Gita 02.25 – Contemplate the inconceivable to relish the spiritual

Avyaktoyam acintyoyam avikaryoyam icchite tasmadevam viditvainam nanusocitum arhasi 2.25 Bhagavad Gita avyaktoyam ayam the soul which is being referred to throughout this section avyaktoyam it is unmanifest, acintyoyam it is inconceivable so avyakta refers to it not being manifest to senses acintya refers to it not being conceivable even by the mind avikaryoyam icchite avikaryo it does not undergo any transformations tasmadevam viditvainam knowing it to be like this evam viditvainam nanusocitum arhasi it is worthy of you not to lament nanusocitum it behooves you not to lament evam viditvainam knowing this so we will see this nanusocitum arhasi coming again and again in the next 6-7 verses so the purpose of this section is to remove Arjuna's grief with the solace provided by spiritual knowledge, knowledge of the eternality of the soul here Krishna continues talking about the knowledge of the soul by talking about three features avyakta, acintya and avikaryam so avyakta the soul is unmanifest to the senses the soul is the fundamental the soul is a spiritual particle at the highest level the soul is a person but presently soul is in the form of particle of consciousness and that is not perceivable to the gross senses, spirit by definition is non-material and is not perceivable by the material senses the material senses are not the right apparatus for perceiving the soul just as the eyes are not the right apparatus for hearing the sound or the ears are not the right apparatus for tasting food so every observation every observation to observe any particular thing we need a particular apparatus so without that apparatus we cannot observe so it is unmanifest to the senses not only the unmanifest to the senses it is also acintya it is not conceivable to the mind either now this may raise the question that the soul is not conceivable then what is the point in thinking about it anyway it is not conceivable so why think about it no, there are two different perspectives to this or two different directions of responding to this question first is that it is not conceivable fully precisely by our mind but with scriptural revelation it can be understood to a significant extent we can infer the characteristics of the soul by we can infer the existence of the soul by observation or analysis and cross section and we can perceive that the soul must be having must be having consciousness because consciousness does not come from dead matter it must be coming from the soul so that way we can perceive some qualities of the soul but the self existence of the soul cannot be perceived by us so the consciousness of the soul when expressed through the body that is perceivable to us but the original consciousness of the soul which is called as chitta, sat chit ananda chitta, dogma consciousness of the soul that is not perceivable to us because we are at the material level of consciousness and we cannot at our current level of consciousness rise above the material level so whether it is perceiving with our senses or conceiving with our mind we are limited by our current level of consciousness so the soul is achintya that means that with our mind we cannot conceive of it but still with scripture we can understand it and with purification and realization we can actually see pashyantyana chakshu shaha Vishwanath talks about this in 15.10 and 11 he says we can see the eyes of knowledge and then in 15.11 he says so we see with the eyes of knowledge and then we practice atmanyavasthitam start living at the level of the soul we will be able to see the soul also at that time yoginash chaitan the yogis who situate themselves in spiritual life in the life of the soul will gradually by purification and elevation of consciousness see it but that is at a purified level at our level we can't see it achintya so still with scripture we can understand it gyan chakshu shaha not from our own inference but gyan coming from scripture of course there are people like Socrates who did understand the soul and actually they understood it in terms of the soul being the locus of their identity and that made Socrates fearless in the face of death but he was an exceptionally insightful person and even at his time not many people understood the soul even among his students and further his knowledge of the soul was was partial in the sense that he didn't connect the soul with the supreme soul so to understand the soul properly is not possible but to understand the soul enough by which we can pursue the path for realizing soul that is possible by our logical inference and all the more so by scriptural guides, scriptural revelation and if the soul is so difficult to perceive so difficult to conceive then what is the point of trying to think about it, trying to understand it, trying to realize it the point is that the soul is who we are without understanding ourselves how can we make ourselves happy so we need to realize our spiritual identity and by realizing our spiritual identity we realize spiritual happiness because happiness ananda is a part of our spiritual makeup as satchitananda as spiritual beings so when we realize that as souls we are eternal and we are blissful at least we understand it intellectually then that inspires us to pursue that course, pursue the path of realizing the soul but we can't realize the soul immediately and patience on the path of comprehending the soul and realizing it is recommended is enjoined, is implicit in this scriptural description that is achintya so why do we need to do chintan on the soul when it is achintya why do we need to contemplate the soul if it is inconceivable because that is the pathway to real happiness the inconceivability of the soul is not meant to make us disheartened in the spiritual path but rather it should make us enlightened with a sense of adventure and mystery oh there is something so wonderful now i thought that i was a temporary body destined to die but now i understand that i am an eternal soul destined for eternal love and eternal happiness, how wonderful i want to realize it so achintya of the soul can infuse us infuse our spiritual quest not with pessimism but with dynamism, with excitement with zeal and that way we can move forward in the path of realizing the soul abhikarya abhikarya that means vikar is transformation so abhikarya means the soul does not undergo transformations, matter undergoes changes everything that is material undergoes changes if we see that there is matter itself which is created, which is maintained which exists and which is destroyed now when there is ensouled matter that means matter which contains a soul within it then that behaves slightly differently so unconscious matter basically is created exists and is destroyed but conscious matter actually it is not matter that is conscious it is the soul that is experimenting its consciousness with the matter so such a consciousness such a body what happens to it actually it undergoes not 3 changes but 6 changes it is created, it grows when a table is created a table does not grow but when a mother and a father create a child, the child grows it grows it maintains itself so the hand if a bar is cut off, the bar does not clot but if a hand is cut, it clots there is a mechanism for self maintenance then there is reproduction a hero and a heroine produce a baby robot but a male and a female human being produce children then there is deterioration and then there is destruction so the soul is present in some matter that matter undergoes additional changes that is it grows it maintains itself and it reproduces but still these changes which the soul causes to happen in matter these changes don't happen in the soul the soul is avikarya the soul is unchanging so unchanging with respect to the context of Arjuna here means that the souls of Bhishma and Drona will not be destroyed, they will not be affected the soul will remain the same and they will get a next destination a next body and they will continue on like that so Arjuna by understanding this invisibility incomprehensibility and unchangeability immutability of the soul so invisibility is inconceivability is and immutability is by understanding this about the soul therefore Arjuna do not lament because the real person is not affected by any of the changes for which you are lamenting there is nothing worth lamentation therefore Arjuna do not lament thank you.