Gita Bhashya -Sankara 44

Shri Sankara's Gita Bhashya

(Sri Sankaracharya's Commentary on the Gita)

CHAPTER -2

Because the Self is thus eternal and immutable, therefore, do you fight, do not stop from fighting. Here, it is commanded (i.e. prescribed as rule) that fighting must be done. He (Arjuna) had entered the fight already, but has kept quiet, impeded by grief and delusion. Only the removal of the impediment to what had to be carried out is done by the Lord. Therefore the word 'fight' is a mere reference to what is already known ("anuvāda") and is no (new) commandment ("vidhi"). The Gītā-Śastra is for the removal of the cause of sctmsāra such as grief and delusion, and not for prompting (one) to action. To corroborate this view, the Lord quotes two Vedic verses (Kali. 18 &19). (and drives home the truth), "What you think: In the battle, Bhisma and others will be killed by me; I myself shall be slaying them—this idea of yours is a false one". How? Ya enam vetti hantāram yaicainam manyate hatatn Ubh.au tau na vijānīto nāyam hanti na hanyate 19. He who takes the Self to be the slayer, and he who takes it to be the slain, neither of these knows. It does not slay, nor is it slain. He who takes, understands, the Self, the embodied soul which is the subject under discussion, to be the slayer, the agent in the act of killing, and he, i.e. another, who takes it to be the slain, thinks 'I am slain', when the body is killed ; i.e. as the object of the act of killing, neither of these knows, i.e. has (not) understood the Self which is the object of the consciousness of I, through want of discrimination. The meaning is that those two, who think of the Self, I am the slayer' and I am slain', when the body is slain, are ignorant of the true nature of the Self. Because It is immutable. It, the Self, does not slay, become the agent of the act of killing nor is It slain, become the object (of that act).