Is Krishna’s reference to Arjuna as Bharata spiritual because the Bharata dynasty is filled with liberated souls?

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Hare Krishna.
Is Krishna’s reference to Arjuna as Bharata a spiritual reference and not bodily reference? Because that dynasty contains many self-realized, mostly self-realized souls, even Samitya Siddhas. Answer? We shouldn’t confuse different meanings of the word spiritual. If we are going to literally say that the dynasty itself is spiritual, then that would mean that exactly that same dynasty has to exist in the spiritual world.
This is a Christian conception of poster of perfection of heaven where whatever relationships we have in this world, those relationships are present in the same form in heaven. Certainly, that is not the conception of the spiritual world that has been given in our Shastras. If we are going to say that this dynasty is spiritual in the literal sense of it being present in the spiritual world, then is it that the same persons who are the grandparents and the great-grandparents of Arjuna are all of them there in the spiritual world and are all of them in the exact same position? So, how old are the great-great-great-great-great-grandparents of Arjuna? In the spiritual world, we hear that everybody is young.
So, actually, to simplistically try to… we should simplistically spiritualize everything. And sometimes, we don’t have an Abrahamic disdain for matter where we consider matter to be intrinsically sinful. That is why they… So, nor do we simplistically spiritualize everything.
We have the example, classic example that when Srila Prabhupada was in his final days and because of his sickness, some drool was coming from his mouth. So, some devotees started collecting the drool and preserving it and saying that this is spiritual similar to what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in his ecstasy would… the mucus and other things would come out of his mouth. When Srila Prabhupada heard this, he said, this is nonsense.
Srila Prabhupada said, this is… His body is temporary and it gives misery. So, we shouldn’t mistakenly, simplistically spiritualize everything. Now, so, in constitution, the dynasty is not spiritual.
Now, in application, yes, it may be spiritual. That means, yes, many of the great souls in the dynasty will be great souls, self-realized souls, some of them will be Siddhas also. So, in that sense, we can say that the dynasty is spiritual because they are all spiritually advanced, spiritually realized souls.
But when Krishna is referring to Arjuna as Bharata, he is referring to him based on his connection through… at the bodily level. It is Arjuna’s body which is born in the Bharata dynasty. So, we can’t say that the reference Bharata is a spiritual reference or Bharata Shabha is a spiritual reference.
It is a bodily reference based on a bodily connection. Even if that bodily connection is with a great soul, is with a dynasty of great souls, still the connection is a bodily connection. Trying to simplistically or arbitrarily spiritualize it is to have a semantic confusion about the meaning of the word spiritual.
So, now, it is a material reference, it is a reference based on the body to Bharata, but it is used for spiritual purposes. That means it is used, Arjuna, because you belong to the glorious dynasty of Bharata, therefore, you should act in a glorious way and tolerate and practice the path of Dharma. Now, if we are going to say that this reference is particularly spiritual, then there are so many references by their bodily connections in the scripture.
So, are we going to say that all those references are also spiritual? Demons are referred to by their bodily names, bodily connections, the dhanavas, the ithyas. So, are we going to say that all that is spiritual? No, this is just a nomenclature in scripture. In the, every scripture is spoken in a particular social context.
And in the social context of scripture, the names that are used are often spiritual. Frequently names are used for people and names are used based on their connection with the body. And we shouldn’t think that that has anything to do with the ultimate spiritual truth of who they are.
So, we shouldn’t be uncomfortable with the bodily conception. We are in a particular body and actually the Bhagavad Gita tells us that the best way to practice Dharma in the body is by being comfortable in the body. That means not being comfortable in the sense of trying to enjoy the body, but by being compatibly engaged in the body.
That is the whole purpose of an ashram. For a brahmana to get a brahminical engagement, for a kshatriya to get a kshatriya engagement. What does that mean? That means we honour our bodily nature and act according to bodily nature, but we don’t succumb to bodily desire.
So, when we talk about condemning the bodily conception, that is, we condemn the succumbing to bodily desire and letting bodily desire consume all our time and consciousness. But even for pursuing spiritual purposes, we need to honour our bodily nature. And the whole principle of an ashram is honouring our bodily nature, harmonising with our bodily nature, but using it for a spiritual purpose.