Gita 02.16 – Matter has no existence in the sense of having no lasting consequence

Duties. Thank you.

Bhagavad Gita 2.16 is a very important philosophical verse, which goes from merely addressing the difference between the body and the soul to highlighting a fundamental difference between matter and spirit, so, na asato vidyate bhavo, na bhavo vidyate sataha, so, this is from the poetic point of view, an example of what is in English called as chiasmus, now chiasmus is a figure of speech in which the second part of a sentence involves inversion of the units of the first part, so, for example, John F. Kennedy said, ask not what the nation has done for you, ask what you have done for the nation, so, the nation and you are inverted from the second part, from the first part to second part, so, ask not what the nation has done for you, your nation comes first, you come second, next part it asks what you have done for the nation, so, this inversion is a literary figure of speech called as chiasmus. Now, this is reflected over here, na asato vidyate bhavo, so, here asato and bhava are the words which are there in the first line and then this is inverted in the second line, na bhavo vidyate sataha, so, of the, so, na asato vidyate bhavo means that asat, so, of course, the word is slightly changed, that is just for grammatical purposes to ensure that the meaning is maintained, so, asat, sat chit ananda, now sat has multiple meanings, sat can mean eternity, sat can mean also existence, so, in this case, actually, if we just take the meaning to be eternal, na asato vidyate bhavo, abhavo, na asato vidyate bhavo, na bhavo vidyate sataha, so, here the essential point that Krishna is making is that we all have to observe these two natures and learn about these two natures, let us look at the concluding fast word, ubhayor api drishto antas, ubhayor of these two, drishto antas, so, drishta, now, normally, drishtanta refers to an example or a narrative, something used to illustrate, but, actually, drishta anta, when it is separated into two words, it refers to the end of vision, so, that means, the end of the discussion, that is the conclusion, so, vision is, of course, used in a more of a sense of understanding than seeing, so, of the drishta anta, the conclusion is what? tvanayo tattva darshibhi, who is making this conclusion? it is made by tattva darshibhi, so, tattva is the truth, darshibhi is those who are seers of the truth, so, those who are seers of the truth have concluded that, what have they concluded? na asato vidyate bhavo, so, of the asat, there is no bhava, bhava means endurance, sat means, it can mean eternity, but it can mean existence also, so, if here the word eternity is used, then it becomes a tautology, tautology means a meaningless repetition, so, of the eternal, there is no cessation, if we say, or of the temporary, there is no endurance, then, it just makes no, it doesn't make so much sense, temporary means that it doesn't have endurance, eternal means it doesn't have any cessation, so, there is nothing really asserted very strongly over here, in the statement, it's almost like a simple definition of the words temporary and eternal, which is not what Krishna is doing, Krishna is analyzing philosophy, not teaching vocabulary over here, so, the words sat, here, more appropriately refer not to eternity, but to existence, so, of the non-existent, there is no endurance, and na bhavo vidyate sataha, of the, sataha, sataha, of the existent, there is no cessation, now, of the eternal, there is no cessation, as I said, it refers to a tautology, but what is, either way, whatever words we use, what is the meaning of this, the, if we look at the broader context, in the previous verses, Krishna has talked about differentiating between matter and spirit, and the future verses also, he keeps talking about the difference between matter and spirit, so, the essential subject is that, the subject of the difference between matter and spirit, and keeping that in mind helps us to understand what is being talked about over here, so, Krishna is saying that matter is temporary, and spirit is eternal, so, this is what the seers have learnt, this is what those who are tattva-darshis, those who are seers of the truth, they have concluded this, this refers to, of a non-existent, there is no endurance, now, in what sense is matter non-existent, is it in the sense that it really doesn't exist at all, now, if you see, if I bang my head against a wall, I can't say very well, say that the wall doesn't exist, at the very least, the pain as a consequence of my rashness will exist, and that I can say is a reasonable basis for inferring that something out there exists, and if it looks like the wall, and it feels like I have banged my head against a wall, then I can very well infer that it is a wall over there, so, once one of Prabhupada's disciples tried this out, Prabhupada said this material world is unreal, and then he went and tried to walk through a wall, and all that he got was a bang on the head, when he asked Prabhupada, Prabhupada said it's unreal in the sense that it is temporary, unreal not in the sense that it is non-existent, so, we have to sometimes, need to, we have to sometimes redefine terms from the philosophical perspective, and those redefinition of terms may be different, may lead to the terms having meanings different from what are ascribed to them in normal conversational usage, so, here, na sato vidyate bhavo, that means the material world is non-existent in the sense that it is temporary, vidyate bhavo, so, of that there is no endurance, so, now, it is non-existent from the perspective of eternity, it is like there and gone after some time, and once it is gone, it is almost as if it is not there at all, just like we have some dreams, and when we are going through those dreams, those dreams seem so real to us, but once we get out of, once we wake up, then the dreams have no, practically no reality left, so, we may say it's not like that with our day-to-day life, with outer world, yes, it's not exactly like that, but, you know, we have lived so many lives, and those lives are just, we have had so many names in those lives, and they are all just gone now, there is nothing left of that, not even a memory left, so, we may say, okay, karmic consequences are there, yes, that is fine, so, that's why it's not exactly non-existent, but from the perspective of eternity, from the perspective of the soul's eternal existence, the effect of matter is from the perspective of eternity of no consequence, so, it is almost as if non-existent, and nabhavo vidyate sataha, that sataha, of the eternal, there is no cessation, so, now again to just give an example, that of the temporary not having existence, you know, we may have played some cricket match or something in our childhood, and we say we lost that match, or any sport we may have played, and then we lost at that time, it might have been devastating, but now it doesn't matter, now it doesn't matter, you know, we may not even remember it now, and if you remember, you might just be a little embarrassed about it, but that's all, it doesn't matter now, so, like that, of the non-existent, there is no endurance, of the eternal, there is no cessation, so, Arjuna, you are a soul, and that is the eternal reality, and that is not going to change, so, that which is unchanging needn't distract us from that which is fleeting, so, for Arjuna, his identity as a soul, and his relationship with the supreme soul, which we'll be talking about in the Bhagavad Gita later, but right now, even this is the identity and nature as a soul, they are eternal realities, they are unchanging realities, and they will lead to, acting according to them, living in the light of the soul's nature, will lead Arjuna to eternal result, whereas, letting himself be distracted by that which is fleeting, that which is non-enduring, that will deprive him, cheat him of that result, so, just as when a person is going on the road, you know, what matters is the road, the scenery which is all around the road, which is okay, one can just glance at the scenery, but the scenery is passing, and if one gets too enamored by the scenery, and starts veering off course, this is because of the scenery, and the person misses the road, and can't reach the destination, so, similarly, whatever happens at the material level is something which is actually peripheral to our core purpose in life, and to the extent we get affected by them, to that extent we get distracted, so, the whole point of this philosophical analysis of the eternality of spirit, and the ephemerality of matter, is to bring about steadiness, persistence, and constancy in the Arjuna's spiritual pursuit, and that will be again mentioned as we move forward in the future verses, but this was emphasizes that matter is temporary, so, don't get too excited by it, and this way we see it's a follow-up of Tam Siddhik Shastra Bharata, and Yam Hinavithayam Tete, the impersonalists try to use the word non-existent to mean that actually matter doesn't exist at all, but then that will be a whole different subject, and of course they can't answer the question, then where does matter come from, and how does spirit come under matter, two fundamental questions which Mayavad finds it very difficult to answer, but the key point here is Krishna is not talking about non-existent in the absolute sense, because Krishna does talk about Bhishma, Drona existing at least at present, and he talks about, he has himself mentioned that all these kings who are assembled there, they will continue to exist, so, they are existing now, and they will continue to exist, and we will see that he doesn't reject matter entirely, for we'll see in 7.4, he says matter is his energy, so what comes from the real is real, it is energy and it is also real, so here Krishna is talking about the existent and the non-existent in the sense of their temporary,.