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Dear Arjuna, in the body of all, the indwelling ‘I’, the Self, is always unkillable. Know that all beings have equally the same single Self, which cannot be acted upon by anything whatever. Therefore, you do not deserve to grieve at all, thinking of death and what death brings about.

Dear and blessed souls:

Harih Om Tat Sat.

What if the concept of ‘Imperishable’ is not clear?

In the next verse (no 2.26), Krishna strikes a seemingly secondary note. He allows Arjuna, though temporarily, to think for a moment that the singular Soul does get born and It does die. For, we find children getting born, and the grownups dying at different ages. Since the Soul in all of them is the same, one may imagine: Is it not correct to infer that the Soul is regularly born and is also dying? Krishna accommodates people of all kinds, whose intelligence might have evolved to varying degrees. Not all can comprehend and assimilate the concept of eternal Soul!

Even if birth and death fall within the nature of Soul, Krishna’s question remains the same, “Why any sorrow about that which is inevitable?”

Verse no. 2.27. For one born, death is sure to be, and for the dead, birth is equally certain. It is Nature that is at work in both, everywhere. Like so many other aspects of Nature, birth and death are also certain. Being so, none deserves to sorrow at all. By sorrowing, the course of Nature will not change. Nor is there any need for it. The role of intelligence is to understand matters, evaluate them and be in harmony with whatever is and will be.

Human mind has enough potential to be flexible to assimilate all kinds of inputs and challenges from life and world. No occasion or insistence should prove un-assimilable.

Bhagavad Gita is rational and secular – not religious

Krishna presents some practical thoughts, secular and social in nature, to evolve, support and strengthen Arjuna’s perception and evaluation. So, he explains in verse 2.28 that all beings in the world have an indistinct beginning, source. We cannot know, wherefrom anyone has sprung up. In a house, a child is born. All that his parents see is the child born in front. None has any idea about what or who he or she was before birth, from where each has come, etc. In the same manner, none has a way to know what follows when one sheds his body. Where will he go and what will become of him? Before birth and after death, everything is indistinct.

Being so, Krishna asks, what is there so much to be aggrieved at all? Any extent of sorrow will not change the indefiniteness of the scenario of birth and death.

Know it well that spiritual wisdom is based on stark rationality. Hence any kind of reasoning adhering to the principles of goodness, benevolence, self-control and the like is acceptable to spiritual thinkers. Reason and propriety are the first and last rubbing stone for judging the value and merit of any practice in enriching and embellishing human life.

Rarity and wonder of Self-knowledge

Krishna next speaks about how wonderful and astounding is spiritual realization. Equally so is the Knower as well as the exponent of spiritual wisdom. For, however much one may hear about the inmost Self and also reflect upon it, he does not straightaway understand the import of whatever is said and heard to realize the Self in all its distinctness and fullness.

Why so? Yes. It is a wonder and a mystery. The Self is beyond the reach of words; it is indescribable. Being different from all that we see, hear, smell, taste and touch, how can one think about it? Our knowledge and thought are based upon comparison and contrast. We can compare and contrast only when the comparing and the compared are both present before us. The same is the case with contrasting also. When we say, the Self is different from all the sensory objects, but we are not able to perceive it readily, how can the process of contrast work? The sensory objects are all around, but the supra-sensory Self remains imperceptible. So the compared is missing. How can comparison work?

Nonetheless, this is what the Self is. What a marvel! It is unlike everything and all we know of. What does it mean? The negation we understand, but the assertion becomes inaccessible to even words, thoughts and understanding. How to break this impasse, inaccessibility? That is why the Upanishads have clearly said, wherefrom words together with the mind recoil, unable to reach. How apt is the description!

Cessation of efforts leads to the goal

Does it mean that the Self can never be known? No. Do not lose heart. Just as we have sixteen hours of wakefulness in a day, when we speak, think and know, we also have eight hours of sleep, wherein we are unconscious of our senses, body, mind, intelligence and even ego. But is not ‘I’ the same? ‘I’, the Self, which is present in the wakeful hours, is also present intact in sleep. Is this not a clue? Sleep and the sleeping ‘I’ are separate within every one’s experience. That is why one is able to feel and say ‘I slept, knowing nothing, unconscious of my body, mind, etc.’ Is not the sleeping ‘I’ beyond words, thought and speech? Is it not within our experience too? Through sadhana you have to reach a state akin to sleep, but remaining wakeful. Yes, this is possible, and this is our ultimate aim!

That is why Krishna says merely by listening to the description about the Self, the seeker will not realize his goal. The seeker has to sit in a place, and graced by solitude, he has to enter into his mind and practise the Self-thought to make it unbroken until at last the very process resolves or dissolves into its very source, the pure, sublime Consciousness. Thus, truly speaking, sadhana is not an effort, but the cessation of all effort, as the everyday sleep state is.

You cannot sleep when you are engaged in walking, speaking, seeing, hearing or thinking. Nor will your intelligence be reasoning in sleep. In order to sleep, all physical and inner, visible and invisible, functions have to recede. This is the secret of Self-realization.

So, what Krishna says is actually not a wholesome negation. On the other hand, it points to the fullness which every one’s eight hour-sleep implies and indicates.

The Self cannot be inflicted

Now, we go to verse no. 2.30 wherein Krishna concludes his Sankhya exposition which he began from verse no. 2.12. In altogether 19 verses, the whole of Sankhya exposition describing the existence of the Self, the true comprehension and realization of it, is complete.

Krishna’s words are very simple, precise, brief and conclusive. See how deftly he escorts Arjuna back to the Imperishable, Eternal Ātmā! He says: “Dear Arjuna, in the body of all, the indwelling ‘I’, the Self, is always unkillable. Know that all beings have equally the same single Self, which cannot be acted upon by anything whatever. Therefore, you do not deserve to grieve at all, thinking of death and what death brings about.”

Birth and death are a pair of dvandvas. Death follows birth, and birth will follow death. Both are biological effects, outcomes. They transpire only in the physical, sensory range. But the human is far beyond his body. Only the body is a product of sensory comprehension. Think of the mind, intelligence and ego, which animate and activate the body. They are invisible, but are experiential. Be more and more concerned with them, their prevalence, measure, might and magnificence.

There is no scope for grief

External body is never the internal mind or the Self. Let anything, including birth and death befall the body. What of it to the ‘I’? Self remains uninvolved and unconcerned. This is our everyday experience. So, do not grieve at all. Life is not meant for sorrowing. If at all, it is meant to experience the sleeping ‘I’, which is beyond the reach of senses, mind and intelligence.

Look at Krishna’s excellence. All along, Krishna fondly remembers what Arjuna appealed for right in the beginning, seeking Krishna’s instruction: “Grief is scorching my body and senses. Kindly redress it; cool me, making me fit to get up and take my bow and arrow.” Has not Krishna delivered well whatever was required to be delivered?

Dear souls, the whole instruction, right from the beginning was to relieve Arjuna’s grief, and make him stable, strong and poised to remain active and vibrant. Every word of spiritual wisdom, when read, heard and thought about, is bound to redress your grief, doubt and delusion, making you stable and peaceful in every way.