Om Namo
Bhagavathe Vaasudevaayaa!
“Aatman is beyond Size, Place and Time”
Chapter 2; Sankhya Yoga
Krishna explains the difference between the
Soul or Aatman which is eternal and the Body which is destructible. He further
says;
“Just as how a person discards old
and torn clothes and gets into new clothes, the Aatman discards a worn-out body
and gets into a new physical body” (2/22)
This statement needs closer understanding. In
real life, we see evolution in Nature and take it in our stride. We see trees
shedding leaves in Fall and sprout new leaves in another season. We look at
them with optimism that the new leaves will sprout soon. Similarly, when our
clothes are worn out, we throw them out and get in new clothes without any
sense of regret. So, Krishna implies that, death is nothing but discarding of a
worn-out body and getting into a new one and therefore it’s not a thing to
lament about.
Here many would get a doubt that, in real life,
it’s not necessary that one dies at a ripe old age. People die quite young and we
see children and even infants dying. Then how could we accept the statement
that death is about discarding worn-out bodies? Here we need to understand the
theory of Karma which dictates that a person comes into life bringing his
‘Prarabdha Karma’ or Karma for this life. Basically, this is the quantity of
past karma that has been given for a person to experience and expend in this
birth. People live till their ‘Prarabdha Karma’ lasts. It can be for 100 years
or 100 days or for even for 1 day. So, we need to understand Krishna’s
statement in the light of this. It should be understood that death occurs when
the person’s ‘Prarabdha Karma’ is worn-out or expended and Soul or Aatman discards
this body and goes for another.
Explaining further, Krishna says, the Aatman is
not affected by the forces of the Five Elements or by any weapons.
“Weapons cannot destroy Aatman; Fire
cannot burn it; Water can not wet it; Air cannot dry it out” (2/23)
This is a very important statement describing
the nature of Aatman. Any being has 3 main components – Body, Consciousness and
Aatman. Body is the physical aspect, consciousness is subtler and Aatman is
even subtler. The physical elements or weapons can only hurt the physical body
and not the subtler elements.
Krishna further reiterates;
“Aatman cannot be cut by weapons,
cannot be burnt; cannot be dampened; cannot be dried up. It is Eternal, Omnipresent,
Stable, Unaffected and Ancient”
In the physical world, everyone and everything
is bound by Size, Place and Time. Nothing on Earth is beyond these three dimensions
of measurement. For example, a person has a specific size or physical dimension
and stays at a specific place (he can’t be at two places at the same time) and
lives in a particular time period. The size and the time period may vary for
persons and things. But finally, everything falls within the ambit of these 3
dimensions.
Now let us look at Aatman. It is subtler and has
no size; It is Omnipresent as it is present in everything on Earth. When it is
everywhere, it has no place limitations and is said to be stable. As we have
seen earlier, it’s not affected by anything including the 5 Elements of Nature.
So, it is said it is unaffected. It has no birth or death so it is said to be
ancient and is therefore beyond Time. Time consumes every physical entity on
Earth. But Aatman is not bound by time.
By saying the foregoing, Krishna assures us
that Aatman which is the actual ‘I’ as different from the body, is eternal and
indestructible. So, there is no reason for human sorrow and fear of death.
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