Bhagavad Gita on death and life - Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha.

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Thursday, August 26, 2021.7:03. AM.
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न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ॥ १२ ॥

na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ

Krishna effectively imparts to Arjuna the understanding that death is but a transition, not an extinction. With this right perspective, Arjuna drops all considerations of death. He then starts enquiring about life itself, with all its undulations. Krishna’s answer to Arjuna’s enquiry is one that Swamiji has been exposing tirelessly for the past 65 years from innumerable platforms across the world. Before going into Krishna’s analysis, Swamiji challenges us with a question, “What is your life?” – something most have never thought about. Considering the amount of time and energy we spend studying and analyzing the subjects we require for our professional life, it is unthinkable that we spend no time at all probing and analyzing our life itself!

Swamiji then launches into Sri Krishna’s summary of the whole life with Slokam 2.14 –

आगमापायिन- ोऽनित्यास्- तांस्तितिक- ्षस्व भारत ॥ १४ ॥

āgamāpāyino’nityās-t- ṁs-titikṣasva bhārata

Therefore, we do not need to worry about their coming and going. We simply have to go on doing whatever we are doing, knowing that the inevitable impacts will come in the way of either a sukha or a duhkha.

āgamāpāyino ’nityās – these sukhas and dukhas are all transitory, they have no power to last at all. What need have we for anything that does not last? Therefore all we have to do is, tāṁs-titikṣasva – simply forebear them. Forebear them by evaluating them with an enlightened intelligence.

The question then naturally arises – HOW do we forebear these sukha-duhkhas? The answer is in verse 2.15 –

समदुःखसुख- ं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वा- य कल्पते ॥ १५ ॥

sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ so’mṛtatvāya kalpate

Ultimately, Swamiji says, this is the key that Krishna provides for our life – the whole world with its infinite variety bestow only sukha-duhkhas in our mind. When we are equanimous to them in our mind, we have won over the entire world.

End.

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