HOLY GITA
CHAPTER TWO
SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER 24:
Text in Transliteration:
acchedyo ‘yam adaayo ‘yam akledyo ‘soshya eva cha
nityah sarvagatah sthaanuh achalo ‘yam sanaatanah
nityah sarvagatah sthaanuh achalo ‘yam sanaatanah
Text in English:
This Self is uncleavable, incombustible and neither wetted
nor dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable and everlasting.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANADA:
Atman cannot be
cleaved; therefore it is eternal. That which exists in one place and not in
another cannot be called eternal, because of its absence in one place. Being
eternal It is all-pervading. Like Akasa (the space), Atman is everywhere; so It
is stable. That which changes places in mobile; time gains no access to atman;
It is for this reason held as everlasting.
The indescribable
Atman is sought to be described in innumerable ways. Through varieties of
definitions and explanations some vague concept of Him is formed in the mind.
But to the extent the mind gets purified cognition of Him becomes lucid. And
the cessation of misery is ever in direct proportion to one’s being anchored in
the Self. Misery is an unwanted state of mind got into through ignorance.
‘Sreyas’ is not where misery is. The lord throws light on the glory of Atman in
order to cure Arjuna of the despondency meaninglessly assumed by him.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANDANDA:
The Self is very
subtle. It is beyond the reach of speech and mind. It is very difficult to
understand this subtle Self. So the Lord Krishna explains the nature of the
immortal Self in a variety of ways with various illustration and examples, so
that it can be grasped by the people.
Sword cannot cut this Self. So It is eternal. Because It is
eternal, It is all-pervading. Because It is all-pervading It is stable like a
statue. Because It is stable, It is immovable. It is everlasting. Therefore, It
is not produced out of any cause. It is not new. It is ancient.
Comments by the blogger:
The self is so very subtle that transcends all description.
The Lord Himself gives only negative explanations. Sri Ramakrishna has said
that all the Scriptures are defiled by human spittle, because of the fact of
their being constantly read and uttered by human tongue. But Brahman is not
defiled like the rest of the scriptural Texts because nobody has pronounced It!
This does not mean that even Sri Krishna cannot give a
correct description of the Self. But He makes it simple to suit our standard.
To a child of five who askes his father how the aeroplane flies like a bird,
the father cannot go into the physical theory of it, involving while the
propellers rotate fast there is created a temperory void and the void in front
of the plane is sought to be filled by the air all around, importantly from
behind the plane, and this action of the air propels the plane along with the
load of goods and passengers! Because we are like that five-years-old child and
we cannot be expected to understand it even if pronounced by the Lord. Instead
the father tells the small boy the plane is not a fly. It is not made of flesh,
bones, veins and blood. There is no water in the sky for the plane to swim. But
there is fuel in the tank like our car’s tank and it gives flying capacity to
the plane. While no one can deny this fact, but at the same time, it is not the
complete fact and explanation! But there is a form of understanding formed in
the mind of the small boy, and that will stand him in good stead for the
present. He can discuss it with his peers. But the full truth is and cannot be
revealed by the father. Because of our FATHER’S MERCY THE FULL EXPLANATION IS
NOT GIVEN. TO A CHILD WHO ASKES HIS/HER MOTHER HOW HE AND HIS SISTER WAS BORN,
THE MOTHER COMMONLY TELLS A STORY HOW GOD GAVE THEM TO HER. BECAUSE MANY A TIME
COMPLETE TRUTH TOLD TO THE INCOMPLETE PERSON COULD BRING FORTH THE UNDOING OF
HIS SANITY AND PERSON.
There is another
criticism about the Bhagavat Gita: that the Lord repeats himself. But this
criticism has no merit. Even this kind of criticism has to be repeated for the
to fetch the point and make them sound very good.
Why the Lord should repeat himself? Because he is teaching
yoga! He is teaching four kinds of yoga. A very dry subject to the uninitiated!
He did not mean Gita for Arjuna’s purpose alone, He gave it to the whole world.
He reconciles all the devious schisms in the Hinduism. And the subject needs to
be retoled where ever it is important. So only, though the Lord Himself teaches
and that too to the most eligible student, Arjuna, the Lord takes recourse to
the fundamental rule of teaching. Important points are repeated often. It is
all for our benefit. Though Arjuna is an able student, we are not able
students, so we need to be told in varieties of ways as to what is what.
Arnjuna is the most ideal student chiefly because of his mental suffering. None
of us has gone through the compulsion of having to kill our own kith and kin,
and though it becomes his duty as a warrior, he becomes despondent, and besides
that, he has the merit and spiritual strength to completely surrender before
the Lord. These two qualities inhering in that incomparable warrior turns him into
an ideal student. But the teaching is not for his sake alone. It is for the
benefit of the whole world!
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