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Bhagavad
Gita - December 21, 2007
Chapter
2, Verses: 18-20
Swami
Yogatmananda
Vedanta
Society of Providence
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II.18:
These destructible bodies are said to belong to the everlasting, indestructible,
indeterminable, embodied One. Therfore, O descendant of Bharata, join
the battle.
II.19:
He who thinks of this One as the killer, and he who thinks of this One
as killed - both of them do not know. This One does not kill, nor is
It killed.
II.20:
Never is this One born, and never does It die; nor is it that having
come to exist, It will again cease to be. This One is birthless, eternal,
undecaying, ancient; It is not killed when the body is killed.
The
above image is from Gita Darshan by courtesy of Sri
Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad.
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Summary
of this lecture:
The bodies, or for that matter anything with name-form, is perishable,
not in the sense that soup perishes after some days or flowers &
fruits are perishable items, but they are perishable as the snake seen
on a rope is or as the mirage-water seen in the sand is. They are the
appearances of the unchanging, ever present and un-knowable Self.
Why Self is unknowable? Do the scriptures not teach about it? Of course,
scriptures do teach about it but not in the sense that you know the
Self by reading them - the Self being the Eternal Knower, Its knowledge
is spontaneous. After knowing 'I am' , then alone all other knowledge,
even that from the scriptures become possible. What scriptures do is
to help us dispel the ignorance about the existence of the names &
forms which is obstructing the manifestation of the Self-knowledge.
When that is removed, Self-knowledge flashes spontaneously just as when
the clouds are blown away by the winds, the Sun behind them shines automatically.
'Therefore, Arjuna, fight the battle' - is not a dictate or instruction;
Arjuna had come there to fight in the first place, and was in a painful
dilemma about it due to his attachment to names and forms. Removing
these attachments will re-open the function of his original intention.
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