Daily Shlokas: Nov. 23, 2015

Bg 2.23

nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ

na cainaṁ kledayanty āpo na śoṣayati mārutaḥ

Bg 2.24

acchedyo ’yam adāhyo ’yam akledyo ’śoṣya eva ca

nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur acalo ’yaṁ sanātanaḥ

Bg 2.25

avyakto ’yam acintyo ’yam avikāryo ’yam ucyate

tasmād evaṁ viditvainaṁ nānuśocitum arhasi

Translation:

23. Weapons cleave It not, fire burns It not, water moistens It

not, wind dries It not.

24. This Self cannot be cut, nor burnt, nor moistened, nor dried

up. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable immovable and ancient.

25. This (Self) is said to be Unmanifest, Unthinkable and

Unchangeable. Therefore, knowing This to be such, you should

not grieve.

Commentary Excerpts:

It is very well-known that with an axe one can cut down a thing, and with a bullet one can shoot some other object, but neither can one wound water, fire, air or space with a sword, however sharp it might be. The principle is that no instrument can hit or destroy an element subtler than itself. Naturally, therefore, Atman, the Self, the very cause of the subtlest element, space, and necessarily therefore, subtler than space, cannot be cut asunder by the gross instruments.

FIRE CANNOT BURN IT --- Fire generally can burn things other than the fire, but it cannot burn itself. The burning capacity in fire is the very Essence, the Truth in it, and therefore, fire cannot burn its own Essence, viz., its fiery nature. Wherever there is fire, it can consume things only in space and yet, space is never consumed by fire. Things are consumed by fire in space. If space itself cannot be consumed by fire, how impotent it must feel when it tries to consume the cause of space, the Self?

It is amply clear that if a thing cannot be annihilated by any of the known methods of destruction of nature, or those invented and perfected by man, then that given object must be everlasting. Here, in the second line, we have a series of qualities listed, indicating the Truth; they are not a haphazard collection of terms picked up at random and used in haste. Each word is chosen as a sequence to the previous one. That which has indestructibility, as indicated in the first line, should necessarily be everlasting (Nityah). That which is thus Eternal must be necessarily All-Pervading (Sarvagatah). A truth that is thus Eternal (Nityah), Homogeneous and All-Pervading (Sarvagatah) must necessarily be "Stable" (Sthanuh) because no change can ever take place in it. That which is thus Stable must be "Firm" (Achalah); for, it cannot shake or move, since movement implies the transfer of a thing from one set of time and place to another set of time and place where it was not. Since the Self is All-pervading, there is no spot in space, or period in time, where It is not already, and therefore --- just as I cannot move myself in myself --- the Self cannot move anywhere. A motionless thing is indeed "Firm" (Achalah).

Sanatanah --- that which is ancient. The implication of this term can fall under two categories: the obvious and the suggestive. The OBVIOUS meaning indicates that the Self is not new (Nutanah) but it is ancient and, therefore, we, as students of Brahma-Vidya, need not hesitate to accept it, as we necessarily would if the theory were a modern ideology which was yet to be verified by observed experimental data. In its suggestiveness, the term Sanatanah implies that the Self is unconditioned by time and place. Perfection gained, whether it be in India, or at the North Pole, in the present generation, or in the chaste periods of the Vedic culture, in all places and at all times, by all seers, in all the religions of the world, the Self-experience at the time of God-realisation, can only be one and the same.

This Eternal, All-Pervading Self is certainly Unmanifest, Unthinkable, and Unchangeable, and therefore, having known this truth in Its essential nature, Krishna argues that it is neither possible to kill nor to get really killed. Each of these terms is quite expressive of certain logical truths.

UNMANIFEST --- The five Great Elements that we know, when they become subtler, they lose their capacity to impinge themselves upon our sense perceptions: considered from 'Earth' to 'Air,' we find the elements progressively getting subtler for our perceptions and finally 'Ether' or 'Space,' by itself, cannot be perceived directly by our senses at all. However, the five Great Elements can, to some extent, be perceived through our sense-organs. But the CAUSE of 'Ether, ' the subtlest of the Five Elements, is too subtle for our perception, and therefore we will have to assume that it is Unmanifest. A thing is called manifest when we can perceive it through one or the other of our sense-organs. That which is beyond all five sense-organs is called Unmanifest. I cannot see, smell, hear, taste or touch a full-grown mango tree in a mango seed, and yet, I know that the seed is the cause for the tree. Under the circumstances, the tree is said to be in an 'unmanifest' condition in the seed. Similarly, when they say that truth is Unmanifest, they only mean that It cannot be perceived through any of our sense organs. In the Upanishads, we have exhaustive explanations of why our senses cannot have the Eternal as an object of sense-perceptions. It is the very subject

because of which the sense-organs can perceive.

UNTHINKABLE --- After denying the sense-organs any play in the field of Truth, we are told that the human mind also cannot think, nor can the human intellect ruminate over and comprehend the Infinite. The Self being the very life that energises the mind and the intellect, which by themselves are inert and insentient, it becomes obvious that the mind and intellect cannot make the Self an object of their comprehension. A telescope-gazer cannot see himself with his telescope; he cannot be at once the seer and the seen. Thus here, the Lord's word "Unthinkable" is to be understood as meaning 'Incomprehensible' by the mind and the intellect of the seeker.

UNCHANGEABLE --- This term indicates that the Self is without parts because things that have parts in themselves are things which have "form," and those that have "form" must necessarily come under the category of the FINITE and exhibit in themselves various modifications and changes. By these terms, Truth is declared as Immutable, Unmanifest, Unthinkable and Unchangeable. Krishna thus advises Arjuna to end his grief. He who understands the Eternal nature of the Self can have neither the occasion to perceive himself as the slayer nor recognise others as the slain.

Sources: vedabase.com;  The Holy Geeta