I, Acharya Agyaatadarshan Anand Nath sa-shaktikaayai bow down at the lotus feet of my first Guru, my revered father Pandit Shri Murli Dhar ji Mishr, Vidya Guru Kaul Shiromani Shri Shivanand Nath ji, Yoga Guru Paramhamsa Shri Balendu Giri ji Maharaj, Tantra Guru Shri Shri Anta Devji Maharaj, Vama Guru Shri Kaleshwaranand Ji Maharaj and all the compassionate Masters, divine souls of Gurumandala.. I pray for their love, support and guidance always..
Shivoham!
अव्यक्तोऽयमचिन्त्योऽयमविकार्योऽयमुच्यते |
तस्मादेवं विदित्वैनं नानुशोचितुमर्हसि ॥25॥
avyakto ’yam achintyo ’yam avikaaryo ’yam uchyate
tasmaadevam viditvainam naanushochitum arhasi ||25||
avyaktah— unmanifested, unexpressed; ayam— this soul or Truth; achintyah— inconceivable; ayam— this Self; avikaaryah— unchangeable (free from modifications); ayam— this soul; uchyate— is said; tasmaat— therefore; evam— thus; viditvaa— having known ; enam— this soul; na— not; anushochitum— to grieve; arhasi— befitting
Translation – It is said that This Self is unmanifest; This is inconceivable (beyond comprehension of intellect); This is unchangeable. Therefore, having known the Self thus, you ought not to grieve for this.
We have been contemplating death and clearly there is no real death ever! This shloka is the zenith of Truth where it is said to be unmanifested. If the Self, Truth or Brahman has not manifested itself then what is this world? How come this world has appeared? Does it mean the world comes from Satan instead? This is worth pondering.. put in your share of contemplation while we discuss other adjectives.
Next Truth or Self has been achintya i.e. unthinkable. Of course it is beyond perception of the organs of cognition for it is the seat of all the knowledge. In gross way.. an example should be able to explain it – Your mind knows where is your hand and what it is doing.. but your hands can not gauge or assess what the mind is doing? A higher or deeper aspect is inaccessible to outer or superficial faculties. This mind and body are at the lower ladders.. they are inert.. jada. Self is Chaitanya or conscious – Just like a driver knows or conscious of which part of a car’s engine is malfunctioning but the car can not know what is going in the mind of the driver. Self is therefore beyond the domain of mind and intellect. It is also said to be avikaari – When it has been said to be eternal.. it is in any case unchangeable. Many times it has been said.. like previous shloka says “नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि” and now avikaari “it can not be modified”.. it is more or less the same quality. Although if we get in detail we can say that body goes through 6 vikaaras – birth, growth, decay, modifications, old age and death etc. the Self is beyond all these modifications. As we have already seen that it is not the body.. or jada.
Krishna therefore says.. if you have seen these qualities.. you will not be grieving for this Atma or Soul.
|| Asato Ma Sad Gamaya – The Journey towards the Light ||
Like Arjuna every seeker has to understand this.. the Truth is unmanifest. It looks like manifested.. as Samsaara due to Maya.. Just as in dream we create so many people, road, creatures, events.. but when we get to waking.. we KNOW that those things never existed. In the same way.. it feels that the Self has expressed itself.. manifested itself as world.. but there is no existence of Samsara. It is defect of our perception due to ignorance.. that this world seems to be present in its glory. .
अथ चैनं नित्यजातं नित्यं वा मन्यसे मृतम् |
तथापि त्वं महाबाहो नैवं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥26॥
atha chainam nitya-jaatam nityam vaa manyase mritam |
tathaapi tvam mahaa-baaho naivam shochitum arhasi || 26 ||
atha— if, now, however; cha— and; enam— this Self or soul; nitya-jaatam— taking birth again and again (forever); nityam— always ever; vaa— or; manyase— you think or assume; mritam— dead; tathaa api— even then; tvam— you; mahaa-baaho— with mighty-arms , Arjuna; na— not; evam— like this; shochitum— grieve; arhasi— eligible, befitting
Translation – Even if, you think this Soul is born and dies continually repeatedly, even then, O mighty-armed one, this is not worth grieving thus.
Krishna as a teacher approaches from altogether different direction of practical wisdom. He has two goals in mind – calming down Arjuna and giving him understanding of Truth. In this shloka Krishna is trying to reduce the anxiety of Arjuna by giving him logical argument. He says “O mighty-armed Arjuna! Even if you believe that Soul die and then takes birth as per his Karma there is no reason for you to grieve over this.”
There are many levels on which we are born and then die. Man’s most dreaded fear is about death. In material world, this animal kingdom every creature is programmed to save his body from being destroyed. Man is no different. This tendency to save one’s life is called ‘जिवीविषा’ – the desire to live on. And the reality is that all the bodies, be it of insect, virus, animals or human that are born decay one day and this decay leads to death. It is inevitable. But whose death it is? Is it death of body or that of the entity which owned and wanted to keep the body. Think and contemplate on this level of birth and death!
With our accumulated Karmic rewards and our interactions with this world we are born again. This birth is of a personality, an ego – a Self image. Most of us take this image (body in one’s imagination or field of conviction) as the Self. We continue struggling all our lives saving this ‘Person’ we have become identified with. All the heartbreaks, competitions, debates, sufferings, fights, quarrels and showdowns happen in defending the ‘Goodness’, ‘Greatness’, ‘Righteousness’, ‘Respect’ and ‘Maintaining’ this very ‘Image Body’ of self.. that we give birth to at a later stage of life. All the life people continue to stay tense, fearful and suspicious only to save the pride of this (self)-imagined ‘Self’. In all seriousness and ingenuity they struggle saving the virtual death of this imagined body all through their lives.
But think.. there comes a time when all of this is forcibly taken away from us. That moment inevitably comes in everyone’s life when whatever we think we are, whatever we feel is ‘ours’ – has to be dropped. It may come now or later but it will and we can not stop it from coming.
Krishna is pointing to the same and says that “Arjuna, If you take this Soul to be mortal and if you don’t kill these people now (on the opportune moment when they have challenged you despite being on the side of injustice), they are going to die some or the other day. It is not that if you don’t kill them, it is not that if you disengage from the war they will live here forever.. they will certainly be dead sooner or later.. and they will be born again. This is another reason why you not be getting confused? It doesn’t deserve this much thinking.”
Shivoham!
-Acharya Agyaatadarshan Anand Nath
Its all about you! 