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Bhagavad
Gita - November 16, 2007
Chapter
2, Verses: 8-13
Swami
Yogatmananda
Vedanta
Society of Providence
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II.9:
Sanjaya said, "Having spoken thus to Hrishikesha (Krishna), Gudakesha
(Arjuna), the afflictor of foes, verily became silent, telling Govinda,
'I shall not fight.'"
II.10-13: "O descendant of Bharata, to him who was sorrowing
between the two armies, Hrishikesha, mocking as it were, said these
words: 'You grieve for those who are not to be grieved for, yet you
speak words of wisdom! The wise neither grieve for those who departed
nor for those who have not departed. It is not that I have never existed,
nor thou, nor these rulers of men. And surely it is not that we all
shall cease to exist in future. As are boyhood, youth and decripitude
to an embodied being in this (present) body, similar is the acquistion
of another body. This being so, an intelligent person does not get deluded.'"
The
above image is from Gita Darshan by courtesy of Sri
Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad.
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Summary
of this lecture:
Arjuna has become totally dejected and depressed and is looking at Krishna
as his redeemer-teacher. Krishna has no ignorance, no block in his knowledge
like Arjuna has (& we all have) due to attachment. He diagnoses
the problem to its root cause. The suffering that Arjuna is experiencing
is caused by the attachment he has for what he considers his own kith
& kin; attachment is in turn the effect of desires, which are there
because of taking his perception of 'I & world' as real. In truth,
the One Reality alone IS. 'I & world' are superimposed on it like
the snake on a rope.
Sri Krishna proceeds in a gradual, psychologically effective way by
first pointing out to Arjuna that his words, which sound like those
of a saintly, wise man, his actions are just opposite of that. Arjuna
is grieving for that which should not be grieved for; while the wise
do not grieve like that! Arjuna is just parroting the words borrowed
for the purpose of justifying his cowardice. Then he tells Arjuna to
look at the 'unchanging dweller in the changing body'. Just as in this
body itself, when the indweller sees the transformation of it from childhood
to youth and then to old-age, he does not grieve about it; likewise
he should not grieve when the next link in the chain - 'getting another
body'- comes.
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