Law of Karma series.. Understanding birth, death and rebirth - 2

December 14, 2011

In my previous post on the Law of Karma, I highlighted Śrī Kṛṣṇa's emphatic declaration on the fact that everyone has had many lives in Geeta 2-12 and 4-5. Now, we can look at how Śrī Kṛṣṇa evolves this topic.

At the end of chapter 1, Arjuna, the great Pāṇdava warrior is in a pitiable condition with a moral dilemma that can be summarized as: "I, Arjuna, am about to undertake a lot of killing which will result in untold suffering. The consequences for families and society will be endless. I, too, will incur sin in killing. Indeed, I will also incur the sin of causing the suffering of all those families who will lose their loved ones."

In Geeta 2-7, Arjuna is spent after his appeal to Śrī Kṛṣṇa "Oh Kṛṣṇa, I am confused, धर्मसम्मूढचेताः. I am your disciple. Help me understand, what is good for me."

Krishna breaks down Arjuna's problem to its fundamentals.
Question 1: Who is this "I" who undertakes all actions and suffers the consequence?
Question 2: What is action? What is the purpose of action? How do we deal with the consequences - sin, suffering, etc?

Śrī Kṛṣṇa's teaching in the Bhagavad Geeta is essentially an answer to these questions.

In 2-11, Śrī Kṛṣṇa starts by completely dismissing Arjuna's grief:
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे |
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ||२-११||
ashochyaananvashochastvaM praGYaavaadaa.nshcha bhaashhase .
gataasuunagataasuu.nshcha naanushochanti paNDitaaH .. 2-11..
You have grieved for those that should not be grieved for; yet, you speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.

In response to question 1, Śrī Kṛṣṇa breaks the "Who am I" question into two aspects. In the first place, "I" and the Self that is beyond change, was never born, never dies, neither kills nor can be killed. (Geeta 2-20). Very simply, Bhīshma, Droṇa and others as the Self will never be destroyed, in fact, Arjuna the warrior cannot kill the Self. Boom - no legs for Arjuna's grief to stand on.

Then what about my experience of suffering, grief, joy, heat, cold, etc? First, there is the matter-of-fact explanation in 2-14:
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः |
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ||२-१४||
maatraasparshaastu kaunteya shiitoshhNasukhaduHkhadaaH .
aagamaapaayino.anityaastaa.nstitikShasva bhaarata .. 2-14..
The contacts of senses with objects, O son of Kunti, cause heat and cold, pleasure and pain. (These experiences) have a beginning and an end; they are impermanent. Endure them bravely, O descendant of Bharata.

However, Śrī Kṛṣṇa is not finished. He takes two familiar experiences to posit the life view of the Vedic masters. Firstly, our transition through childhood, youth and old age:

देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा |
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ||२-१३||
dehino.asminyathaa dehe kaumaara.n yauvana.n jaraa .
tathaa dehaantarapraaptirdhiirastatra na muhyati .. 2-13..
Just as in this body the soul passes into childhood, youth and old age, so also does he pass into another body; the courageous man does not grieve at it.

Then Śrī Kṛṣṇa discussed our daily 'fashion moment' in 2-22:
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि |
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा-
न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ||२-२२||
vaasaa.nsi jiirNaani yathaa vihaaya
navaani gR^ihNaati naro.aparaaNi .
tathaa shariiraaNi vihaaya jiirNaani
anyaani sa.nyaati navaani dehii .. 2-22..
Just as a man casts off his worn out clothes and puts on new ones, so also the embodied-Self casts off its worn out bodies and enters others which are new.

Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji in his Holy Geeta draws out the logic for us:

Changing of our clothes that have become worn out, cannot be a pain to anyone of us, especially when it is for the purpose of putting on a new set of clothes. Similarly, when a mind-intellect-equipment finds that its embodiment in a given form can no longer help it to earn, from its available environments, experiences that would facilitate its evolutionary pilgrimage, it feels that this particular form is worn out (Jeerna). This "worn out" condition of a body is to be decided neither by its age nor by its biological condition. Nor can anybody other than its wearer, the ego, decide it.

Critics rise up in hosts, however, against the truth of this stanza and their main platform of arguments is built upon the observed facts of young people dying away in the bloom of their life. In the observers' opinion, the individual was young and his body was not worn out (Jeerna), but from the standpoint of the evolutionary necessity of the ego concerned, that body was already useless for it. A rich man feels like changing his house or vehicle almost every year, and he invariably finds ready purchasers. As far as the rich owner is concerned, the thing has become useless for him while for the purchaser it is "as good as new." Similarly, here nobody else can decide, whether a given body is worn out or not, except its "wearer."

In short, the stanza emphasizes the doctrine of reincarnation which we have already explained in an earlier stanza.

On the whole, it must have definitely conveyed to Arjuna the idea that death grins only at those who have no understanding, and that it has no pain for those who understand its implications and working. Just as changing the dress is no pain to the body, so too, when the dweller in the body leaves the envelopment there is no pain possible; again, undressing does not mean that thereafter we will ever live naked, so too, the embodied Self, ere long, discovers an appropriate equipment from which to function so as to earn for itself new sets of experiences. Evolution and change are all for the mind-and-intellect and not for the Self. The Self is perfect and changeless, and needs no evolution.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post