Online Lectures - Audio

Bhagavad Gita - January 18, 2008
Chapter 2, Verses: 23-28
Swami Yogatmananda

Vedanta Society of Providence

 

 

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II.23 & 24: Weapons do not cut It, fire does not burn It, water does not moisten It, and air does not dry It. It cannot be cut, It cannot be burnt, cannot be moistened, and surely cannot be dried up. It is eternal, omnipresent, stationary, unmoving and changeless.

II. 25: It is said that This is unmanifest; this is incoceivable; This is unchangeable. Therfore, having known This thus, you ought not to grieve

II. 26 & 27: On the other hand, if you think this One is born continually or dies constantly, even then, O mighty-armed one, you ought not to grieve thus. For death of anyone born is certain, and of death re-birth is certain. Therefore, you ought not to grive on this inevitable fact.

II.28: O descendant of Bharata! All beings remain unmanifest in the beginning; they become manifest in the middle. After death they certainly become unamnifest. What lamentation can there be with regard to them?

 

The above image is from Gita Darshan by courtesy of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad.

 

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Summary of this lecture:


Every human being wants to be better; but what does that mean? Just as a car can be better only superficially by polishing the exterior; as a vehicle, its betterment mainly depends on the betterment of the inner machinery. Similarly, only the betterment of physical conditions, including those of the brain will not improve us as human beings; we have to penetrate deeply into the core of our consciousness. There is the permanent, unchanging basis of the changing appearance. This core of our being is not affected by the changes to the body or by its death. The death, sufferings and also all the changes we see are only on the surface; on the surface, they are going to be there, for they actually form the surface. Only way to go beyond all suffering is to experience that we are the unchanging, ever perfect, ever blissful Self.
Being terribly attached to the body-consciousness, we feel pained to hear this truth; do not want to accept it. So Lord Krishna gives a palliative - 'well, even if you consider that you are the body, subject to birth and death, still there is no room for grief - for why grieve for the inevitable?

 

 

 

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