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Chapter 2
Appendix:-There is one division of the body (Sarira) while another division is of the self (Sariri'). Both have no relationship at all with each other. Both are quite different in nature. One is insentient while the other is sentient. One is perishable while the other is imperishable. One is mutable while the other is immutable. One is kaleidoscopic while the other remains the same for time immemorial—`bhutagramah sa evayarh' (Gita 8/19), 'Sarge'pi nopajayante pralaye na vyathanti ca' (Gita 14/2).
The body and the self—both are not to be grieved. The body ever perishes, therefore it is not to be grieved, while the self never perishes, therefore it is also not to be grieved. One is grieved only because of one's own folly. The body is continuously separating automatically while the self is ever attained to all. The wise men who know this distinction between the body and the self, never grieve for any being whether dead or alive. In their view the division of the changing body is different from that of the never changing self i.e., the ever existent entity.
The gospel of the Gita begins with the discrimination between the body and the self. Other philosophical classics describe the self and the 'non-self' in an objective manner and it becomes a matter of study but the and instead of describing the self and non-self objectively, describes 'deha-dehi', 'Sarira-sariri' (body and its owner) on the basis of the personal experience of all persons. This is uniqueness of the Gita. The striver who wants to attain salvation first of all must know 'Who I am'. Arjuna has also asked Lord Krsna to tell him the highest good for him (Gita 2/7). Salvation can only be attained by discriminating the self from the body. So long as 'a man holds 'I am body', he may listen to gospels, may preach gospels to others, may practise spiritual discipline but salvation is not possible.
It is a blunder to accept (assume) a thing, which is not one's own, as one's own and to disown a thing which is one's own. Only the thing, which may ever live with us and with which we may ever live can be our own. The body in the same state doesn't stay with as even for a moment while God ever lives with as. The reason is that the body belongs to the class of the world, while the self belongs to the class of God. Therefore it is the greatest blunder to assume the body as one's own and not to assume God as one's own. In order to rectify this blunder, the Lord in the Gita first of all describes the discrimination between the body and the self and awakens the striver to the fact, "You (self) are not the entity which dies viz., you are not the body. You are the knower while the body is 'the known' (the Gita 13/1). You are eternal and pervade everywhere 'nityah sarvagatah' (Gita 2/24), 'yena sarvamidam tatam' (Gita 2/17) while the body is unipresent. You are a resident of the divine world while the body is a resident of the matter (mortal) world. You are a fragment of God—'mamaivaririo jivaloke' (Gita 15/7) while the body is a fragment of 'Prakrti' (Nature)—'manah sasthanindriyani prakrtisthani' (Gita 15/7). You ever live in immortality while the body ever lives in mortality. By the decay and death of the body you don't decay and die in the least. Therefore, you shouldn't be obsessed by grief, worry and fear etc.
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