Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta Shlok Blog -73
Shlok-26
अथ चैनं नित्यजातं नित्यं वा मन्यसे मृतम् । तथापि त्वं महाबाहो नैवं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ 2-26 ||
English Transcription
Atha Chainam Nityajaatam Nityam Wa Manyase Mritam | Tathaapi Twam Mahaabaaho Naivam Shochitumarhasi || 2-26 ||
Hindi Translation
Hey mahabaaho, agar tum is dehi ko nitya paida hone wala, athwa nitya marne wala na bhi maano, to bhi tumhe is prakaar ka shok nahin karna chahiye.
English Translation
Or even if you don’t think of him as constantly born or constantly dying, even then, O mighty-armed fighter men, you should not grieve.
Meaning
In the previous Shlok, we saw how Shri Krishna finally concluded the debate of the body vs soul and told how useless it is to cry over the body that is destined to die and the soul that is never destined to die. So if you cry for what is gone, it is anyway gone and it will never be back, do whatever. What is not gone and will never go is nothing to cry for because there is nothing that is lost and nothing will be lost ever again anywhere.
In this Shlok, Shri Krishna moves on from the difference between body and soul and moves to the main motive of controlling emotions so that actions do not suffer.
Shri Krishna stresses the fact that even if the talks of ethics and duties are true and hold any value the body will keep getting birth and keep seeing death and the body, the soul, will not be born and not be dead and will be there forever, then too, if Arjun wants to ignore all this deep knowledge and go with the superficial and opposite of this due to lack of proofs and facts and simple logic, then too, if he believes that death is the end and everything is lost afterward, still there is no need to grieve and be sad about it because whatever has been born will have to die and whatever has been dead was sometimes born and will be born again sometime in the future. There is nothing that can act as a shortcut here and there is nothing that can stop this or be a hindrance.
If you sow a seed into the soil, then it grows to become a sapling and then a tree. If we look at this from a micro perspective, then this seed is changing forms multiple times, so much so that this seed is changing from what it was to something that it could never have imagined to be. A small tiny seed makes a big, huge tree. But now imagine, this same tree will give a fruit or a root or a seed and will give a way to plant another tree of the same type. This tree, which grew from a seed, gives back multiple seeds and brings to life multiple new avenues for the plant kingdom.
Similarly, when the human body is alive, it gives birth to new bodies and gives space to new souls to adjust. Then, these old bodies die but they aren’t actually dead, they retire, they free the soul, and then take the space in another new body that the live body will be producing. This is how everyone is getting something and then giving back something else.
So technically, the seed is dying in totality as it needs to open up and give away its form for the sapling to be there and the sapling has to let go of its form for the tree to be there. In the same way, the human body dies for the new bodies to be there and the soul to go into them and perform its tenure and its goal while after serving its purposes, it needs to become that sol which will give nutrition to the trees to make valuable things, enough to make a person fit and healthy to produce more people.
Conclusion
Shri Krishna was tired of telling the same thing again and again to Arjun and thus now he just wanted to retort to the basic understanding of the fact that even if he didn’t want to buy the body and soul theory due to his personal grief attached to it, he can buy the fact of birth, death and rebirth and the need to maintain enough people as per resources, so that there are not too many who do not have enough to survive, let alone reach a goal or not too less so that there aren’t enough to complete a goal despite the resources being exactly there. This is a little complex to think about but can be simplified if the people go for the best logic they feel they can fit in a situation and the story keeps building upon that, itself.
That’s all for Shlok-26, Chapter 2 of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta. We’ll connect with you again with Shlok-27, Chapter 2. Till then stay happy and enjoy.!!
