Shrimad Bhagavad 2.20,2.21,2.22

य एनं वेत्ति हन्तारं यश्चैनं मन्यते हतम्।

उभौ तौ न विजानीतो नायं हन्ति न हन्यते।।2.19।।

Whosoever views this to be the slayer and whosoever believes this to be the slain, both these do not understand: This does not slay, nor is this slain.

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न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि

न्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः।

अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो

न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे।।2.20।।

This is neither born; nor ever dies; nor, having not been at one time, will this come to be again. This is unborn, destruction-less, eternal and ancient and is not slain [even] when the body is slain.

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वेदाविनाशिनं नित्यं य एनमजमव्ययम्।

कथं स पुरुषः पार्थ कं घातयति हन्ति कम्।।2.21।।

Whosoever realizes this to be changeless, destruction-less, unborn and immutable, how can that person be slain; how can he either slay [any one]? O Partha!

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वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय

नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।

तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा

न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही।।2.22।।

Just as rejecting the tattered garments, a man takes other new ones, in the same way, rejecting the decayed bodies, the embodied (Self) rightly proceeds to other new ones.

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Here the lord goes on to reveal some primordial and vital veracious facts about life. He avers that the ‘atman’, the conscious that can never be destroyed, its power is ineffable, its existence irrefragable, its basis incontrovertible, its realm unfathomable. It stands as destruction-less, no force can clobber it, nothing can make its grandeur totter, nothing can transmute it and nothing can ever pervade its contours. Lord avers that the atman is insurmountable. Infernos are inefficacious in torching it, even death can’t slay it and apocalypses can’t annihilate it. It remains aloof from the bounds of our imagination for we can’t gauge its depth neither can we ever unravel its gravity. But one things remains constant: it changes from one form to another, one life to another. Just as the human beings change clothes so does the Atman change its dwelling and goes on to reside in some new abode. Moreover, Lord says that if nobody can kill it then why should we be despondent over other’s demise, if nothing can produce it why should be ecstatic over someone’s birth. For the Atman’s existence is far beyond the reach of human, why should we deem ourselves as the slayer or the producer of the same. Something that is neither bound by the space nor by the time and can’t be decimated and can never be begotten. One should accept the limits of mankind and should forsake the egoist notions that one is the architect of the soul. As long as we cling to these prejudiced notions, we will not be able to the limpid reality and will thus continue to fall in the cobwebs of our thoughts. Those who can’t see the lucid truth of the existence of Atman will never be able to feel one with their existence and thus their spirit will continue to wander in confusions and life would seem too arcane and recondite. Rather than fighting the supremacy of Atman, we should rather connect with it and the first step to connect with it is through acknowledging its eternity and existence.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI