Bhagawad Gita Chapter 2: Verses 11 to 15 by Adi Shankaracharya

March 13, 2000

Adi Shankara's Commentary translated by Warrier

The blessed Lord said:

11. You grieve for those who call for no grief; at the same time, you utter

words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living.

11.1 Not meriting grief (asocyan) are Bhisma, Drona, etc; for, their

conduct is virtuous. from the point of view of transcendental Truth, they are

eternal. For them, who call for no grief, you have grieved, thinking, "They

will die on account of me; what shall I, deprived of them, do with the

happiness that the possession of kingdom etc., will bring me?" And at the same

time, you utter words befitting the wise-those who have wisdom (prajna) or

intellect. Thsu at once combining an air of wisdom with misplaced grief, you

display in yourself, like one demented, confusion and wisdom that are mutually

contradictory. This is the idea of the Lord. For, both for those whose vital

airs have departed (the dead), and for those whose vital airs have not (the

living), the knowers of the Self (atmajnah), do not grieve. Panda is the

Knoweldge of the Self. Those who have it are panditah. Vide the sruti:

"Securing the status of Self-knowers" (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 3.5.1).

Transcendentally speaking, you grieve for those who are eternal, and, as such,

do not call for grief. Therefore you are demented. This is the Lord's idea.

12.0 Why do they not call for grief? Because they are eternal. How?

12. Never at any time, have I been not; neither are you nor these rulers of

men. And never shall we all cease to be.

12.1 Never, at any time, was I not; on the contrary, I certainly ever was.

Though My bodies originated and perished in the past, in them all, like space

in pots and thelike, I remained an eternal entity. This is the idea.

Similarly, you were not non-existent; on the contrary, surely, you too

existed. So also these rulers of men were not non-existent; they too existed,

to be sure. So, too, we all shall not cease to exist, but continue to be in

the future as well, after the disintegration of the body. The idea is that in

all the three divisions of time we are eteranl as identical with the Self.

the plural number in verse 12 refers to differences in respect of bodies; it

does not refer to a plurality of Selves.

13.0 In what manner, is the Self eternal? An example is offered:

13. Just as the embodied Self has, in the body, childhood, youth, and old

age, so does it win another body. An intellignet man is not bewildered by it.

13.1 The embodied Self, dehi, is what owns a body. For the embodied Self,

in the present body, there are childhood, the condition of a child, or the

early stage of life; youth, the condition of a yong man, the middle stage; and

old age or decline due age, the stage of disintegration. These three stages

are different among themselves. When the first among them ends, the Self does

not end. When the second comes into being, the Self is not born. On the

contrary, it is observed that to the one immutable Self, the second and the

thrid stages accrue. Just as in the example cited, so the undoubtedly

immaterial Self wins another body, different from the present one. This is

the sense. An intelligent perosn, dhirah, is not bewildered in these

circumstances.

14.0 Though for one who knows the Self to be eternal, it is impossible to

bewildered by the notion that the Self perishes, still bewildrement due to

heat and cold, pain and pleasure, is commonly noticed. So too is bewilderment

noticed due to separation from the joys of life and grief arising from contact

with pain. The Lord anticipates that Arjuan may raise this question and says:

14. O son of Kunti! Contacts of senses with their objects cause heat and

cold, pain and pleasure. These come and go-they are fleeting, O Bharata

Prince! Endure them.

14.1 Matras are the senses like the ears etc., by which are measured, i.e.

determined, objects like sounds. Touches (sparsah) of these senses are their

contacts with objects like sounds. They generate cold and heat, pleasure and

pain. The root da in the text refers to the idea of giving rise to cold,

etc. Alternatively, what are 'touched' are the objects like sound and so

forth. The senses and their objects, matrah and sparsah, are the yielders of

cold and heat, pleasure and pain. Cold is sometimes pleasant, and sometimes

unpleasant. So heat, too, has no stable form of its own. Pleasure and pain,

on the contrary, never lose their identity. Hence they have been mentioned

apart from the former two. As these senses, objects, etc., by their very

nature, appear and disappear, they are impermanent. Therefore, endure these

objects, cold, heat, and so forth. The sense of the verse is: Feel neither

pleasure no rpain in respect of them.

15.0 O hero! The man whom these do not agitate, who is the same in pain and

pleasure, and who is wise, becomes fit indeed for immortality.

15.1 Wise, indeed, is the man to whom pleasure and pain are the same, who

is devoid of elation and dejection when pleasure and pain accrue. These do

not agitate him; he is not jolted out of the perception of the Self. Devoted

to the vision of the essence of the eternal Self, enduring all dualities, he

becomes fit for liberation, moksa, the state of immortality.

Cardo · November 22, 2011

in reference to 14.1

Sutrashtaka, the geomancer's eight tools of measurement. Scale, rope, cord, plumb line, tri-square, compass, level, and the eye. Of the eight instruments, the eye of the geomancer is divine: "the eye is the sun for the person's great dimensioned world (matrah) depends on the eye, for with the eye that he moves about amongst dimensioned objects.*

*Robert Hume, the thirteen principle upanishads, matri upanishad vi.6 p 427 reads:

[begin Hume quote]

worship of the world and the soul by the use of the original three world creating utterances

6. now in the beginning, verily, this world was unuttered, when he the soul, atman, who is the Real satya, who is prajapati lord of creation, had preformed austerity, he uttered bhur earth, bhuvas atmosphere, and svar sky.

this indeed is prajapati's coarsest form, this world form its head is the sky.. the atmosphere is the navel, the feet are the earth. the eye is the sun, for a person's great material world matra depends upon the eye, for with the eye he surveys material things. verily, the eye is the Real; for stationed in the eye a person moves about among all objects.

therefore one should reverence bhur earth, bhuvas atmosphere, and svar sky; for thereby prajapati, the Soul of all, the eye of all, becomes reverenced, as it were.

for thus has it been said: verily, this is the all supporting form of prajapati. this whole world is hidden in it, and it is hidden in the whole world. therefor this is what one should worship.

[end Hume quote]

My comment, question is... what do the last few sentences mean in reference to matrah. I'll quote them again: "this whole world is hidden in it, and it is hidden in the whole world. Therefor this is what one should worship."