CH 2 V43 & Lesson 3 Part 1

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Verse 43

 

kaamaatmaanaH svargaparaa janmakarmaphalapradaam /

kriyaavisheshhabahulaaM bhogaishvaryagatiM prati //

Desire-ridden, and yearning for the goal of heaven, they utter words which lead

to birth and actions replete with specific rites that yield enjoyments and

lordship.

 

LESSONS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA – 3 Part I

As taught by Parama Pujya Sri Swamiji

Compiled by: Swami Dattananda

Bhakti Mala, March 1992

 

Man is made up mainly of two factors, body and himself (the Self). Among these

two factors, the body is changeful. The body of a child grows into that of a

boy, the boy becomes a youth and from youth, the body passes into old age.

Although the body of man is changing and getting old, yet he knows himself to

be the same man and not different from the man who was once a baby. That means

he knows that he has not changed along with the changes of his body. Therefore

the real man is this changeless factor, that is, the Self dwelling in the body.

 

When the body dies, the Self never dies. At the time of death of the body, the

Self dwelling in it migrates to another new body. A man of wisdom knows this

truth and so he is not deluded at death. “Just as the embodied Soul has in the

body childhood, youth and old age, so also does it attain another body. On this

account, a wise man is not deluded” (Chapter 2, Verse 12). The Self or the Atman

in its embodied state passes through the three stages of boyhood, youth, and old

age, and the fourth stage is the transmigration into another body, which we call

death in normal parlance. The first three stages are seen. But the fourth

stage, that of change of body, is not seen and so it is looked upon with shock

and fear. But the Lord explains that even this change of body is only an

ordinary event like any of the former three stages of childhood, youth and old

age.

 

In short, the Self (Atman) is not the body. He is the dweller in the body and

completely free from all changes pertaining to the body. The individual Self

that transmigrates from one body into another retains His individuality. In

fact, the Self only remains as a witness to the modifications of the body like

birth, childhood, youth, old age and death. A wise man knows this truth and is

not deluded over death.

 

“The Self is never born. It never dies either. Having been born, the Self

never ceases to be again. It is unborn, eternal, changeless, and ancient. It

is not killed when the body is killed” (Chapter 2, Verse 20). The body,

having been born, ceases to be again. Birth and death are the characteristics

of the body, and not of the Self, which is eternal and ever existing.

 

“Just as a man casting off worn-out clothes puts on new ones, so the dweller in

the body, casting off worn-out bodies, enters new ones” (Chapter 2, Verse 22).

In order to make the idea of the immortality of the Self more clear to us, the

Lord makes use of a beautiful simile in this verse. The body is just like a

garment worn by man and just as these garments are changed every now and then,

the Atman goes on changing the physical body, which is his garment. When a man

changes his worn out clothes and puts on new ones, he never changes. He remains

the same man. In the same way, the Self never changes when He changes His

bodies, which are like garments to Him. That means the Self survives the death

of the physical frame.

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