Overview
Arjun is confused whether he should kill his own family members in the fight. In 2.11-2.30, Krishna gives him a logical argument, from a knowledge perspective, that Atma is neither born nor killed, but only the body changes. Therefore you should not be worried about killing anyone. In 2.31-2.37, he gives scripture-based arguments that if you die, you will go to heaven and if you win, you will rule the earth. In 2.38 to 2.53, Krishna presents the knowledge from the perspective of actions that you should act without attaching yourself to the results. Interestingly, all these different arguments suggest that Arjun should fight. In 2.55 to 2.72, the characteristics of a liberated person are described.
Translation/Summaries of the verses
2.1 - 2.3 Krishna says such feelings may reflect weakness and will lead to infamy. He asks Arjun to overcome these feelings.
2.4 - 2.9 Arjun repeats that even a win at the cost of killing his friends and family members will not be enjoyable, so he is now confused about his duty, whether he should fight or not?
2.10 - 2.13 Krishna replies: Arjun, your are lamenting over what is not worthy of grief! Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. The soul just changes forms, and wise men are not confused by these changes.
2.14 - 2.15 Feelings of heat and cold, happiness and sorrow are caused by sensory perceptions. They are temporary and should be tolerated without being disturbed. A wise man who is steady in both situation is fit for liberation.
2.16 - 2.18 Krishna continues: What is non-existent never existed, and what is existent will always exist*. That (Atma/Brahm) which pervades the body can never be destroyed. However, the body itself is sure to come to an end. Therefore you should fight.
2.19 - 2.22 Atma neither kills, nor is killed. Atma is never born and never dies, but it is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed. How can a person who knows this kill anyone or cause anyone to kill? Like a man removes old clothes and gets news ones, Atma also removes old bodies and gets new ones.
2.23 - 2.25 Atma cannot be cut by weapons, burnt by fire, moistened by water or dried by air. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable, everlasting. Perceived neither by the senses, nor by the mind, it is known as unchangeable. Therefore you should not lament for the body.
2.26 - 2.27 However, even if you consider it to be always coming to birth and dying, even then there is no reason to lament, because what has born will certainly die, and what dies will certainly be born. So why lament over the unavoidable?
2.28 - 2.30 Beings are un-manifested before birth, manifested in the middle state, and un-manifested again after death. Atma inside the body is however never killed, so don't lament.
2.31 - 2.37 Also, considering your duty as a warrior, you should fight since there is no better good for you than a righteous war. Only lucky warriors get chance to fight such wars which will lead you into heaven. However, by avoiding your duty to fight, you will incur sin and disgrace. For a man of honor, disgrace is worse than death. Other people will think you were afraid and say bad things about you. What can be more painful? If you die, you will go to heaven. If you win, you will rule the earth. So get up and fight.
2.38 - 2.41 Fight for the sake of fighting, without considering happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat - and by so doing you shall never incur sin. So far I have advised you from a knowledge perspective, now listen to me from an action perspective, by following which you will become free from the bondage to actions. No effort taken on this path is lost, and even a little advancement can save one from great fears. Those who are resolute on this path have a clear aim, but those who are not have a multi-branched intellect (confusion between choices).
2.42 - 2.46 Men of small intellect get attached to rites and rituals of the Vedas*, performing them for gratifications. They are confused by the material gains and lack a resolute intellect to focus on Brahm. Arjun, go beyond the three modes of material nature described in the Vedas, free yourself from the pairs of opposites, and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self. Utility of Vedas to a person who knows the essence behind them is only as much as the utility of a well when there are floods of water all around.
2.47 - 2.48 You have control over the actions, never on their fruits. Let not the fruits of actions be your motive, nor become attached to inaction. Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjun, even-minded in success and failure. Such equanimity is called Yoga.
2.49 - 2.50 Action (as commonly understood, done for results) is far lower than Yoga of wisdom (defined in previous verse), so take refuge in wisdom. Pitiable are those whose make fruit their motive. A man of wisdom becomes free from both virtue and vice, so devote yourself to Yoga. Yoga is skill in action.
2.51 -2.53 The wise, possessed of knowledge, having abandoned the fruits of their actions, and being freed from the fetters of birth, go to the state which is beyond all evil. When your intellect will go beyond the mire of delusion, then you will attain indifference as to what has been heard and what has yet to be heard. When your intellect, that has been confused by hearing different things, shall rest stable in concentrating on the self (Atma), then you will attain Yoga.
2.54 Arjun asks about the characteristics of a such man who is stable in wisdom and self-absorbed.
2.55 - 2.57 Krishna says that a liberated man has a purified mind, free of all desires, and fixed in the divine consciousness (Brahm). Such a man is not affected by external happiness and sorrow, good and evil, and instead finds bliss within himself. He is free from attachment, fear and anger.
2.58 - 2.61 Senses are very strong and can distract even the wise individuals who try to control them. Just removing the senses from their objects of perception is not enough since the yearning still remains. But by experiencing something much higher (Brahm), even this yearning is removed and such a man can control all his senses.
2.62 - 2.68 Thinking about objects of the senses develops an attachment to them, attachment leads to craving, craving leads to anger, anger leads to delusion, delusion leads to loss of memory, that leads to ruin of reasoning/intellect, which results in falling back. However a person who is free from all likes and dislikes controls his senses, even if traversing through sense-objects, and attains lasting peace. An undisciplined person can not have intelligence or steady mind, without which there is no peace, and without peace there is no happiness. Like a water-boat is swept away by strong wind, intellect can be drifted by the senses when mind is focussed on any of them.
2.69 What is night for all living beings is day for the self-controlled. What is day for all living beings is night for the introspective sage.*
2.70 - 2.72 Like an ocean remains still in spite of continuous inflow of rivers, the man who remains unaffected by the flow of desires, instead of trying to fulfill them, attains peace, being free from the ego (sense of "I" and "mine"). This is the state of a man who has realized Brahm, after which he is not deluded.
~ End of Chapter 2 ~
Notes
* 2.16 This essentially implies that things that are of temporary existence (such as body) are actually non-existent.
* 2.42-2.46 A major proportion of the Vedas is related to rites and rituals, which are prescribed for different situations. Following these rituals blindly for material gains has been derided in this chapter. However, there are also other sections in Vedas (such as Upanishads) that deal with spiritual knowledge (similar to Gita).
* 2.69 means that a person who has controlled his senses is focused within himself and not the external world. He does not care about day and night.
1 comment:
One should detach himself/herself from the materialistic world and indulge purely in brahm instead, by which he/she would experience eternal bliss. One would then be free from joys and sorrows and hence heaven and hell.
If this is the complete picture, then it doesn't really explain the purpose of our bodily existence, do our bodies randomly just get created from brahm and get destroyed back into brahm with no real meaning. All we are supposed to do with this life is to realize brahm and then get destroyed. If true, this is very demotivating.
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