Chapter II (VERSE 27) & CHAPTER VI (VERSE 40)
Sankhya Yoga – The Yoga of Knowledge
CHAPTER II
(Verse 27)
जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च ।
तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २-२७॥
Indeed, certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead; therefore, over the inevitable, you should not grieve.
That which is born must die and after death things are born again. Here, Krishna continues to view the whole situation from the materialist angle. The materialists take life to be a constant flood of appearances of forms, arising from nowhere, and disappearing into nowhere. The theists believe that the embodiments are taken up by the individual-ego in order that it may eke out its experiences and learn to grow in its understanding of life and ultimately realise the Truth behind it all. Thus, this is a common meeting point of both the theists and the atheists; that both of them believe life to be a continuous chain of birth and death.
Thus, if life, be, in its very nature, a stream of births and deaths, against this inevitable arrangement, no intelligent man should moan. Standing out in the blazing summer sun, one must, indeed, be stupid to complain against its heat and glare. Similarly, having come to life, to complain against the very nature of life is, indeed, an inexcusable stupidity.
On this score also, to weep is to admit one’s own ignorance. Krishna’s life, is, on the whole, a message of cheer and joy. His doctrine of life is an insistence upon, “to weep is folly and to smile is wisdom.” “Keep smiling” seems to be Krishna’s philosophy put in two words, and that is why, seeing his dear friend weeping in life, the Lord gets whipped up, as it were, to an enthusiasm to save Arjuna from his delusions, and bring him back to the true purpose of life.
Dhyana Yoga – The Yoga of Meditation
CHAPTER VI
(Verse 40)
पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते ।
न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद् दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति ॥ ६-४०॥
The Blessed Lord said: 40. O Partha, neither in this world, nor in the next world is there destruction for him; none, verily, who strives to be good, O My son, ever comes to grief.
At the very opening of this section, Krishna assures, with all emphasis at his command, that “NEITHER HERE NOR IN THE HEREAFTER, IS THERE ANY DESTRUCTION FOR HIM, WHO PERFORMS RIGHT ACTION.” This statement is not a mere emotional assurance built upon some blind faith, or a Godly declaration that is to be swallowed down by the faithful, because of its being sacred words that have come out of the lips of a Prophet. The Hindus do not accept any divine prerogative, even for their gods, by which they can by-pass the individual intellect and the rules of logic. Religion is a “SCIENCE OF LIFE” and it must completely explain the WHY and the WHEREFORE of its practices.
Obedient to this incomparable trait in our culture, Krishna supports his statement with the philosophical truth: “NEVER FOR THE DOER OF GOOD, DEAR SON, A WOEFUL END.” One who acts rightly in the present, can come to no grief in the future, because the future is but a product of the past and the present.
The fear of Arjuna that the unsuccessful Yogin — a seeker obstructed and held up on the path — will get lost “AS A RENT CLOUD,” here and in the hereafter, has risen from his failure to appreciate the logical continuity and the perfect sequence that is ever found in life. To consider that death is the end of an existence which started with the accident of birth, is a philosophy too rudimentary to be considered complete and exhaustive. In fact, it is only with a stretch of imagination that we can consider such a theory as a philosophy.
Daring intellects, bravely pushing ahead in the quest to understand and comprehend the laws of life and the meaning and purpose of the Universe, cannot but accept that the existence of an individual in its present embodiment is but a single pearl in the necklace of Infinite Beauty adorning the bosom of Truth. The present is the product of the past, and thought by thought, action by action, knowledge by knowledge, we are creating for ourselves in the present the blue-print of our future. Therefore, the Hindus believe in previous lives as well as in future births for all embodied souls; this is otherwise called the theory of re-incarnation.
Based upon this principle, Krishna insists that no seeker is ever lost, although he may slip and fall, or even end his present manifestation; tomorrow is but today modified, but directly continued.
In addressing Arjuna as “O MY SON,” Krishna has here not only followed the traditional practice of the Upanishads, but there is also a deeper significance. However deceitful, cunning and cruel a brute one might be to everyone else in the world, one cannot ever come to advise a false philosophy to his own son. With fatherly love, the Man-of-Wisdom in Krishna is assuring Arjuna that one who is striving in the direction of evolution shall never come to suffer any REAL fall. On the ladder of cultural growth, each step that is placed forward is an ascent towards the Absolute Perfection.