The Nectar of Gita…for you, me and all! Essay 20 - “Life is but a period of Illusion between Birth and Death”

Om Namo Bhagavathe Vaasudevaayaa!

“Life is but a period of Illusion between Birth and Death”

Chapter 2; Sankhya Yoga

Krishna after explaining that even if one considers Aatman as indestructible and eternal or on the contrary, considers Aatman as perishable which dies with the body, there is no need for one to grieve the dead. As in both cases the Aatman shall take birth again. He further assures Arjuna thus;

“Oh Arjuna, all beings are invisible before they are born; become visible when they are born into a form; and disappear or become invisible after they are dead. Why do you grieve for such beings?” (2/28)

This is a very loaded statement. This implies that, before being born one is invisible; becomes visible when one is born into a physical form; and disappears after death. So, one is visible only during a temporary period which is transitory. The whole creation follows this principle. This temporary phase of visibility is an illusion. Krishna questions the wisdom of Arjuna in lamenting for those who are just an illusion. 

This cosmic rule was well explained by Jagadguru Sri Adi Shankaracharya. He says, whatever was not there in the Beginning and whatever would not be there at the End and is only there in the interregnum, is nothing but an illusion. As a corollary, he says, the physical world which doesn’t exist before creation (Srusti) and after apocalypse (Maha Pralaya), but exists in between, is also a Cosmic Illusion (Maya).

To understand it even better, let us take the example of our dream experiences. The dream world does not exist when one is in a wakeful state and also does not exist when one is awake from sleep. It only exists in our sleep state and the whole dream world which gives us real like experiences, melts into oblivion when we wake up from sleep. We all know that the dream world is just an illusion and do not give much importance whatever good or bad happens there. One doesn’t generally lament about happenings in the dream. Krishna advises Arjuna not to grieve about such an illusion.

Krishna further explains how different people perceive Aatman in different ways thus;

“Someone may see Aatman as an ‘amazing’ thing; some other may talk about it as an ‘amazing’ thing; yet some other may listen to it as an ‘amazing’ thing. Even after seeing, telling and listening about it, the fact is, no one is able to understand Aatman properly” (2/29)

We can understand from the above that ‘Aatman’ is something which is not realized by seeing, talking or listening about it. It is something which can be understood by only contemplation, deep meditation, introspection and inward looking. It is realized only through intense ‘Saadhana’.

Krishna completes explaining about the nature of Aatman by concluding that even if the person is killed, the Aatman inside the person cannot be killed and therefore there is no need for Arjuna to grieve about the people who would die on the battlefield (2/30)

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