| TOPIC: In our reading from the Bhagavad-Gita how does Lord Krishna (the Blessed Lord) distinguish between the soul and the body? According to Krishna, what different properties do the soul and the body have? What happens to the soul when the body dies? Then explain why Arjuna is initially hesitant to perform his duties as a warrior and how Krishna’s claims about the soul and the body are supposed to reconcile Arjuna to killing others or being killed himself in battle. Are Krishna’s arguments convincing? Would someone like Gilgamesh have better reconciled himself to his own (or Enkindu’s) death if he had shared Krishna’s beliefs about the soul? SOURCES: Chapter 2 SANKHYAYOGA 1. Sanjaya said: To him thus invaded by pity, his eyes full and distressed with tears, his heart overcome by depression and discouragement, Madhusudana spoke these words. 2. The Blessed Lord said: Whence has come to thee this dejection, this stain and darkness of the soul in the hour of difficulty and peril, O Arjuna? This is not the way cherished by the Aryan man: this mood came not from heaven nor can it lead to heaven, and on earth it is the forfeiting of glory. 3. Fall not from the virility of the fighter and the hero, O Partha! it is not fitting in thee. Shake off this paltry faintheartedness and arise, O scourge of thine enemy! 4. Arjuna said: How, O Madhusudana, shall I strike Bhishma and Drona with weapons in battle, they who are worthy of worship? 5. Better to live in this world even on alms than to slay these high-souled Gurus. Slaying these Gurus, I should taste of blood-stained enjoyments even in this world. 6. Nor do I know which for us is better, that we should conquer them or they conquer us, – before us stand the Dhritarashtrians, whom having slain we should not care to live. 7. It is poorness of spirit that has smitten away from me my (true heroic) nature, my whole consciousness is bewildered in its view of right and wrong. I ask thee which may be the better – that tell me decisively. I take refuge as a disciple with thee, enlighten me. 8. I see not what shall thrust from me the sorrow that dries up the senses, even if I should attain rich and unrivalled kingdom on earth or even the sovereignty of the gods. 9. Sanjaya said: Gudakesha, terror of his foes, having thus spoken to Hrishikesha, and said to him, “I will not fight!” became silent. 10. To him thus depressed and discouraged, Hrishikesha, smiling as it were, O Bharata, spoke these words between the two armies. 11. The Blessed Lord said: Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for. yet speakest words of wisdom. The enlightened man does not mourn either for the living or for the dead. 12. It is not true that at any time I was not, nor thou, nor these kings of men; nor is it true that any of us shall ever cease to be hereafter. 13. As the soul passes physically through childhood and youth and age, so it passes on to the changing of the body. The self-composed man does not allow himself to be disturbed and blinded by this. 124 14. The material touches, O son of Kunti, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, things transient which come and go, these learn to endure, O Bharata. 15. The man whom these do not trouble nor pain O lion-hearted among men, the firm and wise who is equal in pleasure and suffering, makes himself apt for immortality. 16. That which really is, cannot go out of existence, just as that which is non-existent cannot come into being. The end of this opposition of ‘is’ and ‘is not’ has been perceived by the seers of essential truths. 17. Know that to be imperishable by which all this is extended. Who can slay the immortal spirit? 18. Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body is infinite, illimitable, eternal, indestructible. Therefore fight, O Bharata. 19. He who regards this (the soul) as a slayer, and he who thinks it is slain, both of them fail to perceive the truth. It does not slay, nor is it slain. 20. This is not born, nor does it die, nor is it a thing that comes into being once and passing away will never come into being again. It is unborn, ancient, sempiternal; it is not slain with the slaying of the body. 21. Who knows it as immortal eternal imperishable spiritual existence, how can that man slay, O Partha, or cause to be slain? 22. The embodied soul casts away old and takes up new bodies as a man changes wornout raiment for new. 23. Weapons cannot cleave it, nor the fire burn, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind dry. 24. It is uncleavable, it is incombustible, it can neither be drenched nor dried. Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, it is for ever and for ever. 25. It is unmanifest, it is unthinkable, it is immutable, so it is described (by the Srutis); therefore knowing it as such, thou shouldst not grieve. 26. Even if thou thinkest of it (the self) as being constantly subject to birth and death, still, O mighty-armed, thou shouldst not grieve. 27. For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead, therefore what is inevitable ought not to be a cause of thy sorrow. 28. Beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, O Bharata, unmanifest likewise are they in disintegration. What is there to be grieved at? 29. One sees it as a mystery or one speaks of it or hears of it as a mystery, but none knows it. That (the Self, the One, the Divine) we look on and speak and hear of as the wonderful beyond our comprehension, for after all our learning from those who have knowledge, no human mind has ever known this Absolute. 30. This dweller in the body of everyone is eternal and indestructible. O Bharata: therefore thou shouldst not grieve for any creature. 125 31. Further, looking to thine own law of action thou shouldst not tremble; there is no greater good for the Kshatriya than righteous battle. 32. When such a battle comes to them of itself like the open gate of heaven, happy are the Kshatriyas then. 33. But if thou dost not this battle for the right, then hast thou abandoned thy duty and virtue and thy glory, and sin shall be thy portion. 34. Besides, men will recount thy perpetual disgrace, and to one in noble station, dishonour is worse than death. 35. The mighty men will think thee fled from the battle through fear, and thou, that wast highly esteemed by them, will allow a smirch to fall on thy honour. 36. Many unseemly words will bespoken by thy enemies, slandering thy strength; what is worse grief than that? 37. Slain thou shalt win Heaven, victorious thou shalt enjoy the earth; therefore arise, O son of Kunti, resolved upon battle. 38. Make grief and happiness, loss and gain, victory and defeat equal to thy soul and then turn to battle; so thou shalt not incur sin. 39. Such is the intelligence (the intelligent knowledge of things and will) declared to thee in the Sankhya, hear now this in the Yoga, for if thou art in Yoga by this intelligence, O son of Pritha, thou shalt cast away the bondage of works. 40. On this path no effort is lost, no obstacle prevails; even a little of this dharma delivers from the great fear. 41. The fixed and resolute intelligence is one and homogeneous, O joy of the Kurus; many-branching and multifarious is the intelligence of the irresolute. 42-43. This flowery word which they declare who have not clear discernment, devoted to the creed of the Veda, whose creed is that there is nothing else, souls of desire, seekers of Paradise, – it gives the fruits of the works of birth, it is multifarious with specialities of rites, it is directed to enjoyment and lordship as its goal. 44. The intelligence of those who are misled by that (flowery word), and cling to enjoyment and lordship, is not established in the self with concentrated fixity. 45. The action of the three gunas is the subject-matter of the Veda; but do thou become free from the triple guna, O Arjuna; without the dualities, ever based in the true being, without getting or having, possessed of the self. 46. As much use as there is in a well with water in flood on every side, so much is there in all the Vedas for the Brahmin who has the knowledge. 47. Thou hast a right to action, but only to action, never to its fruits; let not the fruits of thy works be thy motive, neither let there be in thee any attachment to inactivity. 48. Fixed in Yoga do thy actions, having abandoned attachment, having become equal in failure and success; for it is equality that is meant by Yoga. 126 49. Works are far inferior to Yoga of the intelligence, O Dhananjaya; desire rather refuge in the intelligence; poor and wretched souls are they who make the fruit of their works the object of their thoughts and activities. 50. One whose intelligence has attained to unity, casts away – even here in this world of dualities – both good doing and evil doing. Therefore strive to be in Yoga; Yoga is skill in works. 51. The sages who have united their reason and will with the Divine renounce the fruit which action yields and, liberated from the bondage of birth, they reach the status beyond misery. 52. When thy intelligence shall cross beyond the whirl of delusion, then shalt thou become indifferent to Scripture heard or that which thou hast yet to hear. 53. When thy intelligence which is bewildered by the Sruti, shall stand unmoving and stable in Samadhi, then shalt thou attain to Yoga. 54. Arjuna said: What is the sign of the man in Samadhi whose intelligence is firmly fixed in wisdom? How does the sage of settled understanding speak, how sit, how walk? 55. The Blessed Lord said: When a man expels, O Partha, all desires from the mind, and is satisfied in the self by the self, then is he called stable in intelligence. 56. He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of sorrows and amid pleasures is free from desire, from whom liking and fear and wrath have passed away, is the sage of settled understanding. 57. Who in all things is without affection though visited by this good or that evil and neither hates nor rejoices, his intelligence sits firmly founded in wisdom. 58. Who draws away the senses from the objects of sense, as the tortoise draws in his limbs into the shell, his intelligence sits firmly founded in wisdom. 59. If one abstains from food, the objects of sense cease to affect, but the affection itself of the sense, the rasa, remains; the rasa also ceases when the Supreme is seen. 60. Even the mind of the wise man who labours for perfection is carried away by the vehement insistence of the senses, O son of Kunti. 61. Having brought all the senses under control, he must sit firm in Yoga, wholly given up to Me; for whose senses are mastered, of him the intelligence is firmly established (in its proper seat). 62. In him whose mind dwells on the objects of sense with absorbing interest, attachment to them is formed; from attachment arises desire; from desire anger comes forth. 63. Anger leads to bewilderment, from bewilderment comes loss of memory; and by that the intelligence is destroyed; from destruction of intelligence he perishes. 64-65. It is by ranging over the objects with the senses, but with senses subject to the self, freed from liking and disliking, that one gets into a large and sweet clearness of soul and temperament in which passion and grief find no place; the intelligence of such a man is rapidly established (in its proper seat). 127 66. For one who is not in Yoga, there is no intelligence, no concentration of thought; for him without concentration there is no peace, and for the unpeaceful how can there be happiness? 67. Such of the roving senses as the mind follows, that carries away the understanding, just as the winds carry away a ship on the sea. 68. Therefore, O mighty-armed, one who has utterly restrained the excitement of the senses by their objects, his intelligence sits firmly founded in calm self-knowledge. 69. That (higher being) which is to all creatures a night, is to the self-mastering sage his waking (his luminous day of true being, knowledge and power); the life of the dualities which is to them their waking (their day, their consciousness, their bright condition of activity) is a night (a troubled sleep and darkness of the soul) to the sage who sees. 70. He attains peace, into whom all desires enter as waters into the sea (an ocean of wide being and consciousness) which is ever being filled, yet ever motionless – not he who (like troubled and muddy waters) is disturbed by every little inrush of desire. 71. Who abandons all desires and lives and acts free from longing, who has no “I” or “mine” (who has extinguished his individual ego in the One and lives in that unity), he attains to the great peace. 72. This is brahmi sthiti (firm standing in the Brahman), O son of Pritha. Having attained thereto one is not bewildered; fixed in that status at his end, one can attain to extinction in the Brahman. CHAPTER XI THE VISION OF THE WORLD-SPIRIT 1. Arjuna said: This word of the highest spiritual secret of existence. Thou hast spoken out of compassion for me; by this my delusion is dispelled. 2. The birth and passing away of existences have been heard by me in detail from Thee, O Lotus-eyed, and also the imperishable greatness of the divine conscious Soul. 3. So it is, as Thou hast declared Thyself, O Supreme Lord; I desire to see Thy divine form and body, O Purushottama. 4. If Thou thinkest that it can be seen by me, O Lord, O Master of Yoga, then show me Thy imperishable Self. 5. The Blessed Lord said: Behold, O Partha, my hundreds and thousands of divine forms, various in kind, various in shape and hue. 6. Behold the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the two Aswins and also the Maruts; behold many wonders that none has beheld, O Bharata. 7. Here, to-day, behold the whole world, with all that is moving and unmoving, unified in my body, O Gudakesha, and whatever else thou wiliest to see. 8. What thou hast to see, this thy human eye cannot grasp; but there is a divine eye (an inmost seeing) and that eye I now give to thee. Behold Me in My divine Yoga. 9-14. Sanjaya said: Having thus spoken, O King, the Master of the great Yoga. Hari, showed to Partha His supreme Form. It is that of the infinite Godhead whose faces are 128 everywhere and in whom are all the wonders of existence, who multiplies unendingly all the many marvellous revelations of His being, a world-wide Divinity seeing with innumerable eyes, speaking from innumerable mouths, armed for battle with numberless divine uplifted weapons, glorious with divine ornaments of beauty, robed in heavenly raiment of deity, lovely with garlands of divine flowers, fragrant with divine perfumes. Such is the light of this body of God as if a thousand suns had risen at once in heaven. The whole world multitudinously divided and yet unified is visible in the body of the God of Gods. Arjuna sees him (God magnificent and beautiful and terrible, the Lord of souls who has manifested in the glory and greatness of his spirit this wild and monstrous and orderly and wonderful and sweet and terrible world) and overcome with marvel and joy and fear he bows down and adores with words of awe and with clasped hands the tremendous vision. 15. Arjuna said: I see all the gods in Thy body, O God, and different companies of beings, Brahma the creating Lord seated in the Lotus, and the Rishis and the race of the divine Serpents. 16. I see numberless arms and bellies and eyes and faces, I see Thy infinite forms on every side, but I see not Thy end nor Thy middle nor Thy beginning, O Lord of the universe, O Form universal. 17. I see Thee crowned and with Thy mace and Thy discus, hard to discern because Thou art a luminous mass of energy on all sides of me, an encompassing blaze, a sun-bright fire-bright Immeasurable. 18. Thou art the supreme Immutable whom we have to know, Thou art the high foundation and abode of the universe, Thou art the imperishable guardian of the eternal laws, Thou art the sempiternal soul of existence. 19. I behold Thee without end or middle or beginning, of infinite force, of numberless arms, Thy eyes are suns and moons, Thou hast a face of blazing fire and Thou art ever burning up the whole universe with the flame of Thy energy. 20. The whole space between earth and heaven is occupied by Thee alone, when is seen this Thy fierce and astounding form, the three worlds are all in pain and suffer, O Thou mighty Spirit. 21. The companies of the gods enter Thee, afraid, adoring; the Rishis and the Siddhas crying, “May there be peace and weal”, praise Thee with many praises. 22. The Rudras, Adityas, Vasus, Sadhyas, Vishvas, the two Aswins and the Maruts and the Ushmapas, the Gandharvas, Yakshas, Asuras, Siddhas, all have their eyes fixed on Thee in amazement. 23. Seeing Thy great form of many mouths and eyes, O Mighty-armed, of many arms, thighs and feet and bellies, terrible with many teeth, the world and its nations are shaken and in anguish, as also am I. 24. I see Thee, touching heaven, blazing, of many hues, with opened mouths and enormous burning eyes, troubled and in pain is the soul within me and I find no peace or gladness. 25. As I look upon Thy mouths terrible with many tusks of destruction. Thy faces like the fires of Death and Time, I lose sense of the directions and find no peace. Turn Thy heart to grace, O God of gods! refuge of all the worlds! 26-27. The sons of Dhritarashtra, all with the multitude of kings and heroes, Bhishma and Drona and Kama along with the foremost warriors on our side too, are hastening into Thy 129 tusked and terrible jaws and some are seen with crushed and bleeding heads caught between Thy teeth of power. 28. As is the speed of many rushing waters racing towards the ocean, so all these heroes of the world of men are entering into Thy many mouths of flame. 29. As a swarm of moths with ever-increasing speed fall to their destruction into a fire that some one has kindled, so now the nations with ever-increasing speed are entering into Thy jaws of doom. 30. Thou lickest the regions all around with Thy tongues and Thou art swallowing up all the nations in Thy mouths of burning; all the world is filled with the blaze of Thy energies; fierce and terrible are Thy lustres and they burn us, O Vishnu. 31. Declare to me who Thou art that wearest this form of fierceness. Salutation to Thee, O Thou great Godhead, turn Thy heart to grace. I would know who Thou art who wast from the beginning, for I know not the will of Thy workings. 32. The Blessed Lord said: I am the Time-Spirit, destroyer of the world, arisen hugestatured for the destruction of the nations. Even without thee all these warriors shall be not, who are ranked in the opposing armies. 33. Therefore arise, get thee glory, conquer thy enemies and enjoy an opulent kingdom. By me and none other already even are they slain, do thou become the occasion only, O Savyasachin. 34. Slay, by me who are slain, Drona, Bhishma, Jayad-ratha, Kama and other heroic fighters; be not pained and troubled. Fight, thou shalt conquer the adversary in the battle. 35. Sanjaya said: Having heard these words of Keshava, Kiriti (Arjuna), with clasped hands and trembling, saluted again and spoke to Krishna in a faltering voice very much terrified and bowing down. 36. Arjuna said: Rightly and in good place, O Krishna, does the world rejoice and take pleasure in Thy name; the Rakshasas are fleeing from Thee in terror to all the quarters and the companies of the Siddhias bow down before Thee in adoration. 37. How should they not do Thee homage, O great Spirit? For Thou art the original Creator and Doer of works and greater even than creative Brahma. O Thou Infinite, O Thou Lord of the gods, O Thou abode of the universe, Thou art the Immutable and Thou art what in and is not, and Thou art that which is the Supreme. 38. Thou art the ancient Soul and the first and original Godhead and the supreme restingplace of this All; Thou art the knower and that which is to be known and the highest status; O infinite in form, by Thee was extended the universe. 39-40. Thou art Yama and Vayu and Agni and Soma and Varuna and Prajapati, father of creatures, and the great-grandsire. Salutation to Thee a thousand times over and again and yet again salutation, in front and behind and from every side, for Thou art each and all that is. Infinite in might and immeasurable in strength of action Thou pervadest all and art everyone. 41-42. For whatsoever I have spoken to Thee in rash vehemence, thinking of Thee only as my human friend and companion, ‘O Krishna, O Yadava, O Comrade,’ not knowing this Thy greatness, in negligent error or in love, and for whatsoever disrespect was shown by me to Thee in jest, at play, on the couch and the seat and in the banquet, alone or in Thy presence, O faultless One, I pray forgiveness from Thee, the immeasurable. 43. Thou art the father of all this world of the moving and unmoving; Thou art one to be worshipped and the most solemn object of veneration. None is equal to Thee, how then 130 another greater in all the three worlds, O incomparable in might? 44. Therefore I bow down before Thee and prostrate my body and I demand grace of Thee the adorable Lord. As a father to his son, as a friend to his friend and comrade, as one dear with him he loves, so shouldst Thou, O Godhead, bear with me. 45. I have seen what never was seen before and I rejoice, but my mind is troubled with fear. O Godhead, show me that other form of Thine; turn Thy heart to grace, O Thou Lord of the gods, O Thou abode of this universe. 46. I would see Thee even as before crowned and with Thy mace and discus. Assume Thy four-armed shape, O thousand-armed, O Form universal. 47. The Blessed Lord said: This that thou now seest by my favour, O Arjuna, is my supreme shape, my form of luminous energy, the universal, the infinite, the original which none but thou amongst men has yet seen. I have shown it by my self-Yoga. 48. Neither by the study of Vedas and sacrifices, nor by gifts or ceremonial rites or severe austerities, this form of mine can be seen by any other than thyself, O foremost of Kurus. 49. Thou shouldst envisage this tremendous vision without pain, without confusion of mind, without any sinking of the members. Cast away fear and let thy heart rejoice, behold again this other form of mine. 50. Sanjaya said: Vasudeva, having thus spoken to Arjuna, again manifested his normal (Narayana) image; the Mahatman again assuming the desired form of grace and love and sweetness consoled the terrified one. 51. Arjuna said: Beholding again Thy gentle human form, O Janardana, my heart is filled with delight and I am restored to my own nature. 52-54. The Blessed Lord said: The greater Form that thou hast seen is only for the rare highest souls. The gods themselves ever desire to look upon it. Nor can I be seen as thou hast seen Me by Veda or austerities or gifts or sacrifice, it can be seen, known, entered into only by that bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things. 55. Be a doer of my works, accept Me as the supreme being and object, become my bhakta, be free from attachment and without enmity to all existences; for such a man comes to Me, O Pandava. |
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