Lament not for the unlamentable:
Hare Srinivasa
Sri Krishna asks: "0 Arjuna, are you lamenting for the soul or for the body of your kinsmen? If it is for the soul, lament not because the soul is eternal and cannot be destroyed. You, I and all the kings in front of us were there in the past and will continue to be in the future. Hence grieve not for the soul which is indestructible.
If you are sorry for the bodies of your kinsmen and preceptors, which you are afraid might be destroyed, then also, grieve not because the body is in any case perishable. After death the soul passes from one body into another.
We demolish the old house and build a new one in its place. Do we grieve? We discard old clothes and put on new ones, do we lament? We step out of childhood and get into manhood, do we not rejoice in it? In the garden, old flowers wither and new ones blossom.
So also in life change is not only inevitable but also desirable. We do welcome such changes. Death is but one such change. Thus we should never fear death. Just as childhood, boyhood and manhood, are but transitions, so also is death a transition. Hence we should not fret over the death of the body."
Here a question may arise. What sort of new body would these persons get after this body has passed away? It may be a better body or worse. If it is going to be worse, we have reason to be sorry at the passing of the present body. If we leave one rented house and move into another which is worse, we shall certainly be sorry for leaving the old one.
Sri Krishna answers this point. As for Bhishma and Drona who are great souls and who have earned nothing but merit in this life, they are bound to go into a higher life. For them death is like a holy bath (avabhuutha) at the successful termination of a Yajna or sacrifice. Better life awaits them and you need not grieve for them.
It is only the wicked and sinful people who are afraid of death and if they get worse bodies in the next life they deserve such punishment and you need not be sorry for them. There are instances of good people who even if they had inadvertently committed sins, have atoned for them here itself and warded off its evil effects.
Hence good people are taken care of and wicked people deserve punishment and in both cases you need not grieve for death at all. If the bad are not punished and you pity them, the whole social system would be undermined.
Why should we believe in a soul as distinct from the body? Well, all evidence like perception, reasoning and scriptures point towards the existence of a soul as separate from the body. The body undergoes change from day to day as we pass from childhood to old age.
Our today’s body is not the same as yesterday’s. But we experience something within us which does not change. This some thing, changeless, within us we call Atman or the soul and this is what each one experiences, throughout his life.
How do we know that after death the soul passes from one body into another? We see among people talents and characteristics not found in their parents and near relatives. Where from did they get these? They must have acquired them in their past lives. When a child is born, its mind is not blank.
It carries the impressions of its past lives. It has its instincts and shows some likes and dislikes and propensities which can only be explained if we believe that the soul has passed through many lives before and that it carries the burden of its experience, both good and bad, from one life into another.
All living things are sentient and they have intelligence or instinct. Mere matter is insentient. Matter combined with Spirit or Soul constitutes life. This proves the existence of the soul as distinguished from the body. We see worms and insects forming in rice and other grains. We also see bacteria growing in unhygienic environments. How did life originate there?
Scientists say that some living cells in a sub microscopic form were already there and these only grew and multiplied. Organic life does not come out of inorganic matter. Only life can breed life. I have asked many scientists how the first living cell came into existence in this world. They say that the riddle of the origin of life has not yet been solved.
Evolutionists are of the opinion that a living cell in the most elementary state somehow formed out of inorganic matter under some favourable circumstance during the course of evolution lasting millions of years. If that is so why the phenomenon of life springing out of inorganic matter is not seen now even in a single instance? If it could happen once, there is no reason why it should not happen again.
Scientists have not so far succeeded in producing life out of inorganic matter in the laboratory. We have therefore to believe in the existence of the soul as separate and distinct from the body and which is responsible for life and which is eternal. Therefore one should not despair at the prospect of death. These ideas are contained in the verse,
dehino.asmin.h yathA dehe kaumAraM yauvanaM jarA |
tathA dehAntaraprAptirdhIrastatra na muhyati || II-13
" Just as the embodied experiences the infancy, the youth, and the old age of the body; so also the obtaining of another body, and in this matter the intelligent one is not deluded."
Note: for more info on this famous shlOka pls go thro this link..
Gita Saroddara
Sri Krishna asks: "0 Arjuna, are you lamenting for the soul or for the body of your kinsmen? If it is for the soul, lament not because the soul is eternal and cannot be destroyed. You, I and all the kings in front of us were there in the past and will continue to be in the future. Hence grieve not for the soul which is indestructible.
If you are sorry for the bodies of your kinsmen and preceptors, which you are afraid might be destroyed, then also, grieve not because the body is in any case perishable. After death the soul passes from one body into another.
We demolish the old house and build a new one in its place. Do we grieve? We discard old clothes and put on new ones, do we lament? We step out of childhood and get into manhood, do we not rejoice in it? In the garden, old flowers wither and new ones blossom.
So also in life change is not only inevitable but also desirable. We do welcome such changes. Death is but one such change. Thus we should never fear death. Just as childhood, boyhood and manhood, are but transitions, so also is death a transition. Hence we should not fret over the death of the body."
Here a question may arise. What sort of new body would these persons get after this body has passed away? It may be a better body or worse. If it is going to be worse, we have reason to be sorry at the passing of the present body. If we leave one rented house and move into another which is worse, we shall certainly be sorry for leaving the old one.
Sri Krishna answers this point. As for Bhishma and Drona who are great souls and who have earned nothing but merit in this life, they are bound to go into a higher life. For them death is like a holy bath (avabhuutha) at the successful termination of a Yajna or sacrifice. Better life awaits them and you need not grieve for them.
It is only the wicked and sinful people who are afraid of death and if they get worse bodies in the next life they deserve such punishment and you need not be sorry for them. There are instances of good people who even if they had inadvertently committed sins, have atoned for them here itself and warded off its evil effects.
Hence good people are taken care of and wicked people deserve punishment and in both cases you need not grieve for death at all. If the bad are not punished and you pity them, the whole social system would be undermined.
Why should we believe in a soul as distinct from the body? Well, all evidence like perception, reasoning and scriptures point towards the existence of a soul as separate from the body. The body undergoes change from day to day as we pass from childhood to old age.
Our today’s body is not the same as yesterday’s. But we experience something within us which does not change. This some thing, changeless, within us we call Atman or the soul and this is what each one experiences, throughout his life.
How do we know that after death the soul passes from one body into another? We see among people talents and characteristics not found in their parents and near relatives. Where from did they get these? They must have acquired them in their past lives. When a child is born, its mind is not blank.
It carries the impressions of its past lives. It has its instincts and shows some likes and dislikes and propensities which can only be explained if we believe that the soul has passed through many lives before and that it carries the burden of its experience, both good and bad, from one life into another.
All living things are sentient and they have intelligence or instinct. Mere matter is insentient. Matter combined with Spirit or Soul constitutes life. This proves the existence of the soul as distinguished from the body. We see worms and insects forming in rice and other grains. We also see bacteria growing in unhygienic environments. How did life originate there?
Scientists say that some living cells in a sub microscopic form were already there and these only grew and multiplied. Organic life does not come out of inorganic matter. Only life can breed life. I have asked many scientists how the first living cell came into existence in this world. They say that the riddle of the origin of life has not yet been solved.
Evolutionists are of the opinion that a living cell in the most elementary state somehow formed out of inorganic matter under some favourable circumstance during the course of evolution lasting millions of years. If that is so why the phenomenon of life springing out of inorganic matter is not seen now even in a single instance? If it could happen once, there is no reason why it should not happen again.
Scientists have not so far succeeded in producing life out of inorganic matter in the laboratory. We have therefore to believe in the existence of the soul as separate and distinct from the body and which is responsible for life and which is eternal. Therefore one should not despair at the prospect of death. These ideas are contained in the verse,
dehino.asmin.h yathA dehe kaumAraM yauvanaM jarA |
tathA dehAntaraprAptirdhIrastatra na muhyati || II-13
" Just as the embodied experiences the infancy, the youth, and the old age of the body; so also the obtaining of another body, and in this matter the intelligent one is not deluded."
Note: for more info on this famous shlOka pls go thro this link..
Gita Saroddara
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