The Nectar of Gita…for you, me and all! Essay 19 - “One who is born shall die; one who is dead shall be born again”

Om Namo Bhagavathe Vaasudevaayaa!

“One who is born shall die; one who is dead shall be born again”

Chapter 2; Sankhya Yoga

Krishna by establishing the nature of Aatman as eternal and indestructible, further explains the characteristics of Aatman thus;

“Aatman cannot be known by the sensory organs. He is beyond the thought process of mind or consciousness and it doesn’t undergo any evolution. Oh Arjuna, realise this truth and come out of your grief” (2/25)

In the real world, we can see any physical object or understand it by either sound, taste, touch or feel. But all these do not help in the understanding of Aatman. It is beyond even thinking as we cannot know it by the sensory experiences. Everything in the world undergoes age related changes. But, Aatman is ancient and does not undergo changes due to passage of time.

The statement lays emphasis on realizing the true nature of Soul through a process of self-realisation that would help one to come out of worldly sorrows. Experiencing the true Self or Aatman through intelligent discrimination between what is permanent and what is transient takes one beyond all worldly miseries.

Truly understanding the mental state of Arjuna which is representative of the thought process of any ordinary individual who cannot differentiate between the Soul and the Body, Krishna further says;

“Oh Arjuna, even if you think that Aatman is perishable and dies with the body and takes birth again into a new being, then also there is no need for you to grieve” (2/26)

Here Krishna is taking the role of the ‘devil’s advocate’ and is taking the argument into the camp of the detractors. A large number of people may think that, the Soul and the body are one and the same; and birth and death occur to the body and the soul at the same time. Even assuming it to be true, Krishna says that in such a situation also one does not need to grieve.

“Oh Arjuna, even if you assume that Aatman also is destructible and dies at the time of the death of the body and takes rebirth along with a new body, be known that anything born has to die and anything that dies shall be born again. Going by this cosmic rule also there is no need for you to lament” (2/27)

Here Krishna is talking from the state of a common man. For the one who has no knowledge of the true nature of Aatman, there is no differentiation between Soul and Body. For him both mean the same and undergo death or birth. Even if one believes in this hypothesis also, there is no need for one to grieve the dead as they shall be reborn again. Therefore, Krishna even covers that kind of thought process and comes out with a suitable response.

Here one should not misunderstand that Krishna has departed from his concept of Aatman. He is covering his doctrine discussing it from the opposite dimension also.