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Chapter 2
Now, a question arises, how a man who could not attain God throughout his life, attains Him at the time of death, when his body and intellect both grow weak. The answer is that man's union with Him is natural, only he has to realize this fact* and this can be realized, either by God's or saints' grace or by good influences of past actions.
The word 'api' (even) means, that during life if he attains a state of Godhood (Brahmi state) he becomes a liberated soul. But, even at the time of death if he becomes free from a sense of nsine and egoism, he attains Him immediately without any sort of practice, meditation and trance etc.
By using the terms 'Brahmanirvanam (Oneness with Brahma), Lord Krsna means to say, that the striver of the Discipline of Disinterested Action (Karmayoga), attains the same Brahma as striver of the Discipline of Knowledge (Jnanayoga) (Gita 5/24-26). The same fact has been pointed out, in the fifth verse of the fifth chapter when he declares, "The supreme state which is attained by a Sankhyayogi (the follower of the Discipline of Knowledge), is attained also by the Karmayogi (the follower of the Discipline of Disinterested Action).
Something Noteworthy
Man himself is sentient but he accepts his affinity for the insentient_ Therefore, instead of attaining salvation or God-realization, he goes to min. By using his discrimination he aims to attain God, while out of delusion he wants to have affinity to the Matter.
Delusion is born of egoism, -and a sense of mine or desire. To accept the body as 'I' or 'Mine' is, delusion born of egoism, a sense of mine, while the with to acquire or
preserve something, is the delusion born of desire. Arjuna like other worldly people, had delusion born of egoism and a sense of mine, as well as desire. In the sentence used in the first chapter—'We who are righteous persons clearly see the sin,' is an example of delusion, born of egoism; These kinsmen will be destroyed", is that of delusion born of the sense of mine and 'We should not fight otherwise, we shall incur sin and go to hell', is that born of desire.
To remove this delusion, Lord Krsna has talked about two kinds of discrimination—discrimination between the real and the unreal (2/11—30) and discrimination between discharging one's duty and abandoning it (2/31—53).
While discriminating between the body and the soul, Lord Krsna explained, that there was never a time when he or those kings were non-existent nor they would cease to exist in future. It is a fact that these bodies did not exist before, nor will they exist in future and in the interim also, they are changing every moment, as every born one passes through babyhood, youth and old age. He also explained, that as a man discarding worn-out clothes, takes new ones, likewise, the embodied soul, casting off worn-out bodies, enters into others, which are new. So he should not grieve.
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