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GĪTA, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY, CHAP. II 871
देहिनोऽस्मिन् यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा।
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धारस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥१३॥ Ātman both become separate, independent, and permanent entities. But, this argument is not correct. It is a partisan argument in support of a particular doctrine ; because, this stanza is intended to explain only that both are permanent; and their mutual inter-relation is not stated here, nor was there any occasion for doing so. When that occasion arose later on, we find stated in clear terms in the Gitā itself, the Non-Dualistic (advaita) doctrine that the Parameśvara, that is, the Blessed Lord, is the embodied
Ātman in the bodies of all created beings (Gi. 8. 4; 13. 31) ] (13) Just as, for the One Which assumes a corporeal form, there is (acquired) infancy, youth, and old age, in this Body, so also, is another Body (later on) acquired; (therefore) those who have acquired Knowledge, do not suffer from any ignorance in this matter.
The great ignorance or fear in the mind of Arjuna was “How shall I kill a particular person?” Therefore, in order to dispel that ignorance, the Blessed Lord first philosophically examines the questions 'what is death', and 'what is killing' (Stanzas 11 to 30). Man is not merely something encased in a body, but an aggregate of the Body and the Ātman. Out of these, the Ātman, which becomes perceptible as 'I', as a result of Individuation (ahamkāra), is permanent and immortal. It is to-day, it was yesterday, and it will also be to-morrow. Therefore, the words 'to kill'or 'to die' cannot be properly applied to the Atman, and there is no room for lamentation in that matter. Then remains the Body. That, of course, is admittedly non-permanent and destructible, and will come to an end, if not to-day or tomorrow, at least after a 100 years. Cf. "adya vā 'bdaśatānte vā mptrur vai prāņināṁ dhruvah (that is, "Death is certain for living beings, whether to day, or after a hundred years"Trans.), (Bhāg. 10. 1. 38 ); and as the Ātman definitely acquires later on another body in accordance with the previous Action (karma), though it gets out of one body, it is also not proper to lament over the loss of that body. In short.
