Gita Class 009, Ch.2 Verses 12-14

Bhagavad Gita Class by Swami Tadatmananda

Feb 27, 2021

Youtube: 09: Bhagavad Gita Class by Swami Tadatmananda – Ch.2 Verses 12-14

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Swami Tadatmananda’s translation, audio download, and podcast available on his website here: https://arshabodha.org/teachings/bhag…

Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: https://www.arshabodha.org/

Note about the verses:  Swamiji typically starts a few verses before and discusses 10 verses at the beginning of the class. The screenshot of the verses takes that into consideration and also all the verses that were presented during the class, which may be after the verses discussed initially. We put the later of the two at the beginning

Note about the transcription:The transcription has been generated using AI and highlighted by volunteers. Swamiji has reviewed the quality of this content and has approved it and this is perfectly legal. The purpose is to have a closer reading of Swamiji.s teachings. Please follow along with youtube videos. We are doing this as our sadhana and nothing more.

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ॐ सह नाववतु  

oṁ saha nāv avatu

सह नौ भुनक्तु  

saha nau bhunaktu

सह वीर्यं करवावहै  

saha vīryaṁ karavāvahai

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै  

tejasvināvadhītam astu mā vidviṣāvahai

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः  

oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

Welcome back to our Saturday morning Bhagavad Gita class. Let me check this is looking fine. We will pick up the thread in chapter 2, but we’ll begin as we do each class with some recitation. We’ll begin today in verse 7, where we have the longer meter. And again, please glance at the meaning while I chant and then repeat after me.

Verse 7:

Let us pick up the thread. So, we saw in chapter 1, Arjuna’s emotional meltdown, as we say, due to his inner conflict. Intellectually he knew that it was a dharma yudha, not the fight, to have worse consequences and fighting it, but emotionally he couldn’t bear the thought of fighting against and killing his own family members.

So, this inner conflict led him to be virtually incapacitated by this, a called an emotional meltdown, panic attack, he had right there on the battlefield. And then we saw at the beginning of chapter 2, Shri Krishna’s initial response.

So, if Arjuna’s problem was an emotional problem, Shri Krishna should give him an emotional solution, which he did with that so-called tough love. He used these very strong words of encouragement, loosely speaking, he told Arjuna, don’t be a wimp, get up and fight.

And as we saw, that brief emotional pep talk, as it were from Shri Krishna, it didn’t work. And that leads us to the present moment. Sometimes, you know, I said before that for an emotional solution—I’m sorry—for an emotional problem, you require an emotional solution, but sometimes it doesn’t work.

Sometimes an emotional solution isn’t enough. To make that very clear, look at this: If you lose a loved one and you’re very sad or even crying and someone dear to you gives you a hug, it’s nice to be hugged in a nice show of concern and care. Does that hug make your sadness go away? Not at all.

Suppose two people hug you, three people hug you, ten or twenty people hug you—you get the point. No number of hugs will make your deep sadness and grief and feeling of loss go away. The point is that for such emotional problems, there’s no ultimate—I’m sorry—there’s no emotional solution.

The solution that’s required—and we talked about this at the very end of the prior class—the solution is a radical change of perspective in which you can be okay in spite of the loss, in spite of the sadness. And that’s what we’re going to be discussing here in the coming verses.

My guru, Pujaswamidayananda, was famous for a particular statement in this context. Recalling the fact that for Arjuna’s emotional solution—there’s no—I’m sorry—for Arjuna’s emotional problem, there’s no solution.

Pujaya Swami Dayananda famously said: “In psychology, there’s no solution. In Vedanta, there’s no problem.”

And what he meant by that is that in psychology, you can undergo therapy. In fact, some people—especially in the United States—some people will have weekly appointments with the therapist that go on for months and months and years and years. Will those persons ever completely resolve their emotional problems?

Emotional problems are endless. One is followed by another, is followed by another. Besides, there’s no perfection possible for the mind. Just as your body will never become perfect, no matter how many hours you spend in the gym, in the same way your mind will never become perfect.

As human beings we’re innately flawed—bodies and minds. And so there’s no such thing as a state of emotional perfection that’s reached through lots of therapy. So for that reason, Pujaswamidayananda said: “In psychology, there’s no solution. But in Vedanta, there’s no problem.”

And the reason there’s no problem is it’s Vedanta that brings about that shift of perspective in which you can be perfectly content and okay in the presence of your emotional problems. That’s Vedanta’s solution.

Below is additional clarification for the verse completed in the previous class

So with that introduction, we saw at the end of the last class, we saw Sri Krishna’s first spiritual teaching to Arjuna, where he said: “You are grieving for a shochyan, those who don’t deserve grief.”

They don’t deserve grief because—well, actually I didn’t speak on that—they don’t deserve grief because whatever is going to unfold on a battlefield is a matter of everyone’s karma. So because of Bhisma’s karma, he’s on that battlefield on the opposing side and he will be killed by Arjuna. Drona, Kripacharya, all of the sons of Dritarastra are all on the opposing side due to their individual karmas, and because of their karmic burden or karmic load, so to speak, they will suffer death on the battlefield.

So—and Sri Krishna is going to say a little bit later in chapter 2 that birth and death are inevitable, and death on this battlefield is inevitable. For that reason, he said: “Toam, you are grieving for those who don’t deserve grief.”

On the other hand, Bhashya say, you’re speaking Pragyavadam, you’re speaking very wisely when Arjuna expressed his concern for the loss of the family traditions.

“Kataasun, Agataasun, chana, Anushotanti, Panditaha.” But Panditaha—here we’re not talking about learned scholars. Here Panditaha means those who are truly wise, those who are enlightened.

Panditaha, the enlightened ones, Anushotanti, do not grieve. Kataasun, for those who are dead, and Agataasun, for those who are yet to die.

And that brings us to our next verse. 

Nathwava, sorry. Sorry. Now, Sri Krishna continues his spiritual instruction to Arjuna. He says, all the words are run together here nicely.

Na tv eva, aham, jātu, nā, asam. And very nicely, using a double negative. Did you ever have a grammar teacher tell you not to use double negatives? Well, in Sanskrit texts, they’re used frequently. We have to be ready for that.

Nathw, nathw jātu, but never was it the case. Ava, indeed, that aham, ah, Sri Krishna speaking—I—nā, asam, never did I not exist. There’s a double negative: never was it that I did not exist. Taking out the double negative: I always existed. I was never non-existent.

Nathwam—the same is true for you, Arjuna. So, nā, never—never was there a time when you did not exist, Arjuna. Nā, yimē, janā, dhipāha—breaking the words apart—nā, yimē, yimē—these. Jāna, adhipāha—these kings among men. So, nā, never was it the case that yimē, janā, dhipāha—these great kings and soldiers on a battlefield—never was it the case that they did not exist.

So, they’ve always—I’ve always—Sri Krishna says, I have always existed. You too, Arjuna, have always existed. And all these gathered on a battlefield have always existed.

Nathw, chā, chā, chā, ava. Break the words apart: chā—and—nā, ava, nābha, vishyama, hā—another double negative. Never, never will they not exist in the future. Never will we cease to exist in the future. We—being Sri Krishna, Arjuna, and everyone gathered on the battlefield—sarve . All of us, vāyam, vāyam, sarvē—all of us—nā, nā, chā, nābha, vishyama—all of us will never cease to exist in the future.

Atah param, in the last line—from this point forward—atah param—from this time onward. So, we will always exist. So here, Sri Krishna is immediately turning Arjuna’s attention to that which is eternal in us all.

And before I explain what I mean by “that which is eternal,” please note what Krishna is not doing. So often, when people are in a really bad situation, our response is not very good—or, to use a common American expression—our response is totally lame, useless. When you tell someone, “Oh, don’t worry, everything will be okay.” Hindi may, you say all the time, “koī bāt nāhī, sab-sab ṭhīk ho jāyegā”—everything will be okay.

Well, on a battlefield, everything will not be okay. Everyone is going to die. The point I’m making here is: all too often our response in a time of crisis are these empty words of reassurance—“everything will be okay.” Those empty words of assurance are not helpful. You know this very well.

Just to point that out: that Sri Krishna does not offer empty words of assurance. He immediately goes to these profound spiritual teachings about that which is eternal.

Now, so often we use the expression eternal soul. And let me share with you—this is one thing I learned, one important thing I learned from Pujya Swamiji—was to use words very carefully and meaningfully. And for that reason, Pujya Swamiji himself never, ever used the word eternal soul. He never used the word soul. And the reason he didn’t is: the word soul is subject to so much misinterpretation.

The word soul can have a different meaning for you and me and for someone else. And the word soul—pardon a bad, bad pun—soul can be the bottom of your foot. In America, there’s such a thing as soul food, etc.

So the point I’m making is: the word soul is a very fuzzy and imprecise word. When I was a child—just to make this more clear—when I was a child growing up in a Christian school, taught by Roman Catholic nuns for teaching us religion. And those nuns taught me that when I die, my eternal soul will go either to heaven or hell.

Now, that was the language they used: when I die, my eternal soul will go to heaven or hell. And even as a child, I had this question: well, my eternal soul will go to heaven or hell—but what will happen to me?

When I die, what is that I who dies?

So the point is that this term eternal soul was used very loosely to me as a child. And here, as grown adults, we need to use more precise language. And one reason for that is: in Sanskrit, the word soul could have one of two different Sanskrit meanings.

Let me show you. There’s some important terminology we need to have. I’ll show you on the board.

Physical Body – Sthula Sharira – ( Tangible)

Subtle Body – Sushma Sharira -> Survives post death and that is what is not present after death.Non tangible

Conscious being – Cit /Chaitanya – 

Above three basic aspect

So it’s helpful to distinguish three aspects of human existence. There are other ways to analyse it, and what I’m sharing with you right now is quite simplified because we’re right at the beginning of the text. We don’t want to get into lots of detail right now.

So let’s just identify three primary aspects of a human’s existence.

One, very obviously, is your physical body. And let me give the Sanskrit terms. And so we’ll be using that term frequently—called sthūla śarīra. Śarīra means body. Sthūla means physical, gross, tangible.

So physical body—sthūla śarīra—is one of three aspects of the human existence that we’re going to talk about.

So of course your physical body is filled with life force, life energy. And there are many ways that your body is alive—your heart is beating, your lungs are breathing, your senses are working. So all of these faculties are present in your body.

Along with the physical body, there’s something else. In addition to a physical body that makes your body alive. And we call that in Vedanta—so first we call that subtle body, or sūkṣma śarīra.

The subtle body or the sūkṣma śarīra—subtle body—is that which enlivens the body. The simplest definition of sūkṣma śarīra is: when a person dies, what is the difference? Something was present in the body before death. Something is absent from the physical body after death. And that’s what we call sūkṣma śarīra.

So, that which enlivens the physical body. Physical body is made of physical stuff. The subtle body is not made of physical stuff. So the subtle body includes your mind.

In an example I’ve given so many times to distinguish between physical and subtle, to distinguish between sthūla, gross, and sūkṣma, non-tangible: consider the fact that your brain in your skull weighs about 2.5 pounds. How much do all your thoughts and emotions weigh? And all your memories? And when you have more memories, does your brain weigh more?

You get the point. And that is that all of these mental activities—in fact, they’re not physical things. They are sūkṣma—non-physical. In fact, that’s a good definition: non-tangible, non-physical.

So that which enlivens your physical body is the subtle body, the sūkṣma śarīra. And then the third aspect—there is such a thing as a kāraṇa śarīra. I want to leave that apart for right now. It won’t be helpful. At a later date, we’ll come back and talk about that.

But right now, what we want to talk about is the third important central aspect of your existence. Fundamentally—excuse me—you are a conscious being. So we can have consciousness as the third element, and we can call consciousness cit or caitanya—are probably the most widely used terms. Caitanya, cit or caitanya, as in sat-cit-ānanda. Caitanya—these are common Sanskrit words for consciousness. These three terms.

Physical body: sthūla śarīra. Subtle body: sūkṣma śarīra. Consciousness: cit or caitanya.

These really describe the three most basic aspects of who you are.

Now, just to bring us back here: if we use the term soul, which are we talking about? Certainly, the term soul could not refer to your physical body. But the term soul could refer to the sūkṣma śarīra, subtle body. The term soul—loosely used—could also refer to consciousness.

After all, soul is, at least broadly understood, the English word soul is something immaterial. The physical body definitely has material, but both subtle body and consciousness are both immaterial. So if we use the term eternal soul, it can mean either of these, which causes lots of confusion— which is exactly why Pujya Swamiji never, ever used the term eternal soul. And as a student, we’ve also learned to avoid that confusion.

Okay. Before we move on, it’s a little important that these three aspects of your existence be understood a little bit more clearly. We’re going to get into some very deep discussion later, but even at this early stage, let’s share with you a favorite modern metaphor to describe these three. And all of you at home or at work use a computer, so we’re familiar with some of this computer nomenclature.

Your computer has hardware, and your computer has software. You know this very well. Computer hardware means the physical box unit, whether it’s a laptop or a desktop computer—your computer has hardware. Inside, if you open up the computer hardware, you’ll find all kinds of parts. You’ll find a part called a power supply.

By the way, the metaphor here is: the computer hardware is like your physical body. The computer hardware in our metaphor represents your sthūla śarīra, your physical body. Inside the computer are so many different parts. And if you look at a book on anatomy, you’ll find that inside your physical body are so many parts. All of these parts are physical and more tangible. So that’s why we call it sthūla śarīra, physical body—like your computer hardware.

But as you know, your computer also has software. Inside your computer, one of the many parts is the hard disk drive. It contains all the memory, all the programs, all the data. Which means that hard disk drive is a little bit like your physical brain. Inside your computer is that hard disk drive—that’s like your physical brain.

But the software resides on that physical hard drive, just like memories and thoughts abide in your mind. You have software abiding on that hard disk. And if your hard disk is empty, or if your hard disk is filled with gigabytes and gigabytes of data and programs, does the hard disk become heavier?

You get it. Software is not a physical thing. Adding software and data to the hard disk doesn’t make it heavier, just as adding thoughts and memories to your mind doesn’t make the brain heavier.

So we’re seeing now the distinction between subtle—between sthūla (physical) and sūkṣma (non-physical). So your physical body, in this metaphor, is represented by computer hardware. Your subtle body is represented by the computer software.

And there’s another very important point to make here. Let’s spend a few minutes and talk about this, because this is one of the most misunderstood topics in Hinduism in general—not specifically Vedanta.

But the question is: at the time of death, what is it that travels?

This is a question. And we can’t use that word eternal soul because it causes all the confusion. And the way we can explore this is to consider a time—you probably have done this—where you’ve gotten a new computer.

And when you get a new computer, you have to transfer all the data and software from your old computer onto the new computer. Doesn’t it sound a little bit like reincarnation? That’s what the metaphor represents.

Just as you transfer data and program software—just as you transfer the software from an old computer to a new computer—in the same way. So we’re doing this briefly, but you get the point. In the same way, what travels from one body to the next is your subtle body—sūkṣma śarīra. When the physical body dies, it’s the sūkṣma śarīra—subtle body—that travels from one body to the next.

Sorry, go back just for a moment—leading us to the third element. So in our metaphor, how do we account for this consciousness—cit or caitanya?

Well, suppose your computer—you’ve got your computer hardware, it’s working fine. Your computer is loaded with software. But when you type on the keys or flip the power switch—nothing happens. You’ve got hardware, you’ve got software, but the computer will not work without electricity.

Electricity is a third factor. And electricity, the third factor, is the equivalent in our metaphor of consciousness. And very importantly—and we’re going to talk about this a lot—so let me just give it to you simply. And simply, we can say that you can have many computers, many hardware, many, many hardware, many softwares, all connected to the same electrical circuit.

Imagine an office place or a computer lab where there are many computers all plugged into the same electric circuit. Some of you know that about electricity. I know it’s actually the same electrons that are passing through all of the computers. After 10 computers are plugged into the same line, the same electrons are passing through all 10 of those computers. Ten computers, one electricity. Many human beings, one consciousness—one cit, one caitanya.

That one—and we’ll talk about this in so much depth later. We’ll talk about this in a moment. And we’ll talk about this in a moment. And we’ll talk about all of the other things that we can do in this world. And we’ll talk about this in a moment.

One consciousness is manifest in all. All of this is just so that we can define our terms. And in particular, to understand this series of verses, we need to distinguish sūkṣma-śarīra from cit—consciousness. Both of them could loosely be called “eternal soul,” but we’re not going to use that term to cause confusion.

So now that we’ve defined our terms, now we can look at this verse one more time. And say—let me just try out a tricky question on you. This verse where Sri Krishna says, “Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor for you Arjuna, nor for all these men on the battlefield, nor will we ever cease to be in the future”—is this a trick question?

And when I warn you it’s a trick question, that means you know what “trick question” means. So the trick question is: Is Sri Krishna referring here to sūkṣma-śarīra, the transmigrating entity, or is he referring to consciousness—cit, caitanya?

And it’s a trick question because he is not specific in this verse. This would be true for both. Both consciousness and the subtle body are eternal. Eternal means no birth, by the way, for sūkṣma-śarīra. But the doctrine of karma is a little complicated. But the moment you accept a transmigrating entity—sūkṣma-śarīra—and the moment you accept transmigration, reincarnation, you’ll very quickly be led to understand that there was no first, first birth for a human, for a living being.

You’ve had an infinite number of prior births. Why? Because this universe was preceded by an infinite number of prior universes. We talk about the universe being cyclic. And in a cycle, there are an infinite number of loops possible. Our universe has gone through an infinite number of prior cycles. In an infinite number of prior universes, you have undertaken an infinite number of prior births.

Therefore, if it’s an infinite number of prior births, there’s no first birth.

We’ll talk more about reincarnation. In fact, there are several verses that will go deeply into the doctrine of reincarnation later. Let’s keep this very introductory. For these introductory verses, my point is that Sri Krishna is referring to that which is eternal.

Śūkṣma-śarīra is eternal—there was no first birth. Similarly, consciousness is eternal. Consciousness is what we loosely call the inner divinity—also eternal.

Inner divinity means what? That which shares qualities with God. That which has divine, God-like qualities. One of those qualities is certainly being eternal. So that consciousness—your true nature—sat-cit-ānanda, the technical terms we use—that ātman, that true self, is eternal.

So in this verse 12, Sri Krishna could be referring to either consciousness or subtle body. From both perspectives, there is eternal existence.

Then he continues:

Dehino ’smin yathā dehe

Asmin dehe—asmin, in this; dehe, in this body. In this physical body. What is in this physical body? Dehinaḥ.

In these terms—deha and dehin—deha is physical body. Dehin is that which is inside the physical body, that which possesses a body. Deha—the literal, the etymological meaning, the root meaning of deha—is “that which is good to be burnt.” Dahana-yogya—that which is fit to be burnt is deha, as all of our bodies will eventually be burnt.

But within the physical body is a dehin or dehī, as the grammatically correct form. And that dehī, the indweller of the body—and you’ll see why—he is referring here to sūkṣma-śarīra. So he is not referring to consciousness here. I’ll show you why in a moment. But this dehī, the indweller of the physical body—he refers to the sūkṣma-śarīra.

So dehinaḥ, for the indweller; asmin dehe, the one who dwells in this body—there is kaumāram, childhood, being a kumāra, being a child. There is also yauvanam, being a yuvā, youth. There is childhood, youth. And, as we are all learning, there is also jarā—old age.

So there is childhood, youth, and old age. For whom? Dehinaḥ—for the sūkṣma-śarīra. Not for consciousness. Consciousness doesn’t get young or old. You know that very well. You don’t know that—we will discuss this in great detail.

So these are very few, first few verses. So forgive me for not spending lots of time on certain points—we’ll come to those points in great detail.

So dehinaḥ, for the sūkṣma-śarīra, there is kaumāram, the state of childhood; yauvanam, the state of youth; jarā, the state of old age.

On the first line: just as in this body, for the indwelling sūkṣma-śarīra, there is a state of childhood, youth, and old age; tathā, in the third line, tathā—in the same way:

Dehāntara-prāptiḥ.

Similarly, there is the prapti, the acquisition of deha-antara. Antara means another, a different one, a different body. So, just as for the sukshma-sharira that dwells in this body, there is childhood, youth, and old age. In the same way, after the death of this physical body, for that sukshma-sharira, the transmigrating entity, there will be deha-antara; there will be abiding in another body. Sukshma-sharira will leave this body and will acquire another body.

Well, this doctrine of karma and transmigration is fairly complicated. We’ll see it later in Chapter 2. I’m not sure where I generally do that, but if you’re in a hurry to understand all the details, I have some YouTube videos on the doctrine of karma. If you check, there’s a playlist called “Doctrine of Karma.” If you watch the videos in that playlist, you’ll understand it very clearly. And I’ll also be coming back to this topic in more detail.

So, the first three lines, Shri Krishna says that for the indwelling sukshma-sharira, the subtle body, it’s like the software inside a computer. Just like software in a computer can go from one computer to… actually, software in a computer also undergoes change over time. You have some programs now, then you have other programs later, you have other programs later. So, the software in your computer undergoes change over time. In the same way, for your software, your subtle body undergoes change. You’re different today as a personality. As a personality, you’re different today than you were 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Childhood, youth, and old age – it’s a subtle body that undergoes change. The physical body, we know, undergoes change. The subtle body also undergoes change. The physical body eventually dies. The subtle body travels on. Just as you transfer your software from an old computer to a new one, in the same way, the subtle body travels on to Deha Antara, another body.

And the last line, Tatra, in this regard, in this topic, Dhira, the wise ones, the enlightened ones, na muhyati, they are not confused about this doctrine of reincarnation. So, the subtle body of all those warriors on the battlefield, when they die on the battlefield, their physical bodies fall dead on the battlefield. Their subtle body, sukshma-sharira, detaches itself from the physical body and travels on to the next body.

As long as I’m talking so much about reincarnation, I can mention that there are certain traditions and religions that don’t share the view of this transmigration. For example, Christians, Muslims, and Jews, as you know, bury their dead. Their dead bodies die; they’re buried in the ground. Because there’s a biblical teaching that says, “At the end of time, you will be reunited with your physical body.” It’s taught in the Bible. “At the end of time, you will be reunited with your physical body.” We know very well that the body in the ground will undergo decay. The belief based on that biblical teaching is that you will be reunited not with the decayed body, but with your body back in its normal living form at the end of time. That’s a common biblically based belief.

On the other hand, it’s very clear why Hindus burn the bodies of their dead, because we can find some symbolism in it. The symbolism is to burn the body to set free the sukshma-sharira. The sukshma-sharira should not somehow remain inside. Not that, please don’t think, “If we fail to cremate a Hindu body, the sukshma-sharira will be trapped inside.” That’s ridiculous. It’s symbolic. To symbolically set the sukshma-sharira free from the physical body, the body is burnt at the time of death, except in two cases: for sannyasis and for infants. There’s a tradition of not cremating their bodies, but rather burying them. The reason for this for sannyasis is that the tradition gives sannyasis the benefit of the doubt; they’re presumed to be enlightened. If that sannyasi, that Hindu monk, is presumed to be enlightened, if they’re truly enlightened, they’re not going to reincarnate anyway. Therefore, they don’t burn the body. If you allow me to be a little sarcastic, the wood required for cremation is costly, so you get to save some money. You don’t have to cremate the bodies of those sannyasis.

Similarly, for infants, it’s believed that the sukshma-sharira for an infant is very loosely attached to the physical body. After all, the sukshma-sharira has only been inside that infant’s body for a few days or weeks. So, in the case of a very early death, that infant’s body need not be burned. But it need not be burned for this symbolic reason: that the subtle body is so loosely connected to that physical body, it will effortlessly travel on. So, Tatra dhiras namo kyati, the wise are not confused.

The really important point here, and it leads to the next verse which we’ll see, is that your physical body is subject to change, as we know very well. Your subtle body is also subject to change. So, your personality is not the same today as it was when you were a youth. All of these changes take place in your physical bodies, in the sharira and sukshma-sharira of the subtle body. Atma, that third factor – the physical body undergoes change, aging; the subtle body undergoes change, aging. Consciousness is unchanging; consciousness doesn’t change. Consciousness is the unchanging awareness that allows you to know the changing conditions of your mind.

Shifting Perspective: The Immutable Self

Based on this perspective, we get the next verse where Sri Krishna gets very Vedantic. This next verse teaches Arjuna how to shift his perspective so that he can remain undisturbed, even in this horrible situation. Look at this very important verse. Let’s see it.

Next, Shri Krishna addresses Arjuna: “Khaunteya,” O son of Kunti, Arjuna. “Maatra-sparshaha” is a little technical term. It means “the touch of the matra,” what is measurable. It’s technical, but “the touch of what is measurable” simply means what you perceive with your senses. That’s all it means. The touch of the measurable means what you perceive through sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. So, everything you perceive and your perceptions, which are in the second line, “shita, ushna, sukha, dukha, daha.” Everything you perceive, “daha,” gives rise to, gives what? What your perceptions give rise to is “shita,” the feeling of coldness, “ushna,” the feeling of being too hot, “sukha,” the feeling of pleasure, “dukha,” the feeling of pain.

So, everything you perceive, all of your perceptions that give rise to feeling cold and heat, give rise to feeling pleasure and pain—all of these feelings, in the third line, are “anityaha,” impermanent. All of these feelings are impermanent. All of these feelings are “agama-apayinaha”; “agama” they come, “apaya” they go. All of these feelings come and go.

The Transient and the Eternal

And here comes this shift of perspective: your body comes and goes. All of the bodies on that battlefield that Arjuna is so concerned about, they all come and go. Similarly, the sukshma-sharira that enlivens all of those bodies, all come and go, getting born again and again and again and undergoing change even in this life. Everything is transient, everything is impermanent, and that’s a reality. Everything but one.

So, returning to our overview: physical bodies are constantly changing, impermanent. The subtle bodies are constantly changing, impermanent. But consciousness, the essence of who you are, your true nature, Atma, is unchanging and eternal. And here, Shri Krishna is encouraging Arjuna to shift his perspective from being so focused on the transient physical bodies and subtle bodies—everything on the battlefield. Shri Krishna is encouraging Arjuna to shift his perspective and consider the fact that Atma, the true self, is unchanged and unaffected by whatever. Arjuna is worried about what’s about to take place on the battlefield.

This dialogue is taking place on the morning of the first of 18 days of bloody battle. You get it, that Arjuna is tremendously concerned about what’s going to take place.

Well, what’s going to take place to the physical bodies on the battlefield, they’re going to perish. It’s going to happen to the subtle bodies that dwell inside those physical bodies, we know those subtle bodies are going to travel, but what’s going to happen to atma?

When your computer crashes, what happens to electricity? If your computer gets damaged, drop, if you drop a laptop computer out in the floor, what happens to electricity? Nothing.

In the same way. What happens to your true self consciousness at the time of death? Nothing. The true self, the inner divinity, unchanging and utterly unaffected by whatever happens outside in the world and inside the mind.

So based on this, Shrikrishna encourages Arjuna to shift his perspective, reflect on the unchanging conscious essence of each person. And based on that, Shrikrishna tells Arjuna Bharata, O descendant of Bharata, O great one, O Arjuna, TAN TITIC SHASWA, TITIC SHASWA, you should endure TAN those. Those what? Those perceptions of cold and heat, those perceptions of pain and pleasure.

He says, you should endure them, and let me re-translate this. Literally, you should endure them, but you get the sense, you should change, he’s telling Arjuna, shift your perspective so that you know that you’re okay in spite of them. In spite of cold or heat, knowing that you are the in essence, that consciousness, Atma, that Atma is unaffected by cold and heat, by pleasure and pain.

And the same goes for all of Arjuna’s beloved family members and teachers, etc. on the battlefield, in each case, consciousness will not be affected in any way whatsoever. So with this verse, Shrikrishna encourages Arjuna to shift his perspective in such a way that he can effortlessly endure the challenges that lie ahead, so that Arjuna can know that he is fundamentally okay, no matter what happens on the battlefield, and the same holds true.

For all of his beloved family members and teachers on the battlefield, we’ll continue in our next class.

ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः

सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।

सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु

मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah

Sarve Santu Niraamayaah |

Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu

Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |

Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Meaning:

1: Om, May All be Happy,

2: May All be Free from Illness.

3: May All See what is Auspicious,

4: May no one Suffer.

5: Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

Om Shanti Shanti. Om, that’s it. Thank you.