Gita 14.02 Death can’t be avoided, but affliction due to death can be

Transcript

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that knowledge. Thank you Bhagavata 14.2 idam jnanam upashityam mam sa dharmyam agataha sarge pinopajayante pralayena vithanticha Krishna is continuing to describe here the glories of the knowledge that he has given or he is going to give in this chapter and he states that idam jnanam upashityam that those who take shelter of this knowledge mam sa dharmyam agataha they attain a dharma, a nature similar to mine so here we see the word dharma used in a different sense than what is commonly thought of it to mean the word dharma is often thought to mean religion but religion or duty and that’s the sense in which it is used when Krishna says sarva dharman parityajyam aam ekam sharanam vraja that those who give up all varieties of religion and just surrender to me that is the sense in which he is using it in dharma samstha panarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge also in 4.8 so the point is that Krishna is uses the word dharma itself is multivalent and if dharma is nature then nature doesn’t have to be established nature is what is actually so when Krishna is using the word dharma he is using it in a social order that is used to that enables people to do their religious duties and to revive their nature to realize their nature so here Krishna uses the word that they acquire a nature similar to mine and what is the nature of that nature that is of Krishna’s that at the time of sarga sarga is creation they do not appear at that time and they don’t get destroyed at the time of death so what happens essentially is that they recognize that we all are spiritual beings and we all have to realize our spirituality so it is the illusion created by the modes that makes us identify ourselves with matter and because of such identification we experience birth at the time of creation and we experience death at the time of destruction here creation and destruction refer to the cosmic creation and destruction the universe goes through cycles existing sometimes and getting destroyed sometimes and now Krishna uses significantly different words that he says the event of birth will not occur again for them because they will get liberated from material existence but the event of death is going to happen to all of us so he doesn’t say they won’t die at the time of death he says they won’t be afflicted at the time of death so because to the extent we identify with the body to that extent we suffer if we had our own car and that car got damaged we would be afflicted but if we had sold the car to someone else and then that car got damaged we wouldn’t feel so afflicted because it’s not our car so like that for the soul who is very spiritually advanced they don’t identify with the body they see their body as a vehicle and it’s a vehicle on rent it has served its purpose and just like when we hire a car and we use it we keep it carefully we use it well and say if you are going from one place to another place if you are going to New York from New York to Washington DC then after we reach the Washington DC we hand over the car to the car agency and we move on with our life so similarly for the advanced souls who understand that we are on a journey of spiritual evolution that extends over multiple lifetimes they see the body as a car so the body as a car is something which we need while we are functioning in this life but as we grow spiritually the time of the for which we have the car it ends and if we have become spiritually realized then the car has served its purpose of acting as a tool for spiritualizing our consciousness and then when the spiritualization has been done of our consciousness then we return the car to material nature which is like the agency from which we have got this body and then thereafter whatever happens to the body we don’t worry worry so much about it because we focus primarily on Krishna and we are connected with Krishna and we are moving towards Krishna either we are liberated from material existence or we are elevated and on our another level of reality from which we can progress towards liberation in Krishna so that’s why Krishna clearly says the word we won’t feel afflicted at the time of death we can’t avoid feeling going through the experience of death but we can avoid the trauma of death if we have transcended the modes that make us attached to the body and the objects that can be enjoyed through the body the more we transcend such attachment the more we become detached from matter and attached to Krishna then we are not invested in the body and then we won’t take birth again and although we will die we will not be afflicted at the time of death and for doing all this this knowledge Krishna says is not just to be studied it is to be taken shelter of idam jnanam upashrityam so this knowledge is to be taken shelter of how do we take shelter of this knowledge by by studying it reverentially by applying it submissively and by seeing it as non different from Krishna being manifestation of him it is coming from him and it is he himself who is manifesting as this knowledge Krishna talks about this reverential mode of study later in 18.70 when he states that adhishyate chaiya imam dharmyam samvadam avayo jnana yagyena tenaham ishtasyam iti mehmati he ishtasyam iti mehmati he that the sacred conversation of ours is to be worshipped with the intelligence ishtaha jnana yagya through the sacrifice of knowledge so he recommends worshipping him with our intelligence by studying this knowledge so when we take shelter of Krishna through the shelter of the knowledge that enables us to take shelter of Krishna then that reverential submissive mode of study helps us to become attracted to Krishna and become detached from the world so that knowledge of firstly how the three modes entangle us and how devotion to Krishna can disentangle us that will be described in this chapter and this verse concludes the section the two verse section which starts this chapter wherein this section describes the glory of the knowledge that is being that is going to be given in this chapter so here Krishna follows a thread that he has used several times in the Gita for example the seventh chapter the first three verses are about the glory of the knowledge that he is going to give similar line chapter also the first three verses are about the glory of the knowledge that he is going to give so especially when Krishna talks about some subject without being prompted then he gives a prelude that describes the importance of the knowledge that is meant to attract attention and thereby facilitate comprehension and application