 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Chapter 2. Contents of the Gita Summarized TEXT 1 sanjaya uvaca
SYNONYMS  sanjayah
uvaca--Sanjaya said; tam--unto Arjuna; tatha--thus; krpaya--by
compassion; avistam--overwhelmed; asru-purna--full of tears;
akula--depressed;
iksanam--eyes; visidantam--lamenting;
idam--this;
vakyam--words; uvaca--said; madhu-sudanah--the killer
of Madhu.
TRANSLATION Sanjaya said:
Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming
with tears, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words.
PURPORT Material compassion,
lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion
for the eternal soul is self-realization. The word "Madhusudana" is significant
in this verse. Lord Krsna killed the demon Madhu, and now Arjuna wanted
Krsna to kill the demon of misunderstanding that had overtaken him in the
discharge of his duty. No one knows where compassion should be applied.
Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is senseless. A man fallen in
the ocean of nescience cannot be saved simply by rescuing his outward dress--the
gross material body. One who does not know this and laments for the outward
dress is called a sudra, or one who laments unnecessarily. Arjuna
was a ksatriya, and this conduct was not expected from him. Lord
Krsna, however, can dissipate the lamentation of the ignorant man, and
for this purpose the Bhagavad-gita was sung by Him. This chapter
instructs us in self-realization by an analytical study of the material
body and the spirit soul, as explained by the supreme authority, Lord Sri
Krsna. This realization is made possible by working with the fruitive being
situated in the fixed conception of the real self.
|
