HOLY GITA
CHAPTER 2, SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER 13:
The Text in Transliteration:
dehino ‘smin yathaa dehe kaumaaram yauvanam jaraa
tathaa dehaantarapraaptir dhiiras tatra na muhyati
The Text in English:
As the indweller in the body experiences childhood, youth
and old age in the body, he also passes on to another body. The serene one is
not affected thereby.
COMMENTARY BY SHANKARA:
The atman or soul is called “dehi” because of its having
this body. This atman has the childhood, youthfulness, old age, and the decadent
stage. These three times or stages are different from each other. When the
first stage finishes, atman is not finished off. When the next stage come the
atman is not born again. This is how possible? When the first stage is over the
atman or soul starts to enjoy the next stage. The same way this atman or soul,
after leaving this body, takes another body. The person with knowledge of this
fact does not get confused and become despondent.
The knowledgeable will know well that this atman never
perishes. They never get confused about this. But some of them are affected by
despondency, happiness, heat and cold. These kind of people get doubts about
the existence of the atman or soul. This kind of doubts occur when there is a
destruction of happiness and despondency is given rise to. This kind of doubts
might arise in Arjuna thought Sri Krishna and that was why the next verse.
COMMENTARY BY RAMANUJA:
The atman or soul in the body takes the youthfulness after
giving up the childhood. This is the way it takes body’s each stage. Since the
atman or soul knows no destruction, the persons with knowledge will not get
despondent about the changing of the stages. They might become sorrowful
because of the destruction of one of these stages, but they will not get
despondent about the destruction of the atman or soul...so there is no need for
despondency about the destruction of the atman or soul.
Though atman or soul knows no modifications, it takes
different bodies because of its karmic effects or effect of the actions in the
former births. Though the atman is incarcerated in this body, it uses the very
same body to realise itself and become free of the body...
COMMENTARY BY MADHVA:
This verse underscores the atman or soul which is free of
the body. But, from this, it does not mean the human soul is free of the
body....
According to Swamy Sivananda, just as there is no
interruption in the passing of childhood into youth and youth into old age in
this body, so also there is no interruption by death in the continuity of the
ego.the Self is not dead at the termination of the stage, viz., childhood. It
is certainly not born again at the beginning of the second stage, viz., youth. Just as the Self passes
unchanged from childhood to youth and form youth to old age, so also the Self
passes unchanged from one body into another. Therefore, the wise man is not at
all distressed about it.
According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the human being makes
himself fit for immortality by passing through a series of births and deaths.
The changes in the body do not mean changes in the soul. None of its
embodiments is permanent. ( Cp. Vishnu Smriti: XX, 49.)
According to Swamy Chidbhvananda:
The born one passes through babyhood, youth and old age. It
is the same entity that experiences all these changes. It should not be held
that the individual that is the baby is quite different from the individual
that is the youth. Likewise, the individual that transmigrates from one body
into another retains his individuality. The enlightened one sees into this
truth and remains unperturbed over death. Conversely, he who disciplines
himself to remain unperturbed under all situations prepares himself thereby for
enlightenment. Changes pertain to body and changelessness to atman. The knower
of this truth is truly enlightened.
Comments by the blogger:
The indestructibility of the soul or Self or atman is agreed
upon by one and all. And all the religious Texts agree on this singular point.
The enjoyer and the sufferer is the body with the sense of ego and never the
soul or self. This is made clear in the Gita which is the essence of the
Upanishads. For a Christian and a Muslim, there is but one birth and after the
death of this body, the atman or Self go either to heaven or the hell. But they
agree upon the imperishable nature of atman. The Hinduism is derided for many
things; among them is the belief in rebirths. Will a father or mother give the
child only one chance to pass a test which is life is all about? How cruel
indeed it would be of the parents who give their baby or child only one chance
for a pass in a test? In that sense, the world is no more the sport of Eshwar,
but perversion.
There is an anecdote about the Sri Kanchi kamakoti
peetadhibar, Sri Sri Periyaval or
Chandrasekarendra Saraswati. A white man or woman came to the saint of
Kanchi and asked about the Hindu belief in rebirths. And He directed the
person, a journalist, to go to the Government Hospital and visit the Labour
Ward, and take the count of the babies born in the last 24 hours and the
differences between them. And the next day the chastened journalist came with
the list, and the saint just asked why should some babies should be very ugly
to look upon or deformed even, while many babies are beautiful? Why some babies
have been born to rich parents while some babies’ parents are very poor?
Shouldn’t there be a reason for this?
So far as I know, except in the Hinduism, in the Christian
and Mohammedan isms the men and women are that way in the hell and heaven. Why
this disparity. Wouldn’t God be the cruellest person or Being if he were to
give us only one chance to get at our salvation despite the illusory pulls
according to the Hinduism and the Satan’s pull in the other two?
We should think deep about it. The atman is
indestructible. And its very nature is Godliness and oneness with God. We are
individual points of Godly expression. Samsaaraa is the ocean and this
comprises of maya or illusion, kama or desire and karma or action. Samskaaraa
is the unit of measurement to measure up our doings and even thoughts’ value.
And an umpteenth number of rebirths are given to the embodied soul to script
its salvation. The deeper you go into the question, the greater is you amazement about the Truth. 
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