THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER TWO
SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OR KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER 23:
Text in Transliteration:
nai ‘nam chindanti sastraani nai ‘nam dahati paavkah
na chai ‘nam kledayanty aapo na soshayati maarutah
Text in English:
Weapons do not cleave the Atman, fire burns It not, water
wets It not, wind dries It not.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHVANA:
Among the five elements, Akasa is one that is actionless. So
no reference to it is made here. The actions of the other four elements do not
affect the Atman. Weapons are made of the stuff which the earth is. Atman being
indivisible, weapons cannot hurt it. All the four active elements are incapable
of acting on Akasa which is inert. How then can they act on Atman which is
Chit-akasa which transcends the inert Akasa itself?
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The Self is
indivisible. It has no parts. It is extremely subtle. It is infinite. Therefore,
swords cannot cut It; fire cannot burn It; water cannot wet It; wind cannot dry
It.
Comments by the blogger:
Atman or soul of self is so subtle that the elements cannot
affect it. Weapons made of the stuff of the earth cannot cleave it, fire cannot
burn it, water cannot wet it and wind cannot dry it. Cutting is the nature of
the sword, the Atman or Soul or Self is so very subtle that the earth, as one
of the elements, cannot have any sway over it. Fire cannot burn out everything,
but so far the atman is concerned, it cannot burn the Atman or the Soul. The
water as an element cannot wet the atman. And the very nature of the element
air is to dry any wet things up. But it cannot dry the Atman.
So what is the message here? The elemental forces belong and
constitute this perishable universe which is in a constant flux. And the
actionless Atman does not belong to this world. That is why it enters into the
perishable world embodied. The body is full of action. So the Atman or Soul is
essentially alien to our perishable body too.
In the verse number 12 of this chapter (Samkhya yoga ) the
Lord says to the despondent Arjuna, “Nor I, nor you, nor any of these ruling
princes was ever non-existent before; nor is it that we shall cease to be in
the future.”
So we were one with
the God or were individual Atmans or souls dependent on God, as per the Saiva
Sitanda of philosophy, before we were sent into this world and tossed by God in
his sport into the Samsaaraa, which is constituted of maya or illusion, kama or
desire and karma or action. So there was an ancient time we were one with or
dependent on God, in our independent pure state! No one can go against the
verse 12 quoted above by any kind of convoluted arguments. In the beginning,
that is, before the creation of this universe, we as individual atmans or souls
were either one with God or in our independent state, dependent always with
God. It was God, who in his sport, wanted us to be clothed in illusion, desire
and action and tossed us into this Samsaaraa or the worldly life. The five
elements, air, sky, water, earth and fire were newly created by God. They are
not permanent. But the individual Atman or Soul or Self is PERMANENT! So only
It is not subject to the sway of the elements. But the embodied beings or human
beings have to work out their karmic effect or fate only through the agency of
this world, which is made of the five impermanent elements. So far as the Atman
or soul is concerned it is not subject to the sway of the elements.
In “kena Upanishad” the last chapter deal with the above
question:
It goes like this; after the churning of the ocean of milk
(life), in which the Dhevas or the Celestial Beings and the Asuras or wicked
people, churned the ocean with the Mount Everest as the churning instrument and
the Snake Vasuki as the rope; in which both good and bad came out. From out of
the ocean of milk, came the Iravadham elephant which can fly and the Komatha
which can give copious milk and the the great Utensil which can fulfil every
individual wish of the person concerned. In this churning, the Alakala Visham
or All-Killing Poison also came forth. Though in the churning of the ocean of
milk, the celestials won, the poison gave them the chase. The celestials went
to Sri Vaikunta and begged Sri Vishnu for saving them. He directed them to the
Lord Siva or Parameshwara. Lord Siva saved the celestials from the chasing
poison by taking it and drinking the poison. At this act of drinking, His
Spouse, Parvati checked the descent of the poison into the body of the Lord by
clutching His throat. And the poison stayed there, in the Lord’s throat, and it
turned blue in hue. That is one reason why Lord Siva is called Neelakantam or
Thiruneelakantam.
Thereafter the celestials enjoyed the good things of life
without any detriment. But in “Kena Upanishad” it is said, after their victory
over the wicked people the celestials became drunk with pride and thought they
were the reason for the victory. But the Lord wanted to tell them otherwise. So
he came in the form of “yatchan” a pillar or shaft of sheer fire, and the
celestials were confused as to the identity of that person. They asked the god
of Agni or Fire god and sent him to investigate the fact. When the Fire god,
agni came forward the God of all things asked him, “Who are you?” The agni god
answered, “I am the god of Fire and can scorch anything, besides understanding
everything. Then the Lord in the form of yatchan asked him, “What power do you
have?” and the god of fire answered he can scorch everything in the Earth. At
this, the Lord in the form of “yatchan” placed a blade of grace before him and
asked him to scorch the same. But the god of Fire could not scorch the small
blade of grace. He went back and duly reported of what had transpired. Then the
celestials sent the god of wind, and the question put by yatchan was to if he
can toss the blade of grace. While he could not do that, he went back and
reported his failure. Then the celestials went to the Head of the Celestials,
Indiran and sent him to know about the identity of “yatchan” But when Indiran
went to see the Yatchan, He disappeared. Then there appeared the Lord’s Spouse,
Parvati. Indiran asked her who “yatchan” was ans she told him it was God
Himself.
There is a philosophy contained in this. The celestials like
god of fire, god of wind stand for our five senses. But their king , Indiran is
our MIND. That was why when Indiran went to see the Lord, the Lord disappeared
and Sri Parvati appeared. Because, Mind can be used to Know God, but Mind
itself cannot see the Lord. It is the singular adumbration of all the
Upanishads. Without Mind there would be no search for God. And the with the
Mind alone we cannot see God. Indian, therefore, prostrated before the Devi,
Parvati and prayed to her to show the Lord. So we should have devotion to know
the Lord and that devotion for the Lord should reflect on all beings and
through our all actions.
So, the Atman is the one who join this body and the mind,
and when the Atman goes out the body cannot see, hear, drink, eat or digest and
live. Through the Atman or Self alone everything in this body happens. Because
of the universal soul alone everything in the universe happens with a rhythm.
So this atman or soul or self is all important and
all-powerful. The weapons cannot cleave it, the fire cannot burn it, the water
cannot wet it and the air or wind cannot dry it.
And in “Prachna Upanishad” in the verse 1.4 it is adverted
that when the Lord wanted to create the universe, He went into a meditation,
and the SKY AND PRANA came into being. And the Lord thought that they would
create the world for Him.
Every individual thing is the result of the sky or space and
the Prna or shakti or Power. Without these fundamental element sky nothing can move. The
four elements can move only because of the actionless sky, which is used by
fire, wind, water and earth as an anvil and all movements are made possible!
Since the sky is actionless like the atman or soul or self, it has been left out
in this verse. The atman is all-knowing and all-powerful. It is not coeval with
the Lord, but co-existent with the Lord Himself. That is why the verse, 12 of
this chapter, as quoted above.
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