The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verses 18 ... 21
[In the last verse, we heard Śrī Kṛshṇa saying, “Know that One (That), which pervades everything in this universe, is imperishable. No one can cause the destruction of this Immutable.”]
Translation
These bodies of the eternal, indestructible, undefinable embodied Ātman are said to have an end; therefore, O Bhārata (Arjuna), do fight.
Annotation
This verse is the perfect complement to the previous one. (Previous verse: Know that One, which pervades everything in this universe, is indestructible. No one can cause the destruction of this Immutable.)
Earlier, we heard Bhagavān speaking about immortality. In this verse also, he continues to exhort Arjuna, but here asking him to stay firm and face the struggles against the obstacles in the path to immortality.
Kṛshṇa says, “Arjuna, I have spoken to you about the Real (sat or Ātman) and the unreal (bhāva or asat), and explained how the seers of Truth live constantly seeing the Real and unreal in a unitive (yogic) way and attain immortality. There is nothing higher in value than this for human beings to strive and achieve. Being ignorant of this truth, men and women spend all their lives pandering to the insatiable desires (kāma) of their body-mind complex. They cannot recognize that their bodies seem valuable only because they embody the indestructible, immortal, and undefinable Ātman. And those bodies, which are said to have an end, do belong to Ātman. They are like the waves of the ocean. Waves come and go; they emerge from the ocean and then merge back. At no time were they different from the ocean. Similar is the relation between the bodies and Ātman. But my point is before the body comes to its so called end, one should labor to become a wise person (seer of Truth), whatever be the struggle it takes. This is possible only for a dhīram purusham (a person of firm mind) [Refer to verse 15 of Chapter 2]. Do you know why?
“The body-mind complex is bhāva, so unreal. The mind has many constituents and one of them is the ego-identity (ahamkāra), which creates the feelings and thoughts of ‘I’, ‘my’ and ‘mine’. Ego-identity thrives in the belief that ‘I am this body.’ Arjuna, you nurture your own desires and you engage in actions throughout your life to fulfill those desires (kāma) and the associated dreams. Have you ever recognized that the desires (kāma) are associated with the satisfaction of your mortal body? Your ego-identity attaches you to your body; and that is a false identity. Your real identity is that of Ātman. Your goal should be immortality by gaining the true awareness and experience of your Self, the Ātman. Words cannot define Ātman, but It is the only indestructible Truth.
“In your effort to be your true Self, you will face immense struggles. Your principal opponent is none other than your own ego-identity I have described. The obstacles presented in the path to immortality by this formidable opponent are countless. I am teaching you Brahma-vidya in such detail because a noble person like you will be better placed to emerge victorious in the face of that struggle; no, it is rather an intense battle. Arjuna, never do you give up. This is the toughest battle for the hero in you to fight.”
While teaching the core principles of Brahma-vidya, Kṛshṇa asks Arjuna to fight. This is one of the most misinterpreted instructions of the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita itself presents the challenge to the interpreters in a few more places by repeating similar words. As many commentators infer, if Kṛshṇa cajoles Arjuna to fight the Kurukshetra battle, what he has taught up to the present verse will have no significance! After explaining what immortality means and praising the wise seers of Truth, he wants Arjuna to follow the instructions and become a seer himself. Here, there is no mention of war at all. And the word fight can very well mean to struggle (or strive) as well, in both the Sanskrit and the English languages!
In verse 11, Kṛshṇa hints to Arjuna that he is ignorant of Reality, and then in the subsequent verses he describes the various aspects of Truth (Ātman), which Arjuna neither has known at any time nor could he visualize the abstract-sounding Truth. Kṛshṇa will later teach him the method of Truth-realization, but at present, the disciple struggles to comprehend the lessons in wisdom, let alone experiencing Truth!
The word ‘fight’ used here tells Arjuna how challenging it is to assimilate the wisdom teachings, and even more to face the countless obstacles on the path to immortality. Kṛshṇa does not want him to give in, however much he has to struggle. The word fight here is a resounding ‘Do not give up!’ from Kṛshṇa. [We will wait until verse 32 of this chapter for the final answer to what fight Bhagavān implies.]
“Do not give up until you achieve the supremely meritorious goal. Fight!” This is the message to the students of the Bhagavad Gita, or to the entire world.
We have seen that Vedanta does not support any form of himsā (killing or hurting by words, thoughts or by deeds); rather, it holds ahimsā (non-hurting) as one of its cardinal tenets. War and its associated killings (himsā) are only in the realm of the unwise. Kāma (uncontrollable desire) leads to war and all activities of himsā. Only those who conquer kāma enter the abode of wisdom, the special heaven of the wise seers.
Traditionally, the commentators have taken the freedom to interpret scriptures in a way that helped explain the doctrine better, without contradicting the basic tenets. Also, the learners may remember that they will reap the full benefit from the study of a scripture only by continued contemplation after gaining a first-level understanding of the philosophy. [Excessive brainstorming on the philosophy will not yield the intended gains other than the so-called intellectual satisfaction.] The same is true of its interpretation. Verses such as the present one that sound paradoxical should be subjected to deep contemplation; one should reach close to the author’s original vision. We must consider the merit of the interpretations in relation to Brahma-vidya.
Translation
He who regards This (the embodied) as the killer and he who thinks This is killed, they both know not the truth. This never kills nor is This killed.
Annotation
The formless Ātman, the true substance of every being, does not kill anybody, nor is it killed by anybody. First, Kṛshṇa has said every living being, in reality, is the same Ātman. Now he declares the Ātman does not kill anybody. Let us mull over the statements of Bhagavān. When a man kills another, who kills whom? The killer’s true self is Ātman, and Bhagavān confirms Ātman does not kill. But we see killings keep happening in the world; then, in the killer, there is ‘somebody’ else other than Ātman. That ‘somebody’ is none other than the ego-identity (ahaṅkāra) driven by kāma (desires) who does all transactions, including killing or himsā. We have another name for that somebody ̶ karma sarīra.
Kṛshṇa has asked Arjuna to fight to attain śreyas or immortality. Fight against whom? If Arjuna were to attain śreyas, he should realize his svarūpa (own true self), Ātman, and continue to be the svarūpa forever. Now we know the ego-identity puts the obstacles on the path to realizing the svarūpa (Ātman). If Arjuna has to fight against ‘somebody’, it is against his own ego-identity. If he conquers his ego-identity, will he kill anybody? No, we have found the real killer is the ego-identity, not the Ātman. This thought leads us to an important conclusion; if human beings conquer their ego-identity (ahaṅkāra), perfect peace (śānti) envelops the world.
It is an irrefutable fact that Kṛshṇa asks Arjuna, in the earlier verse (verse 18), to fight a different battle, not the bloody battle of Kurukshetra. Thus, the Gita instructions, at the very outset, establish that war and killings by human beings are against the cosmic laws. The Bhagavad Gita intends to show why war and other forms of himsā (hurting or killing) are adharma (the opposite of the laws of Nature). Or, the absence of the wisdom taught here, the Gita declares, gives rise to all acts of himsā (hurting or killing) in the world; war is one of them.
[The substance of the present verse is the same as that of verse 2-19 of Katha Upanishad, and the phraseology is similar as well. The Gita teaches indeed the essence of the Upanishads.]
Translation
This (Ātman) is never born, nor does This ever die. Having been existed always, This does not cease to exist. This is unborn, eternal, unchanging, and primeval. It is not killed as the body is destroyed.
Annotation
Matter (jada) is the manifested form of Ātman. The body of a living being is matter. The body (deha) seems to undergo six kinds of modification (vikāra), such as birth, subsistence, growth, transformation, decay and death. This is characteristic of the phenomenal world. In this verse, Bhagavān says none of these modifications apply to dehī or Ātman.
When we introduced Brahma-tattva, we said the primal cause (Ātman) was unborn, deathless, changeless, all-pervading or omnipresent, all-powerful or omnipotent, and all-knowing or omniscient. Here, Kṛshṇa emphasizes the truth that Ātman (dehī) stays unaffected, while the body (deha) undergoes the six kinds of modification (vikāra). Vikāra-s take place only in bhāva-s (manifested forms of Ātman such as deha).
According to this verse, even after killing bodies, Ātman continues to stay as It is. Can we then argue that there is no harm in killing? The Gita entertains no such arguments. In verse 17, we discussed: if there is an owner for the world that has to be only Ātman. Everything in the world is Its bhāva (manifestation). No one else can create Its bhāva; no one else may destruct its bhāva either.
[The present verse is almost the same as verse 2-18 of Katha Upanishad.]
Translation
He who knows that This (Ātman) is indestructible, everlasting, unborn and undiminishing, O Partha, such a person (saḥ purushaḥ) kills whom and how? Whom and how he causes to kill?
Annotation
Kṛshṇa, in fact, describes in this verse a salient characteristic of a seer of Truth (tattva-darśin), as he encourages Arjuna to become a seer. Bhagavān says, “He who knows, by his own experience, that Ātman is indestructible, everlasting, unborn and undiminishing, is Ātman himself. He is a seer of Truth within himself. The wise seers know the truth I have revealed to you ̶ no one can kill Ātman, and It certainly kills none ̶ because they themselves live as Ātman. Then, how can they ever think of killing anyone or of being the cause to kill anyone?”
Arjuna has asked Kṛshṇa for that which endows him with the supreme merit ̶ śreyas. Kṛshṇa the Guru first establishes that a seer of Truth alone enjoys the supreme merit.
Let us note the word purushaḥ (पुरुषः) used by Kṛshṇa. Purusha is the equivalent of Brahman in Sage Kapila’s Sāṅkhya Darśana. The Bhagavad Gita teaches the Advaita (non-dual) philosophy. But in Sāṅkhya Darśana, purusha is not the non-dual Truth, so it is not Advaita (non-dual). While expounding the Advaita philosophy, the Gita considers all the doctrines that exist in parallel and takes a synthetic approach; it redefines or subjects, even the opposing philosophies, to revaluation before including what is proper in the non-dual philosophy. And Sage Vyāsa has no hesitation to borrow and integrate the terminologies of the other doctrines.
The time of Mahābhārata, according to the Ṛshi, was one of adharma and confusion. People followed doctrines in their corrupt form, whether the Vedas or Sāṅkhya. Vyāsa, therefore, seems to have adopted an approach of synthesis, perhaps anticipating a frosty reception to the Bhagavad Gita if it uses an altogether unfamiliar terminology.
In the normal sense, purusha means man; in Sāṅkhya, it stands for Brahman or Ātman. Here the Sage now uses the term to denote the man who knows (and remains) Ātman. The man who has attained the knowledge of Ātman is Ātman himself; either way, the term purusha is appropriate.
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(To read the next post [Gita Post #19], click/tap on this link: https://www.ekatma.org/node/198)
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