Atma-soul is immortal

Sri Krishna starts giving answers to all questions raised by Arjuna. Where as
now he deals the immortality of the soul even though it was not raised as a
doubt by Arjuna. But this teaching is meant to all the human beings. BG-sloka
11 chapter 2. Sri Bhagavan said to Arjuna, you grieve over those who don‟t
deserve to be grieved for you also talk plausible words of wisdom
(prajnavadam) your ideas are not acceptable to the wise men. Your arguments
are born out of our whims and fancies and out of undue attachment towards
your teachers and relatives. The learned (panditah) do not sorrow over the dead
or the living or the wise do not grieve over the dead just as over the living.
Krishna is asking Arjuna we need to formulate questions in order to get a proper
understanding of the answer given by Krishna in the following manner: “what is
the cause of your sorrow? a.) is it because Bheesmhachary, Dronocharya, etc.,
are destroyed because of this dreadful war? B.) or because their physical bodies
are destroyed? C.) or there is no atma/ soul different from the body (shareera or
deha).

A.)Krishna answers the question A in a very convincing style: he says: “sloka

12, In fact, there was never a time when I was not, or when you or these kings
were not. Nor is it a fact that here after we shall all ease to be.

B.) What Krishna logically establishes is the supreme philosophical

principle/tenet. He says all the souls or living entities are immortal /
indestructible or everlasting since they are having no beginning. All the living
entities are (Nitya) everlasting, since they do exist in all the three periods of
time in the past, present and future. By this Krishna has ruled out the theory of
identity /that all the souls are one and the same after liberation, there is no scope
for atma to become God at any point of time. To establish this theory Krishna
quotes the valid three sources of knowledge such as (a.pratyaksha, b. anumana /
logic, c. shabda/agama) a.direct perception b. logic/reason c. the scriptures such
as Vedas, Upanishads,etc.

firstly the Vedic statement “NithyoNityaanaamchetanahchetanaanaam……..”

meaning – God is supremely eternal among all eternal entities and he is the
supreme conscious being among all conscious entities….

Arjuna says he is not worried because of the destruction of the souls of gurus
and relatives, he is worried because even if a soul is eternal the bodies of Gurus
and relatives are destroyed in the violent battle. That is the cause of his mental
agony. That is why he wants to withdraw from the war. To this Krishna says
still there is no cause of worry. For even if war doesn't occur all are going to die
one day or other when the time comes. No one is permanently going to live,
those who are bound to die they will die even if war doesn't occur, those who
are destined to live they will live even if there is a terrible war. But Arjuna says
why do we have to kill them in advance on account of this war?

The logic: all the souls are eternal because they are beginningless just as the
Lord Sri Krishna himself is eternal. Sri Krishna also declares in the following
slokas that there are so many other entities such as Prakrthi/Nature in subtle
form, time, Kala, Akasha, etc.,

Sloka 13: Just as boyhood, youth and old age are attributed to the soul through
this body, even so, it attains another body. The wise man does not get deluded
about this. We experience different stages or conditions such as childhood,
boyhood, youth and old age. Either in the youth or in the old age we remember
our childhood days. Even though the body goes on changing an entity in the
body remains the one and the same as an experiencer until the body perishes. If
the body the matter(Jada) insentient as it is made out of matter, whereas the
experiencer is a conscious entity who recollects his experiences in all the
different stages of life. Krishna advise as we do not cry when we loose boyhood
or youth in old age we should not grieve when the soul departs from this body
and get a new embodiment this is called punarjanma. Krishna gives another
example in sloka 22 to make this point more clear. “As a man shedding worn-
out garments, take other new ones, likewise, the embodied soul, casting off
worn-out bodies, enters into others that are new”. According to Krishna death is
as simple as discarding old bodies and birth getting a new body as we put on
new clothes.

We have experience that it is my body, my house, my clothes when we say it is

my house it is quite clear “ I is different from clothes or house” similarly the
experience that my body indicates that I am different from this body. In an
unhealthy atmosphere or rice etc., worms are born how? Scientist says that there
are some submicroscopic living entities already existed are growing in
multiples. However, even scientists agree that it is only formed life comes from
another life. Matter does not have the faculty of experiencing pain or pleasure.
Even if you go to the first cell the scientist don‟t have an answer how that first
cell has come into being. The first cell is not created by matter, and even today
nowhere do we see that living entities are produced by matter. It is only the soul
which is beginningless and deathless is an experiencer in our body with this we
can conclude that Atma / soul is distinct from the body.

Even the believers of different schools of thoughts have to accept that God has
not created the souls, if they believe that all the souls are created by God they
will face so many fundemntal, rational questions: A. Why has God not created
all the people equally intelligent, healthy and happy. B. Why god has created
some as very rich, some are poverty stricken, some are very intelligent, some
are mentally insane, some are hail and healthy, some are born deseased. ? Why
this all inequality?

Some believers try to answer that People are getting the fruits of Karma (action)
either good or bad performed in previous lives. But this will not satisfy the
minds of intellect. The question remains unanswered, why One performs bad
deeds in his first life?. What is the cause of Karma? If it is god who makes us
perform Karma why has he not made all of us perform only good deeds in the
first life itself. Why should he make a few other people perform bad deeds and
punish them in subsequent life. How can we call such a god who is partial, as a
mercy full creator- Karunamayee. What is the definition of God? All-powerful
all- mercy full? God is defined as omnipotent, omniseint, and omnipresent. If
God is all powerful, mercy full, why has he not created all the beings who are in
total bliss (floating joyfully).

Where as according to the Bhagavath Gita, even God has not created the souls,
they are beginning less and endless. God has given them material physical gross
body (Sthoola Deha), According to the nature of (Anadi) Karma/ beginning less
action performed by the nature of the soul. God is just like a gardener who
cultivates the land and sow seeds. According to the nature of the seeds we will
get plants trees and different types of fruits of different taste. A gardener is not
responsible for the difference of taste and form. He has watered and put manure
to all the roots and plants equally without any partially. The same sunlight their
receving. Eventhough all of them are receiving same kind of light and water
they will produce variety of fruits of different taste. The gardener cannot be held
responsible for this. Similarly god is not responisible for the disparity in the
mankind since he has not created the souls. Souls are experiencing pain or
pleasure only due to their own intrinsic nature which is identical with the souls.
Hence the Nature is also eternal. God is only responsible for our evolution
(Atma vikasa) by providing us all required material needs.
D.) Now arjuna „s situation is not improved. He says I am worried not because
Bheemacharya, Dronacharya etc., are dying when bodies are destroyed in the
war. My mental agony is for the following reason. Body without soul or soul
without the body is of no use for any communication. If Bheeshma and Drona
are killed I will be missing their company, association, conversation, and
domestic and social amenities. Therefore the bereavement agonizes me through
their soul is immortal after death, though their bodies are renewed. To this
Krishna gives a crushing reply.

Sloka-14.do the contacts of sense-objects alone cause pleasure and pain through
sensations of heat and cold? They come and go, impermanent, you need to
endure pain and pleasure by giving up attachment towards the objects. This is
highly instructive interpretation by Sri Madhvacharya. Arjuna was advised souls
were immortal. Hence grief was out of place in respect to them. Death meant
only a change of body and is not different in principle from disappearance of
childhood when youth is reached, or youth is disappeared when old age is
reached. Now in this sloka, Krishna advises Arjuna not to have an undue
attachment for his relatives who were indulged in criminality. It is the only
attachment that causes pain or pleasure because we do not feel pain or pleasure
while we are in deep sleep even though sense-contacts still exist. In deep sleep
we do not have any pain or pleasure arising from external objects. In deep sleep
we are experiencing only unalloyed pleasure. It is the state where total bliss is
experienced. That is why after waking from deep sleep we express “so far i
have experienced only joy in my deep sleep”. Only when we are in waking
state that too only when we have a kind of attachment for that object or person,
we experience pain or pleasure. Hence we can conclude that the passion or over
attachment towards the object is the cause of our pain or pleasure. The sense-
contacts are alone are not capable of producing sorrow or joy.

For example, a lover is very much worried when his girlfriend is attacked by a
cold even though she had severe viral fever earlier he was not at all affected, so
it is quite clear that the feeling of attachment or deep love for her makes him
disturbed only now.
Another example, if my enemy‟s house is burnt I am not much worried, the owner of the
house is very much at loss, shocked. The object either house or fire is the same but the feeling
that it is my house is what matters. Therefore it is the strong feeling of either “I” or “Mine” is
the root cause of all dual healings that arise in our mind. So Arjuna has been advised to give
up over attachment towards his guilty relatives and fight the righteous war.