________________
44
BHAGAVADGfTÂ. ---- and you speak words of wisdom'. Learned men grieve not for the living nor the dead. Never did I not exist, nor you, nor these rulers of men; nor will any one of us ever hereafter cease to be. As in this body, infancy and youth and old age (come) to the embodied (self) , so does the acquisition of another body; a sensible man is not deceived about that. The contacts of the senses », O son of Kunti! which produce cold and heat, pleasure and pain, are not permanent, they are for ever coming and going. Bear them, O descendant of Bharata ! For, O chief of men ! that sensible man whom they afflict not, (pain and pleasure being alike to him), he merits immortality. There is no existence for that which is unreal; there is no non-existence for that which is real. And the correct) conclusion about both 5 is perceived by those who perceive the truth. Know that to be indestructible which pervades all this ; the destruction of that inexhaustible (principle) none can bring about. These bodies appertaining to the embodied (self) which is eternal, indestructible, and indefinable, are declared to be perishable; therefore do engage in battle, O descendant of Bharata! He who thinks one to be the killer and he who thinks
------- Scil. regarding family-rites, &c., for, says Nilakantha, they indicate knowledge of soul as distinct from body.
A common word in the Gitâ, that which presides over each individual body.
• Scil. with external objects. I.e. the contacts.'
• The sense is this-there are two things apparently, the soul which is indestructible, and the feelings of pain &c. which 'come and go.' The true philosopher knows that the former only is real and exists; and that the latter is unreal and non-existent. He therefore does not mind the latter.
• Sul. by those who are possessed of true knowledge.
Digitized by Google
