 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Chapter 2. Contents of the Gita Summarized TEXT 18 antavanta ime deha
SYNONYMS  anta-vantah--perishable;
ime--all
these; dehah--material bodies; nityasya--eternal in existence;
uktah--it is so said; saririnah--the embodied soul; anasinah--never
to be destroyed; aprameyasya--immeasurable;
tasmat--therefore;
yudhyasva--fight; bharata--O descendant of Bharata.
TRANSLATION Only the
material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity
is subject to destruction; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata.
PURPORT The material
body is perishable by nature. It may perish immediately, or it may do so
after a hundred years. It is a question of time only. There is no chance
of maintaining it indefinitely. But the spirit soul is so minute that it
cannot even be seen by an enemy, to say nothing of being killed. As mentioned
in the previous verse, it is so small that no one can have any idea how
to measure its dimension. So from both viewpoints there is no cause of
lamentation because the living entity can neither be killed as he is, nor
can the material body, which cannot be saved for any length of time, be
permanently protected. The minute particle of the whole spirit acquires
this material body according to his work, and therefore observance of religious
principles should be utilized. In the Vedanta-sutras the living
entity is qualified as light because he is part and parcel of the supreme
light. As sunlight maintains the entire universe, so the light of the soul
maintains this material body. As soon as the spirit soul is out of this
material body, the body begins to decompose; therefore it is the spirit
soul which maintains this body. The body itself is unimportant. Arjuna
was advised to fight and sacrifice the material body for the cause of religion.
|
