13. With immaculate logic, Shree Krishna establishes the principle of transmigration of the soul from lifetime to lifetime. He explains that in one lifetime itself, we change bodies from childhood to youth to maturity and then to old age. In fact, modern science informs us that cells within the body undergo regeneration—old cells die away and new ones take their place. It is estimated that within seven years, practically all the cells of the body change. Further, the molecules within the cells change even more rapidly. With every breath we inhale, oxygen molecules are absorbed into our cells via the metabolic processes, and molecules that were heretofore locked within the cells are released as carbon dioxide. Scientists estimate that in one year's time, about ninety-eight percent of our bodily molecules change. And yet, despite the continual change of the body, we perceive that we are the same person. That is because we are not the material body, but the spiritual soul seated within.
In this verse, the word deha means "the body" and dehi means "possessor of the body," or the soul. Shree Krishna draws Arjun's attention to the fact that, since the body is constantly changing, in one lifetime itself, the soul passes through many bodies. Similarly, at the time of death, it passes into another body. Actually, what we term as "death" in worldly parlance is merely the soul discarding its old dysfunctional body, and what we call "birth" is the soul taking on a new body elsewhere. This is the principle of reincarnation.
{ Most Oriental philosophies accept this concept of reincarnation. It is an integral part of Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. In Buddhism, the Buddha made references to his past lives repeatedly. Many people do not know the extent to which reincarnation was a part of the belief system of the Occidental philosophies as well. In ancient classical Western religious and philosophic circles, famous thinkers such as Pythagoras, Plato, and Socrates accepted reincarnation to be true, and their views were also reflected in Orphism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Manicheanism, and Gnosticism. Within the mainstream Abrahamic faiths, mystics of the three major religions also supported reincarnation. Examples include Jews who studied the Kabbalah, the Christian Cathars, and Muslim Shia sects such as the Alawi Shias and the Druze. For example, amongst Occidental religions, Josephus, the great ancient Jewish historian, used language in his writings that seem to ascribe belief in some form of reincarnation among the Pharisees and Essenes of his day. Certainly the Jewish Kabbalah prescribes to the idea of reincarnation as gilgul neshamot, or the "rolling of the soul." The great Sufi mystic, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi declared:
I died out of the stone and I became a plant;
I died out of the plant and became an animal;
I died out of the animal and became a man.
Why then should I fear to die?
When did I grow less by dying?
I shall die out of man and shall become an angel!"
Many of the early Christians believed in the concept of reincarnation. Christian history informs us that, in the 553 AD, the Council of Nicaea, a conclave, was held to discuss the principle of reincarnation, and it was thereafter declared a heresy, apparently to increase the authority of the Church over the lives of the people. Until then, it was commonly accepted. Jesus indirectly proclaimed this doctrine when he told his disciples that John the Baptist was Elijah the Prophet reincarnated (Matthew 11:13-14, Matthew 17:10-13). This is also mentioned in the Old Testament (Malachi 4:5). Origen, the most learned of the Christian Fathers, declared: "Every man receives a body for himself according to his deserts in former lives ." Solomon's Book of Wisdom says: "To be born in sound body with sound limbs is a reward of the virtues of the past lives." (Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20)
Belief in reincarnation is also found in many tribal societies around the world, in places such as Siberia, West Africa, North America, and Australia. Moving to more recent centuries and civilizations, reincarnation has been affirmed by Rosicrucians, Spiritism, Theosophists, and New Age followers. Even more recently, it has even been studied in serious scientific circles at major universities, exemplified by the works of Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim Tucker, both at the University of Virginia.
Without accepting the concept of rebirth, it is difficult to make sense out of the suffering, chaos, and incompleteness of the world, and hence, many famous western thinkers believed in this principle. Virgil and Ovid regarded this doctrine as self-evident. The German philosophers Goethe, Fichte, Schelling, and Lessing accepted it. Amongst the more recent philosophers, Hume, Spencer, and Max Mueller, all recognized it as an incontrovertible doctrine. Among Western poets, Browing, Rosetti, Tennyson, and Wordsworth, to mention just a few, all believed in it. }
Shree Krishna has previously declared that the wise do not lament. But the fact remains that we do experience happiness and distress. What is the reason for it? He now explains this concept.
14. senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing—and these, in contact with their objects of perception, give rise to sensations of happiness and distress. None of these sensations is permanent. They come and go like the changing seasons. Although cool water provides pleasure in the summer, the same water gives distress in the winter. Thus, both the perceptions of happiness and distress experienced through the senses are transitory. If we permit ourselves to be affected by them, we will sway like a pendulum from side to side. A person of discrimination should practice to tolerate both the feelings of happiness and distress without being disturbed by them.
The technique of Vipassanā, which is the primary technique of self-realization in Buddhism, is based on this principle of tolerance of sense perceptions. Its practice helps eliminate desire, which, as stated in the four noble truths (the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path leading to the cessation), is the cause of all suffering. This is not surprising considering that Buddhist philosophy is a subset of the vast Vedic philosophy.
15. In the previous verse, Shree Krishna explained that both the sensations of happiness and distress are fleeting. He now encourages Arjun to rise above these dualities through discrimination. In order to develop this discrimination, we first need to understand the answers to two important questions: 1) Why do we aspire for happiness? 2) Why doesn't material happiness satisfy us?
The answer to the first question is very simple. God is an ocean of infinite bliss, and we souls are his tiny parts. This basically means that we are tiny fragments of an infinite ocean of bliss. Swami Vivekananda would address people by saying, "O ye children of immortal bliss." Just as a child is drawn to his or her mother, each part is naturally drawn toward its whole. Similarly, being infinitesimal parts of the ocean of bliss, we souls too are drawn to this bliss. Hence, everything we do in the world is for the sake of happiness. We all may have different views regarding where happiness lies or what form it might take, but all living beings seek nothing apart from it. This answers the first question.
Now, let's understand the answer to the second question. The soul, being a tiny part of God, is divine in nature like God himself. Hence the happiness that the soul seeks is also divine. Such happiness must possess the following three characteristics:
It must be infinite in extent.
It must be permanent.
It must be ever-fresh.
Such is the happiness of God, which is described as sat-chit-ānand, or eternal-sentient-ocean of bliss. However, the happiness we experience from the contact of the senses with their objects is the reverse; it is temporary, finite, and insentient. Thus, the material happiness that we perceive through the body can never satisfy the divine soul.
With this discrimination, we must practice to tolerate the perception of material happiness. Similarly, we must tolerate the sensation of material distress. (This second aspect is discussed in detail in many future verses.) Only then will we rise above these dualities and the material energy will no longer bind us.
16. All these Ved mantras state that these three entities—God, the individual soul, and Maya—are all eternal.
1. God is everlasting. Thus he is sat (eternally existing). Hence, a name for him in the Vedas is sat-chit-ānand (eternal-full of knowledge-ocean of bliss).
2. The soul is imperishable, and hence it is sat. However, the body will cease to exist one day, and hence it is asat (temporary). The soul is also sat-chit-ānand, but it is also aṇu (tiny). Hence the soul is aṇu sat, aṇu chit, and aṇu ānand.
3. The entity Maya from which the world has been made is eternal, or sat. However, all material objects we see around us came into existence and will be destroyed with time. Thus, they can all be termed as asat, or temporary. So while the world itself is asat, it is only the entity Maya that is sat.
When we say that the world is asat, this should not be confused with mithyā. Asat (temporary) does not mean mithyā (non-existent). Some philosophers claim that the world is mithyā, or "non-existent." They assert that it is only the ignorance within us that is making us perceive the world, and once we are situated in brahma-jñāna (knowledge of the Supreme) the world will cease to exist. However, if this were true, then the world should no longer have remained for the God-realized Saints. Since they had destroyed their ignorance, the world should have stopped existing for them. Why then did these Saints write books even after attaining the state of God-realization? Where did the paper and pen come from? The fact that brahma-jñānīs use the objects of the world proves that the world exists even for them. Besides, even brahma-jñānīs need food to nourish their bodies. The Vedic scriptures state: paśhvādibhiśhchāviśheṣhat "Even God-realized Saints feels hungry, just as animals do, and need to eat food." If the world does not exist for them, then how and why should they eat?
( so 'kāmayata bahu syāṁ prajāyeyeti sa tapo 'tapyata sa tapastaptvā idaṁsarvamasṛijata yadidaṁ kiṁ cha tatsṛiṣhtvā tadevānuprāviṣhat tadanupraviśhya sachcha tyachchābhavat niruktaṁ chāniruktaṁ cha nilayanaṁ chānilaynaṁ cha vijñānaṁ chāvijñānaṁ cha satyaṁ chānṛitam cha satyamabhavat yadidaṁ kiṁ cha tatsatyamityāchakṣhate tadapyeṣha śhloko bhavati )
This Vedic mantra states that God not only created the world, but also permeates every atom of it. If God is truly all-pervading in this world, then how can the world have no existence? To say that the world is mithyā is to contradict the fact that God pervades the world. In this verse, Shree Krishna explains that the world does exist, but it is fleeting. Thus, he calls it as asat, or "temporary." He does not call it mithyā, or "non-existent."