Gita Class 011, Ch. 2 Verses 18-22

Mar 20, 2021

Youtube Link: 11: Bhagavad Gita Class by Swami Tadatmananda – Ch.2 Verses 18 – 22

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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

Basically Bhagavad Gita class, we continue on chapter 2 and we’ll begin as we do each time. Residing the verses immediately before and after we’re studying in the text, we’ll begin our recitation today with verse 16 and please glance at the meaning while I’m chanting so that you know what the meaning is as you chant.

Repeat after me. Verse 16.

Good we’ll stop there and pick up the thread you notice the dramatic shift of meter

and when the meter shifts our mode of chanting also shifts uh we begin today with verse

18. it’s just recited again just to get focused on the verse verse 18.

Vocabulary clarification

Just getting the words in my mind so we can understand them clearly here. We actually have a little vocabulary that it would be worthwhile to make sure that we understand several words clearly that are used frequently in the Bhagavad Gita and elsewhere.

Let me show them on the board. In these words, we’ve mostly we’ve used before but perhaps not. So we find in this verse the word deha. Deha means body. The usual etymological translation is dha na yogya. That which is fit for burning after they’re dead in deha. Another word we frequently use which is a synonym for deha is sharira. Which is a synonym. It’s exactly the same. Deha, body, sharira, body.

But when we talk about stula sharira, physical body, gross body and sukshma sharira, subtle body, we’re more likely to use the word sharira than deha. We could use sukshma deha, stula deha but the tradition is more to use the word sharira.

And as I just mentioned, there are two different dejas or sharira that we’ve discussed. We’ve discussed at some length the stula or physical tangible physical body made of physical elements. And then we’ve also discussed the sukshma sharira, subtle body. The distinction is where the stula sharira is made of physical elements. The sukshma sharira is made of non-physical elements.

Stula sharira is made of stula buta’s physical elements. Sukshma sharira is made of sukshma buta’s non-physical elements. Same five elements within primordial forms. So we don’t get into the details. Right now some of you have studied panci karana, and that’s what I’m referring to, but I won’t. There’s no need to explain that right here.

Now we want to make, and by the way, you remember our metaphor that the stula sharira is like your hardware. The metaphor we’ve been using is that of a computer. The computer has hardware and software. Your physical body represents the physical portion of the computer, the computer is hardware.

But inside your computer is software. That software is non-physical. Right? As we discussed at some length, all the data in your computer doesn’t weigh anything. The programs don’t weigh anything. Programs in data are non-physical, but they very much exist and they give your computer the ability to work.

So your stula sharira is represented by your computer’s hardware. Your sukshma sharira represented by your computer’s software. You can’t discuss the computer. Your computer won’t work without a third element. You can have hardware and software, but if you have no electricity, your computer doesn’t do a thing. That electricity represents Atma, as we’ve discussed before the true self.

We’ve introduced the other set of words because the electricity when your computer is on, the electricity dwells inside the computer. That which dwells inside the computer is the electricity. Here the words we’re going to use for indweller, the day in is that which dwells inside the day, that which possesses a body, that which dwells in the body is day in.

By the way, it frequently becomes “dey he”, due to grammar, when it becomes nominative in case. The same transformation takes place for the word sharira. Sharira becomes shariren. Shariren is that which has a sharira, that which dwells in a sharira.

Both of these words refer to Atma. Atma is the one who dwells in your physical body, Deha. Atma is the one who dwells in your sharira. dwells within the stula sharira and dwells within the sukshma sharira. Of course within the sukshma sharira is a little bit vague because the stula sharira doesn’t have a particular form.

But we can say that consciousness, Atma, we’re just to pick up our prior discussions. Atma in the most fundamental and simple sense is consciousness. The consciousness by which your mind and thoughts and emotions are known.

Now look at that. Consciousness is behind your mind. Mind, as you remember, is part of your sukshma sharira. So therefore that which is behind your mind is Atma, which is this dayhin, dayhe, or sharira, and sharirin.

And we said that is Atma, the true self, the, and as I said in the most simple sense, just to conclude this introduction. When we say Atma’s consciousness, we’re not referring to an idea or a concept. Atma is that consciousness which is present in your experience right now, allowing you to be aware of what’s happening inside your mind and what’s happening outside around you.

So Atma is not a concept. Atma is you in a fundamental sense, you as consciousness.

Okay. That brief introduction will help us with this verse a lot

 because you see both the words sharirin in the second line and deha in the first line. Those words are used. So dehaha in plural here. Eme dehaha—these bodies—referring to both stula sharira and sukshma sharira, hardware and software, so to speak.

Both of these are antavantah. They are limited. Antavat, that which has a limit, that which has a boundary, that which comes to an end. So your computer won’t last forever. Your computer eventually, actually what happens is it becomes out of date and you retire it. It ends up being, often ends up being recycled someplace. In fact, we’ll come back to that recycling matter for a little bit later.

So Eme deha, these physical bodies—stula shariras and sukshma sharira, subtle bodies—they are antavantah. They are limited, time-bound, mortal. And they in the middle of the second line, uktahah—you have to break the words apart—nityasya uktahah. They are uktahah, they are said to be, they are said to be sharirinah, belonging to the embodied being.

They are said to—when just looking for a simple translation here—they are said to belong to the shariri, the indwelling being, as we said before—consciousness, atma—which is nityasya immortal.

So these—notice a difference between the bodies being mortal, time-bound—but they are invested with an immortal conscious being. That immortal conscious being is atma. That atma here is called sharirin. So sharirinah—these time-bound mortal bodies—belong to and are invested in physical bodies and sukshma shariras. And that which dwells within is nitya, eternal, unborn, uncreated, unchanging.

You also remember our definition of sat from a prior class. We said sat or satyam is that which exists without change in all the three periods of time—past, present, and future. So look at the difference between antavantah—that which is limited and time-bound, therefore asat by our definition—compared to nitya, referring to atma, the indweller, which is sat.

As in satyam, we have gone over that before. So these physical bodies, these time-bound physical bodies, belong to the conscious being which dwells within—that conscious being which dwells within which is nitya in the second line.

And the third line is anashi—anashi, indestructible. So these are words now describing that indwelling atma, consciousness. That consciousness is nitya—eternal, unchanging. That consciousness is anashi in the third line—indestructible.

And that consciousness is aprameya. This word is problematic because it has several different meanings. Aprameya is sometimes translated as unknowable or unimaginable, inconceivable. Those translations are not helpful.

The translation here: immeasurable. All of those words are meaningful. You can translate words in many ways. If you look up any English word in a big dictionary, you’ll find many meanings. And if you look up prameya in a Sanskrit dictionary, you’ll find many meanings. So for aprameya, we’ll find many meanings. But we have to choose meanings that are helpful.

And here, if we say that these are adjectives for atma, if atma is said to be inconceivable and unknowable, what’s the point of all these Vedantic teachings? So the better translation here for aprameya is immeasurable, which is actually a very literal translation. You can’t measure it.

In fact, I think I joked with you before. Atma is a consciousness within you. And I think I asked you before: How tall is your consciousness? How wide? How much does it weigh? Right? Consciousness is not a physical entity. It is in that sense immeasurable.

If you want to use this word, translation as unknowable is commonly used. But then we have to qualify it. Atma is unknowable as an object. Generally, we know objects. We know things like the chair, we know things like cloth. But chair and cloth are objects.

Atma exists, but not as a knowable object. In fact, atma exists as you, the knowing subject. Do you see the difference? Very dramatic.

So there are objects known to you. Those objects are outside. And then there is the knowing subject, which is inside. So atma is not knowable as an object. Atma is not measurable. Can’t be seen, heard, tasted, smelled, touched, etc. Atma is consciousness, your true self.

So having established all this, Shri Krishna then concludes, tasmat, therefore Bharata, Bharata, descendant of King Bharata, great Arjuna, Yudhyasva—in Hindi, Yudh karo—go and fight. And it has that, just like Yudh karo has that injunctive sense, “you must do it.” This Sanskrit term Yudhyasva has exactly the same sense. It’s a command. Shri Krishna is saying, “Arjuna, get up and fight.”

Remember, Arjuna has fallen to the seat of his chariot in the end of the first chapter, having been overcome by his emotions. Now, what is the sense here of this command? Arjuna, get up and fight.

Remember, Arjuna doesn’t want to fight because he doesn’t want to kill Bhishma and Drona and all the people he loves. But Shri Krishna has just made the point, and that is, the essence of Bhishma and Drona will not die on the battlefield. Now, true, their bodies will die. Without doubt, Bhishma’s body will fall dead on the battlefield. Drona’s body will fall dead on the battlefield. Both of them killed, eventually by Arjuna.

Point is, when Arjuna loves Bhishma and Drona, he doesn’t love their bodies. It’s not the body that he is attached to. So therefore, the fact that their bodies will fall on the battlefield is not a reason not to fight.

Similarly, the sukshma sharira that dwells within Bhishma and Drona will travel after death. Now, we haven’t discussed that in much detail, but we understand according to the doctrine of karma and the teachings about incarnation. And that is, at the time of death, the sukshma sharira, that which enlivens the physical body, detaches itself from the physical body, travels on according to the laws of karma, and eventually acquires another body for other karmas to be discharged, to be experienced.

These are two reasons for Arjuna not to be excessively concerned about death. And maybe it should be said here: death is one of the hardest realities to deal with in life—the death of our loved ones and our own, the eventual deaths. Many people would say that death is the biggest challenge, the most threatening challenge in life.

Well, look at the approach of the Bhagavad Gita. It addresses this biggest challenge of life, this most threatening challenge of life. It addresses it head-on. And this way, Shri Krishna says to Arjuna, there’s no need to grieve. Remember how the teachings of the second chapter began: Ashochyan anva-shochas tvam in verse 11. Arjuna, you are grieving for those who don’t deserve grief.

Why do they not deserve grief? Well, their bodies are inevitably going to fall on a battlefield. But their sukshma sharira, subtle bodies, will travel on. And further, consciousness, which is the essence of their beings—the essence of Bhishma’s being is consciousness, atma. The essence of Drona’s existence is consciousness, atma. And that consciousness, as we’ll see in more detail, is utterly unaffected on that battlefield by any weapon.

In fact, well, I’m getting ahead. We’re going to see that—we may get to that verse, we may not. Anyway, Shri Krishna is going to establish in a coming verse really vividly how atma is not subject to being affected in any way by the weapons employed on a battlefield.

So for all these reasons, Shri Krishna says to Arjuna: Yudhyasva—therefore, Arjuna, get up and fight.

Okay, we’ll continue.

This verse is a paraphrase of a very famous verse that occurs in the Katha Upanishad. There are several places in Chapters 2 and 3 where the Katha Upanishad is quoted by Shri Krishna. Remember, the Upanishad came first. Shri Krishna comes later in the story of the Mahabharata. So it’s Shri Krishna quoting the Upanishad, and not the other way around. In fact, the second half of this verse is an exact quote of the Upanishad. The next verse also is a paraphrase and partial quote of the Upanishad. We’ll see that in a minute.

Here, Shri Krishna is talking about the confusion Arjuna and other people have with regard to death and dying and battle killing.

So Shri Krishna says, yah, yaha—one who, by the way, it comes as yah in the Sanskrit. When you break the words apart, there’s a visarga which comes—yah, one who, vetti, considers, thinks, knows. One who thinks enam, this one—this one referring to whom? Well, this one referring to the dehin, to the sharirin, to atma. So this indwelling conscious being is what’s being referred to. Enam, this one, is a hantaram—is a killer.

So yah vetti, one person considers that atma is a killer. Atma doesn’t do anything. Consciousness doesn’t do anything. Your body is engaged in action and your sukshma sharira enlivens your physical body to be engaged in action. Your sukshma sharira also includes prana and a life force that includes karmendriyas, organs of action. So absolutely, your physical body and subtle body, your sukshma sharira and stula sharira are definitely involved in action. But not your true self—consciousness.

Consciousness illumines the activities of your mind, but it’s your mind engaged in action. It’s on your body engaged in action. So here, Shri Krishna says, yah vetti, one person considers enam hantaram—this indwelling conscious being is a hantaram, a killer.

And another person, yah ca, and there’s another person who manyate, who considers, who thinks, enam—you have to break all those words apart—yah ca enam. So another person thinks enam, this indwelling conscious being, is hanyate, killed.

Look at the contrast here. One person thinks atma is a killer. A second person thinks that atma is killed. This is the contrast this verse sets up. And then Shri Krishna concludes, quoting the Upanishad:

Tau ubhau—both of them. Both the one who thinks atma is a killer and one who thinks atma is killed—tau ubhau, both of them, na vijanītah. Both of them don’t know. Neither one of them understands correctly.

What do they not understand correctly? That enam, this one—this one is what? That enam, sharirin, atma, true self, consciousness—enam, this conscious being that dwells within—na hanti, cannot kill, na hanyate, nor can it be killed.

In English we use the word transcendent. That which is beyond. That which is beyond the world. That which is beyond the mundane world is that which belongs to a different level of reality. We often refer to this indwelling self as the inner divinity.

By calling it inner divinity, we say that it doesn’t belong to the mundane world. It belongs to a higher reality, a divine reality. So that inner divinity, that atma, that conscious self which dwells within—na hanti, doesn’t kill; na hanyate, nor is it subject to being killed.

And then Shri Krishna continues to quote from the Katha Upanishad with this verse. This verse also changes to the longer meter. It changes from the shorter meter of eight syllables to the longer meter of eleven syllables.

So continuing to talk about that atma, the indwelling self. And Shri Krishna says, na jāyate—it was never born.

Your body has a worth date. Your sukshma sharira has existed from the beginning of time. And then it associates itself with your physical body at the time of birth. In that whole process, what did Atma do? Atma just continued to exist as all-pervasive consciousness.

There’s a little subtle. Let’s go back to the computer metaphor. Your computer hardware is very much engaged in the work of the computer. Electricity is running through the wires. The power supply is producing electricity. Inside each of the computer chips, certain devices called gates. The gates are turning on and off, ones and zero. So all of this is physically happening in your computer.

Similarly, the software is being executed. Now, executed in the sense of being killed, executed in the sense of it is taking place. The computer programs are instructions. Instructions for what the hardware should do. The program is instructions for the hardware.

Just as your mind gives instructions for what your body should do and should not do, what you should say, what you should not say, those instructions are issued by your mind. In the same way, the program in your computer contains instructions for what the computer hardware should do.

What does electricity do in your computer? Now, I don’t want to get into the physics of it because the electrons actually physically move in wires. But here, could we not say that the activity of the hardware and software takes place because of electricity? The electricity itself doesn’t do the work. Electricity makes the work possible. Electricity makes the work of the hardware and software possible. Electricity just is.

In the same way, consciousness just is. Consciousness makes the activity of your body and mind possible.

There’s a beautiful, beautiful metaphor that comes in a text called Panchadashi by Swami Vidyaranya. And the metaphor is, he says, consciousness is like the lamp on the stage in a theater. In ancient times, theaters were lit, not by giant electric lights. Theaters were lit by lamps. And he said, think about that lamp on the stage of a theater. Because of the presence of that lamp, all the actors are able to engage in their roles because of the light. But the light itself doesn’t do anything. The actors are performing their roles. They’re engaged in activity. But that lamp on the stage itself doesn’t do anything.

This is a very lofty perspective of understanding your true nature as consciousness. We just got done saying it’s transcendent, otherworldly, beyond the world. That which is in the world is engaged in activities. That which is transcendent, that which is divine, is beyond worldly activities. Consciousness.

That consciousness, na jayate, is not born. Na kadāchana—and at no time whatsoever, mriyate—will die. Unborn and undying.

Na ayam bhūtvā vā, that vā later in a second line. Or ayam bhūtvā, ayam, this atma, this true self. Bhūtvā—after having been born, na bhavitā bhūyaḥ—it is not that it will cease to exist in the future.

It has got double negatives here. It is not the case that atma, having been born, will cease to exist in the future.

That which is in the world functions according to time. That’s why our bodies age. Even our sukshma sharira—we, throughout our lives, we gain wisdom. We see changes, developments, not only in our physical bodies but subtle bodies as well. All subject to change—but not consciousness.

How old is consciousness? Consciousness existed before the birth of your physical body. Consciousness will exist unchanged after the death of your physical body. Consciousness is not something in the world subject to time and change.

Being transcendent, being beyond the world, being divine, it exists at a higher reality—not in time. Beyond time. Timeless. That’s a nice expression.

Therefore, na ayam bhūtvā, it is not the case that this atma, having been born, na bhavitā bhūyaḥ, will cease to be at any time in the future.

And more adjectives to help us understand. That which is divine, which is transcendent, is a lofty topic. So Shri Krishna gives lots of words to help us understand.

This consciousness is ajaha—it is unborn. It is nityaha. Now, we translate nityaha as eternal, but the better translation I just gave: timeless. Doesn’t exist in time.

It is shāśvata. Shāśvata is better translated as eternal, everlasting. It says, you’re fine.

And ayaṃ purāṇa—these all almost mean the same thing. Purāṇa means really old. Really old means not that it was born a long time ago. It was ajaha—it had no birth. Eternal, timeless. All of these words meaning that.

Therefore, na hanyate—it does not die. Consciousness, the true self.

And again, that consciousness is not an idea or concept. It’s the essence of who you are—the consciousness by which you know what’s happening right now. Your fundamental essential nature, na hanyate, does not get destroyed, hanyamāne śarīre—when the physical body gets destroyed.

So when Bhishma and Drona’s bodies die on a battlefield, what happens to consciousness? Timeless, transcendent. You get it.

Okay. Then. 

Yah in the second line. Yah enam, and then first line, veda. Yah veda, one who knows enam, this. This—this what? What are we talking about? This dehin, this śarīri, this indwelling conscious being, atma, your true self.

So yah enam veda, one—oh, thank you. There we go. One who knows that true self, the truth of who you are. One who knows it as being—first line—anaśinam, avināśinam, sorry.

One who knows it to be indestructible—nāśa or vinaśa means destruction. So avināśinam—that which is not subject to destruction. That consciousness which is nityam, as we said before—not eternal in the sense of that which exists for a long time. Eternal in the sense of timeless—that which doesn’t exist in the world of time, that which transcends the world of time.

Yah enam veda—the one who understands that consciousness to be ajam—in the second line—unborn. And avyayam—imperishable is fine. Changeless. That which undergoes no change whatsoever. That which doesn’t decay. That which is imperishable. Immutable is another word that’s often used.

So that consciousness—your body undergoes lots of change, as we know. And even sukshma sharira, as we discussed before, is constantly engaged in change and activity—not consciousness.

Just like that lamp shining on the stage in ancient times, it doesn’t do anything. Actions take place in the presence of that lamp.

Similarly, in a computer, the computer hardware and software function in the presence of electricity.

Similarly, your physical and subtle bodies—sthula and sukshma sharira—they function, they engage in action in the presence of consciousness.

That consciousness itself, however, is unchanging and not directly involved in those activities.

So that person who truly understands the nature of Atma—in the third line, Parata or Arjuna, sahapurushaḥ, that person—katam, how will that person think? Katam sahapurushaḥ, how will that person think, Arjuna? Kam ghātayati hanti kam.

If you really get it—that consciousness, Atma, satchidananda atma—is transcendent, divine, not of this world, not engaged in worldly activities, transcending worldly activities—if you get it, then kam ghātayati—whom does that Atma cause to kill?

It sounds a little complex here—it’s called, there’s a causal. Kam ghātayati—Atma causes someone to kill whom. Just to make it a little bit simple: Atma causes—how can Atma cause anyone to cause the death of someone? Atma is not.

Ghātayati is a causal verb; it means “to cause to kill.” And cause to kill—kam—whom? Whom can be killed?

So cause to kill in a thinking about on a battlefield. A general may not immediately be involved—especially in modern warfare, you know this very well—that the generals are not on a battlefield at all. In modern warfare, they’re far away from the battlefield, very safe, and using all kinds of electronics, they know what’s happening on the battlefield. But yet, those generals cause all the activities on the battlefield. We can say that those generals cause the death of soldiers.

And here, Sri Krishna says, “cause the death of whom?” That kam, kam ghātayati. Those generals cause the death of whom. Atma can’t die.

Hanti kam—or those who are physically engaged in battle—hanti kam—they kill whom? They are caused to die. I’m sorry, who is it that are caused to die? Who is it that is killed?

Atma can’t be caused to die. Atma can’t be killed. That’s Sri Krishna’s language here. It’s a little bit subtle, but making the same point again and again. And the point is that your true self, satchidananda atma, is not part of this worldly reality.

Everything in this worldly reality is subject to change, subject to birth, subject to destruction. Atma is a transcendent reality—more real than anything in the world. More real in the sense that clay is more real than the pot. This is a very fundamental Vedantic teaching.

The clay is more real than the pot. In what sense? Our definition of reality: that which doesn’t come and go. The pot can come and go. Clay doesn’t come and go. Clay is more real.

In the same way, body and mind come and go. Atma—consciousness—doesn’t come and go. That Atma is more real.

We’ll see this very famous verse, often quoted. Good. Most of you have heard this.

Yathā—in the first line and then second line—yathā nāraḥ. Yathā—just as—nāraḥ, nāraḥ, nāraḥ—it comes with the undeclined form. The broken form is nara—person.

Yathā naraḥ—just as a person—vihāya—getting rid of, casting off—vāsānsi—vāsaḥ is clothes. Here’s plural: vāsānsi, clothing.

Why would you get rid of clothes? Jīrṇāni—they’re old clothes.

Just like a person gets rid of old clothes and in the second line gṛhṇāti—grasps, grabs, takes on—aparāṇi—other clothes.

Why would you take on other clothes? Clothes that are navāni—new.

Just as a person casts off old clothes and takes on new clothes, tathā—in the same way—a person vihāya—casting off—śarīrāṇi—bodies, plural because we’re talking about life after life. Many bodies—you’ve had an infinite number of prior lives. All of those prior bodies have been discarded.

Why were they discarded? Jīrṇāni—because they were old.

So a person casts off old bodies and saṃyāti—acquires, takes on, gets connected to—anyāni—other bodies, which are navāni—which are new.

And who does that? Look at the last word: dehī—dehī meaning that indwelling conscious being, the true self, Atma.

So, the whole verse: just as a person casts off old clothes and takes on new clothes, in the same way a person casts off old bodies, takes on new bodies—referring to the consciousness.

The consciousness that dwelt inside the old bodies is identical to the consciousness that dwells inside the new bodies. When you replace your old computer and plug it in, the electricity doesn’t change. The computer changes. The electricity is the same.

In the same way, at the time of death, a body dies. That body is burnt. The sukshma sharira—subtle body—detaches itself from the physical body, travels on according to the laws of karma, and acquires a new body.

So the first thing I want to do is to talk about the doctrine of karma.

When I’ve taught this Bhagavad Gita in past years, I’ve often taken this opportunity to thoroughly describe the doctrine of karma—to teach the doctrine of karma and reincarnation in detail. It actually takes two or three classes.

What I’d like to do here is—we can avoid interrupting our study of the Bhagavad Gita by giving you the opportunity to watch a series of three videos on the doctrine of karma. We can reduce the series to three videos.

If you have any doubts or lack of clarity about how karma works—about how karma causes the sukshma sharira to maintain its integrity at death, travel on and acquire a new body—if you have any doubts about that, that’s all part of the doctrine of karma.

Very thoroughly explained in that series of three videos I’ve produced. So, instead of discussing it here, why don’t you watch those three videos and then we can continue here without breaking our continuity?

So the context, of course, is all of this is being told to Arjuna to help him cope with death—the death of Bhishma, Drona, and his loved ones. Death being, as we said before, perhaps the biggest challenge we face in life.

So this teaching about incarnation is meant to help Arjuna deal with death. And it’s meant to help all of us deal with death. Death is not an end. As many people have observed, death is a transition from one life to whatever comes next.

We’ll conclude here.

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 Shanti. Om Tat Sat