also unchangeable so here Prabhupada explains that abhikar refers to the six changes that the body undergoes that is creation then there is growth then there is reproduction then there is maintenance preservation then there is deterioration and then there is destruction so these six changes the body undergoes but the soul does not undergo the changes abhikaryoyam ujjate and tasmad evam vidit vainam so knowing the soul to be thus nanu shochitam arhasi do not lament do not lament now Krishna will talk about this we will see this nanu shochitam arhasi na shochitam this will come again and again in this section in fact this has already come once in abhinashita vidhi yena sarvam na kashchitkar tum arhati so when Krishna had talked about that the soul cannot be destroyed at that time also he had told Arjuna therefore Arjuna do not lament that he has talked about this do not lament earlier in 2.13 when he said dhira satran mohiyati so what he has talked about now he will make it more emphatic so this first time nanu shochitam arhasi it will come several times in this section so what is the connection of the first part and second part actually the soul is avikarya it is not going to grow old it is not going to die it is always the same so prabhupada explains bhishma and drona for whom arjuna is concerned they are going to get new bodies they will either get spiritual bodies if they are liberated which is what is going to happen to them when they die in krishna’s presence or they will get elevated bodies based on their overall karma so if their old bodies go when new bodies come on what is the cause for lamentation in that then after this now after talking about how the soul gets a new body krishna briefly talks about the philosophy which rejects the soul atachainam nityajatam nityam vamanya sevratam atha pitvam maha paho nahinam shochitum arhasi so atachainam if however nityajatam the soul is always born nityam vamanya sevratam then it is always destroyed atha pitvam maha paho therefore even then oh arjuna nahinam shochitum arhasi so i said the same point is being repeated and the conclusion is don’t lament don’t do shoka so what does it mean here krishna is talking about the atheistic reductionistic philosophies that were present at that time and there are philosophies present like that even today which claim that actually life begins with chemical combination and time of birth and when there is chemical iteration life is destroyed so this school of thought reduces life to just a set of bio chemicals which live for some time and which die thereafter so this kind of understanding of life as just a set of bio chemicals that has come alive this is today promoted in the name of science however science has never been able to bring produce life from bio chemicals there have been experiments which claim to produce artificial life but if we look at seriously at what has been done it’s not artificial life it’s simply manipulation of real life to bring about something else which is slightly modified so nowadays many research institutes in order to attract funds and in order to gain prestige use spin doctors spin doctors means that these are media experts who know how to phrase things in such a way that will catch attention so because of that when they use such words artificial life created it catches attention but actually if we see what has been done it’s not artificial life creation it’s simply basically for example they may take the I have written an article about this on my website the whole point is they may just take some DNA from existing setup and then they replicate the DNA and they put the DNA they make some modification in that maybe slightly change it and then let the thing grow and then basic their life emerges so now they say that we have created artificial life but basically the structure through which life has come that only they have modified but how life comes about that is not really known so it’s like music you know if I have a soundtrack on which music is there and then I have to play the soundtrack the sound comes now if I take the soundtrack and I just change it a little bit and place it in some other medium then on that medium the sound plays slightly differently so now the soundtrack is definitely connected with the sound but the soundtrack has not originated the sound has not just originated from the soundtrack the sound was spoken by somebody and the sound is heard by somebody so the soundtrack is the medium through which the sound comes and the soundtrack can be manipulated and changed slightly so that the sound can become changed by soundtrack I am referring here to the physical medium whatever medium it is on which the sound is stored so that can be manipulated now this is an example given by a prominent biologist in his book called The Music of Life so similarly the body is the medium through which consciousness is expressed so for example in certain microscopic organisms they grow in a particular way so if you change the genetics a little bit then they may grow in a different way but either way the consciousness is not just present in the biochemical arrangement just as the music is not originated in the soundtrack the music is originated from person who spoke the music and the music is understood by some other person the soundtrack is simply the medium through which the music is transmitted and the medium is changed the soundtrack can get changed so what researchers do is simply the biochemical structure like DNA or whatever which they use for their experiments so those are originally produced by nature and then when they are slightly modified at that time life may come out in slightly different ways so this is a very simple example I am giving we don’t want to go into science class over here but those who are interested they can read the relevant articles on my site but the important point is actually this whole idea that life comes from chemicals doesn’t have even scientific basis what to speak of philosophical basis so these are grand claims these are claims done by spin doctors spin doctors means media experts media managers who want to get big publicity but Krishna is saying even if somebody thinks that life is just a bunch of chemicals then you should not lament so why should one not lament Prabhupada explains that here Krishna is also using the word Mahabaho because he wants to indicate to Arjuna that Arjuna I know you are a person who is born in a great culture you are a great warrior you will not be overcome by such petty misconceptions so now if one thinks that either way there is no body there is only body no soul but still we know that it is a universal fact that whoever is born has to die it is a certain fact similarly similarly actually once we accept the reincarnation of the soul then we understand that one who is after that one is going to get the body so the connection between this and the previous verse is that if we just consider life to be a bunch of chemicals then why lament that actually chemicals are existing everywhere and by the principle of conservation of energy none of the chemicals are permanently destroyed all that happens is that their form is just temporarily changed so they were in the form of a person right now just conscious now they have just become a lump of ashes so why lament but Krishna you are not that kind you don’t have that kind of belief so everyone who is born has to die so even if you don’t fight this battle your elders are going to die and they are going to get a next birth also so rather than giving up your duty to avoid that which is unavoidable do your duty and thereby you will attain an auspicious destination so you can by giving up your duty you cannot avoid the unavoidable death is going to come to everyone therefore do your duty so and Krishna says all things are initially everything is unmanifested so you cannot avoid the unavoidable death initially everything is unmanifest then they become everything is unmanifest and then it becomes manifest and then again it becomes manifest therefore what is the cause for lamentation that means as far as chemicals are concerned if the body is just a lump of chemicals then they are initially not alive and now they become alive temporarily and then after that they die so chemical transformation is constantly happening and if life is just reduced to chemicals then all emotions ultimately become meaningless and ultimately everything becomes meaningless that who you know when mother loves the child why does the mother love the child oh actually just some chemicals are secreted in the brain and because those chemicals are secreted in the brain of the mother that is why the mother loves the child so we reduce love down to just chemical secretion so is that really love is that all that love is just some chemical secretion not at all love is something far deeper and richer so if it is just chemicals then why should we lament ultimately everything is destructible it is temporary there with us and then the world will change so the essential message of Krishna to Arjuna is why do you lament to Arjuna so now Krishna is going to conclude this section next two verses which we will discuss in our next class thank you very much