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Chapter 2
Link:- Upto the previous verse, there is description of seers who know the soul, as imperishable. In the next verse, Lord Krsna to emphasize the same fact, speaks of those, who do not regard the soul as indestructible, by a negative inference.
ya mam vetti hantaram yascainam manyate hatam
ubhau tau na vijanito nayam hanti na hanyate
Both of them are ignorant, one who holds the soul as, the slayer and the other who considers it, as slain; for the soul, neither
slays, nor is slain.19
Comment:-
Ya enam vetti hantaram:-One who considers the soul as slayer is ignorant because the soul does not act. But by identifying with the body, it accepts itself as a doer. As an artisan, however clever he may be, cannot work without tools, similarly, the soul without body cannot do anything. Therefore, the Lord, in the thirteenth chapter, declares, that he who sees that all actions are performed by prakrti (nature) alone, realizes the self, as non-doer (13/29). It means, that the self is not a doer. But, by identifying Itself with body it assumes Itself to be the doer of actions, performed by the body. If a man, does not identify himself with the body, he is not at all, a doer, of any activity.
Yascainarh manyate hatam:-One who holds the soul as slain, is also ignorant. As the soul is never the slayer, so it is never killed, because the soul, always remains unaffected and unchanged. Only the perishable and changeable, can be slain. How could the imperishable and unchangeable, be slain?
Ubhau tau na vijanito nayam hanti na hanyate:-Both of these, who holds the soul as slayer, and he, who considers it as slain, are ignorant. A question arises, whether he, who holds the soul as slayer, as well as slain, is not ignorant. The answer is, that he is also ignorant, because the soul is neither a destroyer, nor can it be destroyed. It is always the same, without any change. Therefore, one should not grieve.
The soul, has been described, neither as a slayer nor as slain, because it was in me context of war, before Arjuna. But, actually the soul, is free from all acitons and modifications.
Appendix:-This Sariri (the possessor of the body) neither slays anyone nor is slain by anyone—it means that it is neither a doer of an action nor is an object of action nor is affected in anyway. Those, who, like the body, hold the Sariri as the slayer and as the slain, indeed don't attach importance to the discrimination between the body and the self but attach importance to indiscrimination.
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