Bhagavadgita -Radhakrishnan 88

The Bhagavadgita -S. Radhakrishnan

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CHAPTER 2
Samkhya Theory and Yoga Practice


25. avyakto 'yam acintyo yam
avikaryo 'yarn ucyate
tasmad evam viditvai 'nam
na 'nusocitunm arhasi

(25) He is said to be unrnanifest, unthinkable and unchanging. Therefore, knowing him as such, thou shouldst not grieve.
Right through it is the purusa of the Samkhya that is described here, not the Brahman of the Upanisads. The purusa is beyond the range of form or thought and the changes that affect mind, life and body do not touch him. Even when it is applied to the Supreme Self, which is one in all, it is the unthinkable (acintya) and immutable (avikdrya) Self that is meant. Arjuna's grief is misplaced as the self cannot be hurt or slain. Forms may change; things may come and go but that which remains behind them all is for ever.[1]'
We should not Grieve over what is Perishable
26. atha cai 'narh nityajatalh
nityarh va manyase mmrtam
tatha 'pi tvam mahãbãho
na 'am socitum aphasia
(26) Even if thou thinnest that the self is perpetually born and perpetually dies, even then, 0 Mighty-armed (Arjuna), thou should not grieve.
27. jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur
dhruvam Janma mrtasya ca
tasmad apariharye 'rthe
na tvam socitum arhasi

(27) For to the one that is born death is certain and certain is birth for the one that has died. Therefore for what is unavoidable, thou shouldst not grieve. Cp. "In this rotating world of becoming, what dead person does not come to life again.[2] The realization of this fact will induce in us poise and proportion.[3]

Our existence is brief and death is certain. Our human dignity requires us to accept pain and suffering for the sake of the right.
The inevitability of death, however, cannot justify murders, suicides or wars. We cannot desire deliberately the death of others, simply because all men are bound to die. It is so that all life ends in death, that all progress is perishable, that nothing is permanent in the temporal sense of the term. But in every perfect realization of life, the eternal becomes actualized and the development in time is only the means to this essential aim. What is subject entirely to the rule of change or time is not of intrinsic importance; the eternal plan is the central truth whether cosmic accidents permit its full realization on earth or not.


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References and Context

  1. ↑ When Crito asks, "In what way shall we bury you, Socrates ?" Socrates answers, "In any way you like, but first, you must catch me, the real me. Be of good cheer, my dear Crito, and say that you are burying my body only, and do with that whatever is usual and what you think best."
  2. ↑ parivartim samsare mrtah kJ va nay japyate. Hitopadesa.
  3. ↑ Gautama the Buddha consoled the mother who lost her only son while yet a child by asking her to go into the town and bring him "a little mustard seed from any house where no man hath yet died." She went and found that there was no family where death had not entered. She discovered that it is the law of all things that they will pass awayThe Buddhist nun Patacara is represented as consoling many bereaved mothers in the following wordsWeep not, for such is here the life of man Unasked he came, unbidden went he hence Lo I ask thyself again whence came thy son To bide on earth this little breathing space By one way come and by another gone... . So hither and so hence—why should ye weep ?Psalms of the Sisters.E.T. by Mrs Rhys Davids (1909), p. 78