Gitar Gan - Chapter 2 - Knowledge of the Soul and Body by Analytical Study

1) Sanjaya said:

Arjuna, shedding tears of pity, thoroughly confused,
heard Madhusūdan speak with sweet and friendly attitude.

2) Lord Krishna said:

My dear Arjuna, why shed tears upon this field of war?
A foolish man laments for values wiser men abhor.
Your tears lead not to heaven but to widespread disrepute.
My friend, you must abandon this misplaced, degraded mood.

3) Why should this lack of potency degrade your martial skill?
A feeble-hearted soldier is unfit to fight and kill.
My friend, how has this weak behavior set you so far back?
How will you counteract your fearsome enemy’s attack?

4) Arjuna said:
O Killer of the Madhu beast, I can’t imagine why
You want my lethal arrows to take revered elders’ lives.
Why should I pierce my learned gurus’ flesh as You have said?
I’d rather worship Bhīṣmadev’s and Droṇa’s feet instead.

5) They’re more than military guides.
They’re saintly souls and very wise.
My friend, You think I should kill those I love?
Why, I would rather beg for bread
than fight till they or I am dead.
What profit lies in winnings stained with blood?

6) Should I kill them, or they kill me?
I’m caught in a dichotomy,
as if a man with feet on separate rafts.
To kill my friends who will not run
and Dhṛtarāśtra’s hostile sons
assures us only sorrow unsurpassed.

7) I feel so weak with meager vision,
baffled in my comprehension.
Only fools abandon sacred posts.
Now let the whole world witness You
tell me the proper thing to do.
Please help me be determined and composed.

8) So blind of eye and dull of brain,
I’m too impure to douse the flames
of pain that burn my senses and my poise.
For even with unrivaled throne
or heaven’s kingdom as my own,
how can this sorrow ever be destroyed?

9) Sanjaya said:

Reflecting thus, Arjuna, always self-controlled and strong,
again said, ‘Krishna, master of desire, this is wrong.
Govinda, pleaser of the senses, I shall quit this war.’
With that, the sullen hero sat and offered nothing more.

10) On hearing this, with gentle smile, between the warring sides,
Lord Krishna gave his stricken friend the following advice.

11) Lord Krishna said:

Although your words are learned, you lament for something lame.
The truly learned know that soul and body aren’t the same.
The body dies but spirit lives, and clearly judging this,
the wise do not lament the body’s certain exodus.

12) For you and I and all these kings have passed through countless lives.
We all exist eternally, yet fools think otherwise.

13) The soul and body differ, as the paṇḍits have explained.
The endless soul remains untouched as fleeting bodies change.
Through childhood, youth and aged years, the soul lives on and on
and goes on living even when the body’s dead and gone.

14) As winter turns to summer, joy and sorrow come and go.
A man attached to sense perceptions wavers as they flow.
Attachment to the temporary must be overcome.
When one learns to be tolerant, attachment will succumb.

15) A person who appreciates the goal of life attains
a tolerant position that surpasses joy and pain.
Such persons remain steady in a world of agitation,
forsaking temporary things for endless liberation.

16) The seers of the truth conclude, by studying in full
the qualities of both the body and the spirit soul,
that bodies are ephemeral, but spirits never die.
Conclusions such as this alone can benefit mankind.

17) The endless soul pervades the body, making one aware.
Without the soul, the body falls and can’t move anywhere.
The soul goes on forever, as concluded by the wise,
for how can one destroy or murder that which never dies?

18) The body surely perishes, but one must also know
there is no end to the immortal, boundless spirit soul.
Discerning this reality as proper, true, and right,
stand up to face this war and with determination, fight.

19) A person who thinks souls can kill or be killed is misled.
No one can kill the spirit soul, for souls are never dead.

20) The soul transcends mortality.
It was, it is, and it will be.
The soul is both beginningless and old.
The endless and undying soul
cannot be born, cannot be culled,
for only bodies die, not spirit souls.

21) Now why would one who knows the soul is indestructible
imagine he can kill someone or cause someone to kill?
If one sees souls are everywhere and present all the time,
unlike a foolish man, he knows that souls can never die.

22) As any person puts on clothes
brand-new and fresh, discarding those
worn out and old and no longer of use,
at mortal death the soul again
assumes another untouched skin.
Regretting death in war is no excuse.

23) The soul cannot be burned or drowned or changed by worldly force.
No weapon can impale the soul; no wind blows it off course.
Wise hero, such intrusions only touch the outer form.
They’re actions and reactions of this world and nothing more.

24) The soul has bliss that never breaks or withers or evolves,
unlike something material that flounders and dissolves.
The spirit soul’s pervasive presence stays forever fresh,
unfettered and unchanging although physically enmeshed.

25) Assaulting, burning, moistening, and drying just affect
the body that repeatedly departs and manifests.
While human minds can fathom qualities material,
the spiritual existence remains inconceivable.
The changeless nature of the soul so differs from the skin
that one must hear of soul and flesh again and yet again.
When you see how they differ and can set the two apart,
that new discrimination will exhilarate your heart.

26) When you can see the soul lives on, you will lament no more.
Your lasting bliss will far surpass what you have known before.
Yet if, ‘The body is the self,’ remains your firm belief
and death means one is gone for good, there’s still no need for grief.

27) Since bodies die and turn again to earthly elements
that form another body, learned souls do not lament.

28) If matter forms a body and some fleeting traits appear,
the soulless remained soulless all along. Why shed a tear?

29) Knowledge of the soul amazes.
Contacting the soul amazes.
Once perceived, the soul makes one enthralled.
Some declare the soul amazes.
Some have heard the soul amazes.
Most don’t know the soul exists at all.

30) O BhārataVII, to hear and learn about the spirit soul
comprises the epitome of all the Vedic scrolls.
In My view, all embodied souls endure their body’s death,
so grieving over this destruction simply wastes your breath.
(Krishna presents the first, foundational lesson of Bhagavad-gītā: the soul lives apart from
the physical body. To know this and act accordingly, Krishna insists, immediately takes one
to bliss and steadiness missing from ordinary, body-centered lives. Unlike the gross material
elements that comprise the body, the spirit is a subtle, non-material element, invisible to
ordinary vision yet perceivable by intelligence. Having established this framework, Krishna
proceeds to appeal to the warrior Arjuna’s pride.)

31) Since every righteous person has a duty to fulfill,
a kṣatriyaVIII must never hesitate to fight and kill.

32) The doors of heaven open wide when one does not neglect
to meet the sacred duties that society expects.
Not only do heroic warriors reach the gods’ domains,
their sacrifice brings fortune that heroic men obtain.

33) So, if you leave your sacred role of fighting in this war,
O Pārtha, you will lose the fame you’ve always known before.

34) The world will sing and laugh about your cowardice, your shame,
and think of you as dead. Your life will never be the same.

35) The great opposing soldiers who have long admired your power
will see you flee the battle and declare you are a coward.

36) What benefit will come if you are harshly criticized?
O Pārtha, will you listen as you hide in some disguise?

37) If you survive you will enjoy this worldly sovereignty,
and if you die then heaven shall become your destiny.
KaunteyaIX, either way, to stay is surely good and right.
Your negligence surprises Me. The time has come to fight.
(Having appealed to Arjuna’s intellect with knowledge of the soul and the warrior’s duty,
Krishna now introduces karma-yoga, the art of working without attachment. Most of the
topics introduced in this chapter will be later be explained in more depth.)

38) In joy or sorrow, loss or profit, triumph or defeat,
be fearless in your work and disregard what others speak.
Just fight for fighting’s sake and sin will always stay aloof.
You have no need to fear if you can grasp this vital truth.

39) Thus far I have explained how to use knowledge as a guide.
Now learn how one can work more wisely, motives set aside.
Those souls of ripened intellect choose serving the Supreme
and free themselves from bondage caused by acting in a dream.

40) Now in this practice no decay, no loss or cost occurs,
and any service you amass is wealth forever yours.
A slight amount of progress in your service can avert
exposure to the greatest fear, repeated death and birth.

41) Beloved Kuru child, determined servitors possess
both resolute intention and unbound intelligence.
But others lack persistent drive to serve the Absolute,
for many-branched intelligence makes them irresolute.

42, 43) The flowery Vedic themes cheer mundane worker’s hearts and minds
by promising sweet pleasures and enjoyment of all kinds.
Although the pleasures they pursue all vanish in the end,
such lusty persons try to rise to heaven once again.
In sole pursuit of promises of heavenly delights
they fail to link with God, the single goal of human life.

44) Beset with thousands of desires, mental balance shot,
they find the will for serving God a distant afterthought.
They stay attached to pleasure, mystic powers, or salvation
and never reach devotion with a fixed determination.
(While the Vedic literatures describe options for pious, detached work in pursuit of
money, prestige and pleasure, Krishna advises Arjuna to step up to devotional service to the
Supreme. Such service includes detachment, but also leads to lasting fulfillment, unlike the
ephemeral results of Vedic rituals.)

45) The modes of goodness, dark and passion fill the Vedic texts.
Transcend their worldly influence and vanquish their effects.
You’ll then achieve pure goodness, free of all dualities,
and grow attached to treasures of divine affinity.

46) Though water is the same in every well and every river,
a single river gives what many, many wells deliver.
And so, the varied meanings of the Vedic texts’ commands
are singular, as brāhmans who love God can understand.

47) You have the right to do your work as you are best employed,
yet all the fruits of what you do are not yours to enjoy.
Think not yourself the doer nor the owner of your yield
and you shall find things favorable working in your field.

48) Detached from fruits, the yogi does his duty to please God,
regardless, Dhanañjaya, if it’s perfect or it’s flawed.
So do your duty like the steady yogi and you’ll find
you’ll fully satisfy the mystic longings of your mind.

49) If you decide to see your lust for worldliness destroyed,
self-centered, Godless actions are the actions to avoid.
One’s miserly possessiveness is instantly redeemed
when one becomes surrendered to the will of the Supreme.

50) By serving the Supreme a person’s actions become cleansed.
Reactions, pious and impious, soon come to an end.
While fighting thus, your consciousness surpasses the mundane
and work becomes the art of yoga on a higher plane.

51) Great saints and sages do their work in this enlightened mood,
renouncing selfish actions and reactions that accrue.
Renounced and transcendental, all such yogis come to see
a liberated state of life devoid of misery.

52) When transcendental service lifts your mind above the dream
that body is the self, a farce that muddies everything,
you too shall be indifferent to lust in all its forms
as well as all the Vedic hymns you hear or heard before.

53) When lesser Vedic messages no longer move your mind
your knowledge and your actions will successfully align
with service to the Absolute. No method passes this,
the highest state of yoga and transcendent consciousness.
(In his Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Śrila Prabhupāda entitles this lengthy chapter, “Contents of
the Gītā Summarized.” Krishna has identified the soul, appealed to Arjuna’s martial pride,
described detached work (karma-yoga), and introduced devotional service (bhakti-yoga). He now concludes by describing the enlightened bhakti-yogi.)

54) Arjuna said:
O Keśava, now tell me of transcendence if You please.
How does a transcendental person walk or sit at ease?
A man of fixed intelligence—what language does he speak?
What other qualities make this accomplished soul unique?

55) Lord Krishna said:
When one gives up concocted sense impulses and perceives
how soul and Supersoul relate, he’s satisfied and pleased.
While he progresses, others, keen on sensual pursuit,
just suffer on and on from that deficient substitute.

56) A man whose mind is peaceful both in misery and joy,
whose service in devotion keeps him constantly employed,
relieved of any craving, sorrow, fretfulness, or rage,
is known to everybody as a steady-minded sage.

57) A person who forgets about the physical demands,
receiving good and evil without praise or reprimand,
devoid of hatred, showing much goodwill to all he meets,
is known to be a steady soul whose knowledge is complete.

58) While servants of the senses suffer unceasing distress,
the masters of the senses keep a sober consciousness.
Like turtles tugging tender limbs within a solid shell,
they keep demands for sense enjoyment tucked away and quelled.
Thus wise, consistent persons who are fixed in self-control
are known to be goswamis, realized, liberated souls.

59) Reducing sense enjoyment, though, is not at all the same,
for those who have true knowledge keep a different mental frame.
By tasting transcendental bliss one naturally eschews
the mundane pleasures gleaned from common sensual pursuits.

60) Yes, even learned souls who try to keep their senses checked
will find them too impetuous and strong in all respects.
Devoid of sacred pleasure, dry denial will produce
a fire on the forehead, throwing childish minds askew.

61) So, one who serves the Absolute and regulates each sense
is certainly a person of secure intelligence.

62-63) To dryly give up sense objects will make a person’s mind
recall their thrill and tend to dwell upon them all the time.
These contemplated cravings generate a burning lust
that then goes unfulfilled and turns to fury and disgust.
Bewildered by this anger, one forgets his higher views,
and, losing his intelligence, he lapses into ruin.

64) Much better one should act without attachment or aversion
and quickly break this endless round of sensual diversions.
Their consciousness enriched with special grace from the Supreme,
such persons remain active in this world and yet are free.

65) Relief from all attachment causes miseries to end,
and by the grace of God, transcendent happiness descends.
A person with this mercy and whose consciousness is fixed
can live with wisdom even in a world of ignorance.

66) Though nature blesses every soul with joyful consciousness,
if one does not serve God, one never seems to find such bliss.
A selfish, thoughtless state of mind makes discontent increase,
for how can one be happy when one’s mind is not at peace?

67) One’s sensual desires toss one on the mental plane
as if one were a rowboat tumbling in a hurricane.
A person uncontrolled is lost, like boats within a storm,
for constant uproar won’t let their intelligence perform.

68) O mighty-armed Arjuna, therefore, listen well to Me.
A person who submits their mind to serving the Supreme
will always keep their senses well controlled in such pursuit
and bolster their intelligence as firm and resolute.

69) While worldly people chase sense objects through their wakeful days
the godly people, calm as night, keep sense desire at bay.
The godly people waken to the daylight of the soul,
while worldly people’s spirits sleep through nighttime, dark and cold.

70) A mighty, endless river flows forever to the sea,
which takes in water undisturbed, not changing one degree.
So also does a godly person feel the flow of lust,
yet due to sacred practices, can peacefully adjust.

71) A godly soul like Nārada, whose lust is fully tamed,
can wander everywhere to sing and praise God’s holy names.
Released from all material attachments and conceits,
such persons become sages as they relish endless peace.

72) For sages with divine remembrance, spiritually infused,
how can illusion linger on and leave the mind confused?
Such saintly souls are so steadfast, above the grip of time,
that even at the hour of death they keep a peaceful mind.

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Bhaktivedanta Swami thus recites śrī-gītār gān
to please the pure devotees always rapt in Krishna’s song.

Thus ends the second chapter of Śrimad Bhagavad-gītā named sāṅkhya-yoga, descriptive knowledge of the soul and the body by analytical study.

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