Verses 2.19–2.25🔗

Then Kṛṣṇa is slapped with shock by Arjuna—this is the right description I will give, Kṛṣṇa wakes up! The first thing that comes out soul. The idea taught to you about you is—you cannot be cut by weapons, you cannot be burnt by fire, you cannot be made wet by water, and you cannot be blown away by air. Nothing can do ‘nothing’ to you. Nothing can be done to you by anything. Understand, the moment Bhagavān is opening His mouth, you are given an amazing introduction about you! Kṛṣṇa is one of the greatest followers of Kapila, the celebrated Incarnation of Mahādev and Viṣṇu in Śrimad Bhāgavatam. Kapila is the first thinking man on the planet who experienced completion, the founding father of this great Sāṇkhya philosophy, the founder of Mahānirvaṇi Pīṭha.

That is why even when Bhagavān addresses His own glory later, when He introduces Himself, He says, ‘siddhānāṁ kapilo muniḥ (10.26)—Among the great perfect beings, the complete beings, I am Kapila.’ ‘I am Kapila among the siddhas, the great incarnations!’ Siddha means a complete being. This means that in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s time, Kapila was the star of the spiritual world. That is why He remembers Kapila. That is why I say that Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa is also the Mahāmandaleśvar (spiritual head) of Mahānirvaṇi Pīṭha. Śrī Kṛṣṇa also studied Sāṅkhya; He is a follower of Sāṅkhya philosophy. There is No Death in Reality Kṛṣṇa directly addresses some of Arjuna’s earlier doubts in these verses.

Arjuna has claimed that destroying his people, svajanam will bring him untold grief, not only in this world but in future births as well. Kṛṣṇa explains to Arjuna that all his fears are misplaced. There is no death in reality. What is seen as death is the destruction of the impermanent body. No one therefore can kill another person or be killed by another person. Both are illusions. The spirit that occupies the body lives on forever. It occupies the body temporarily, but by itself the Self is eternal, indestructible, and has no births and deaths. It is the body, the sheath that covers it, that dies and is reborn.

The spirit or the Self lives on forever. What Kṛṣṇa says here is radically different from what any other scripture has said. Kṛṣṇa denies the concept of death here. He says there is no such thing as death. He is not saying: be good, and you will be taken care of when you die and if you are bad, you will suffer. He says there is no death, that’s all. Here Kṛṣṇa is talking to someone who has witnessed death. So, He has to explain to him that death does not exist. It is the individual’s attachment to the body that creates the illusion that the individual also perishes with the body.

Attachment to the body is the most intense of all attachments. We also get attached to material possessions as well as our relationships. The potential loss of these leads to fears similar to that of losing one’s body. One who understands that all these attachments are temporary and are the cause of all our suffering, understands the truth. Understanding this truth removes all fears. In some cultures, people are bred on the pattern that one’s life ends at death. This pattern leads to desperate inadequate cognition, as if there is no further time to seek happiness. Once a person understands that death, like birth, is merely a passage, and sees the continuity of being, the fear of losing one’s identity disappears along with fears of sin and hell.

This is why religions that accept the continuance of life after death, as Hinduism and Buddhism do; breed a culture of tolerance amongst their followers. There is no rush to live and extract the maximum juice out of one’s life in a single birth. They propound that we all come from a common energy source and we go back to this source, and the cycle continues. Those who understand this spiritual truth teach completion, inclusion and compassion, and they have no desire to convert others to their beliefs. It is easy to misinterpret these verses and propose that if there is no one really killing or being killed, then what stops us from mindless killing?

Listen. That is not what Kṛṣṇa intends. One who truly understands that death is not the end of the path, but only a milestone in the journey, is not perturbed by death when it happens naturally or when it is caused for a purpose. Here Kṛṣṇa reveals to him a more subtle level of truth that he hasn’t yet grasped. Arjuna shies away from killing, not because of his conviction of ahimsā, non-violence, but because of his root thought pattern that he identifieswiththepeoplehehastodestroy.Hishesitationisfromhisdelusory incompletions, ignorance, attachment and fantasy, not from the wisdom of non-violent compassion. Kṛṣṇa’s message to Arjuna is as it would be to someone who has to uphold dharma at all costs.

However, it would not be a blind acceptance of orders, it would not be a powerless action driven by fear and greed. It would not be killing for gain and or killing out of fear that one would be killed. It would be an ultimate powerful action from the space of completion; born out of the knowledge that such destruction is needed for universal good and that such destruction would lead to creation. You may ask, ‘If nothing is destroyed and nothing can be destroyed, is there no sin in killing at all? So Kṛṣṇa is indifferent to mass violence? No, He is not. For one thing, Kṛṣṇa speaks as an enlightened Master from an existentialist perspective and declares that, even when the body perishes, the spirit lives on, and therefore, there is no death.

Completion with Violence Violence and killing are not merely physical acts. They are psychological compulsions acted out of incompletion in the physical realm. The ruler of a country who orders warfare against others is the violent one, even if he hides behind his throne. Violence of the mind carries on as the vāsana or desires; the essence of the spirit, that incarnates from birth to birth. That is the horror that does not end with death. The spirit is violated, degraded, and degenerated by this attitude of violence. A violent man is always a coward, an inauthentic person who does not have the courage to face the truth. He does not have the sensitivity to treat others as he expects to be treated.

He goes out-of-integrity, losing his power of words, isolating himself in a cocoon of lies, using the excuse of defending himself, and commits violence against others. When we become aware and conscious that the person next to us is actually an expression of the energy of God, how can we possibly respond with violence? It has nothing to do with whether someone is family, part of our culture, religion or nation; or part of our history, habits or beliefs. The other person may oppose all that we believe in. Yet he is as much a part of this Universe as we are. That is why Kṛṣṇa says, ‘O Pārtha, how can that man slay or cause others to be slain, who knows him to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, unchangeable?’ ya enaṁ vetti hantāraṁ yaś cainaṁ manyate hatam I ubhau tau na vijānīto nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate II 2.19 How can we?

How can violence develop in us when we recognize ourselves to be God, which automatically enables us to be aware that every other living being, animate and inanimate too is God’s image? If this message of Kṛṣṇa is truly understood, there can be no violence in this world, no self-hatred and no killing at all. You will not even kill an insect. You will not kill even in self-defense because once you are in completion, your space of completion is transmitted to the other being and that being will not even attack you. Understand what Kṛṣṇa says and you will never have fear, either for yourself or for others. You are imperishable, you are complete; everyone around you is imperishable, complete.

Shed your fear and violence and be complete. Let enriching others; let love for others fill your being. Please listen from the space of listening! One of the important secrets I want to share with you. Any root pattern you carry can be destroyed if you just have love for people. Decide to go on enriching everyone who is happening in your life. When you enrich others, be very clear, you are constantly getting enriched. Decide life is for others. Life is for enriching. Enriching is life! I tell you from my own experience, when I decided any wealth that comes around me is for others, the Cosmos showered me with wealth more than what I needed even for doing the work I am doing.

In the same way, my knowledge is for others. I am not going to keep anything secret to me. Because I decided that whatever knowledge I have is for others, Cosmos is going on showering! Listen to the definition of Enriching. Enriching is the power that unlocks the power of Living, ātma śakti in you. Enriching is you taking the responsibility with integrity and authenticity that you are continuously committed to enriching, which is expanding yourself and life in and around you. Listen! The purpose for which you are born is enriching yourself and others. When you operate out of this understanding, you are most alive, at your peak and living enlightenment!

When Ādī Śaṅkara decided to bless a poor lady, immediately the golden amalaki (gooseberry) showered. If it happens in your life, you will have a bag to collect everything and you will tell the lady, ‘You gave one amalaki. You take one amalaki!’ The old lady gave only one amalaki to Śankara. That is why Cosmos doesn’t shower when you ask. Just decide that life is for others! All the best things will be showered on you. You will get back to the space you were in when you were born— the purest space of life, the imperishable space! This is the jumpstart technique for enlightenment. Decide from this moment, ‘Life is for Others!

Life is for Enriching!’ All your insecurity, fear, anger, greed, all your root patterns will become rootless patterns. Kṛṣṇa is giving this jump-start technique of enlightenment to Arjuna so that he enriches himself and others and fights to destroy the very root of his root pattern of fear and violence . Do not Fear Death, You Are Imperishable Kṛṣṇa continues with Sāṅkhya, the knowledge of completion: Just as man casts off his worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, the Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters newer ones, anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī (2.22).Weapons do not cleave the Self, fire does not burn It, water does not moisten It, and wind does not dry It.

The Self can neither be broken, nor burnt, nor dissolved, nor dried up. It is eternal, all pervading, stable, immovable and ancient. nainaṁ chindanti saśtrāṇi nainaṁ dahāti pāvakaḥ I na cainaṁ kledayanty āpo na śoṣayati mārutaḥ II 2.23 These verses are amongst the most quoted verses of Bhagavad Gītā. Here, in very few words, Kṛṣṇa expounds upon the entire truth of life and death, mind, body and spirit. He clarifies why we should accept death gladly, as a matter of fact and course, instead of grieving over it. He says this so simply that even an innocent child can understand this truth. Do we grieve over a dirty shirt that we have cast away when we know we will have a new one?

Do we say, ‘Oh, I am so attached to this shirt. I cannot let it go. Let me keep wearing it. I shall be heartbroken if I have to take off this shirt?’ If only we understand that a body needs to be changed when it grows old, in just the same way as the shirt does when it is dirty, there would be no grief, no attachment. Kṛṣṇa goes on to explain further what that unchanging continuity is. What is the nature of that spirit? How is it that it is everlasting? Kṛṣṇa says, ‘O Arjuna, the Soul is not destroyed at all. No astra, no brahmāstra, no nuclear weapon can destroy the energy within the body.

Fire cannot burn It, water cannot wet It, and air cannot dry It. It is not made of the elements and cannot be destroyed by the elements. It is the energy behind the elements that creates the elements. How can It then die?’ ‘It cannot be disintegrated in any manner, by breaking, dissolving, burning or drying, acchedyo ’yam adāhyo ’yam akledyo ’soṣya eva ca. It is eternal. It transcends all the elemental powers. It pervades the Universe, nityaḥ sarva gataḥ sthānuṛ (2.24). It has been there always, sanātanaḥ. Therefore, It never can be destroyed.’ An understanding of the truth that Kṛṣṇa unveils here is the key to immortality. It is the key to liberation from the bondage of life and death.

It is the doorway to enlightenment. ‘Do not fear death, nānuśocitum arhasi (2.25).’ Kṛṣṇa says, ‘neither yours nor that of others. It is just a passage. It is the disappearance of this material body. However, you are beyond this material body. Even if the body perishes, you live on, so you do not have to worry or fear.’ What survives death is the sacred spirit in you that can never be destroyed. This spirit is not matter; it is pure energy. How can you destroy energy? Science states that energy can only appear in another form; it cannot be destroyed. As I said before, it is the energy behind the elements; it is that source which creates the elements.

It is the energy that has always been and will be, never created, never destroyed. It is unchanging, eternal and all pervading. The experience of every enlightened being verifies the truth that Kṛṣṇa is uttering. ‘When you are that spirit, that energy,’ asks Kṛṣṇa, ‘what is there to grieve about? When you are the Divine yourself, what can you fear? What more can you ask for?’ Listen. At the heart of all torture and killing is fear and greed. When we sincerely contemplate on these teachings, we complete with our fear and greed patterns, and we live peacefully in completion. From this space of completion, comes enriching. Enriching brings the space of Enlightenment in you.

The whole cosmos will simply be pouring its energy into you, through you, because you are sharing it with the whole Cosmos! It is when we are driven by our root patterns that we get fixed in obsessive beliefs and become intolerant of other beliefs, that we become afraid to lose our identity. That insecurity and fear of loss of identity is greater than the fear of death. So we respond violently. To avoid being killed, we kill. Once we understand what Kṛṣṇa says, that death is like changing a worn-out garment, our fears will disappear. Why do we need that garment at all? We will feel freer, fully liberated when we do not have that garment.

Going beyond the garment is going beyond the pattern of bodymind. It is going beyond the root of the root pattern, the cycle of life and death, saṁsāra. It is going to the ultimate liberation, in this life itself. It is the ultimate relaxation. Death Is But A Passage