Bhagavad Gita 2.25

[Paramananda das]

TEXT 25

avyakto 'yam acintyo 'yam

 avikaryo 'yam ucyate \

\tasmad evam viditvainam

 nanusocitum arhasi  

SYNONYMS

avyaktah--invisible; ayam--this soul; acintyah--inconceivable; ayam--this soul; avikaryah--unchangeable; ayam--this soul; ucyate--is said; tasmat--therefore; evam--like this; viditva--knowing it well; enam--this soul; na--do not; anusocitum--may lament over; arhasi--you deserve.

TRANSLATION

It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body.

commentary by Srila Prabhupada

As described previously, the magnitude of the soul is so small for our material calculation that he cannot be seen even by the most powerful microscope; therefore, he is invisible. As far as the soul's existence is concerned, no one can establish his existence experimentally beyond the proof of sruti, or Vedic wisdom. We have to accept this truth, because there is no other source of understanding the existence of the soul, although it is a fact by perception. There are many things we have to accept solely on grounds of superior authority. No one can deny the existence of his father, based upon the authority of his mother. There is no other source of understanding the identity of the father except by the authority of the mother. Similarly, there is no other source of understanding the soul except by studying the Vedas. In other words, the soul is inconceivable by human experimental knowledge. The soul is consciousness and conscious--that also is the statement of the Vedas, and we have to accept that. Unlike the bodily changes, there is no change in the soul. As eternally unchangeable, the soul remains atomic in comparison to the infinite Supreme Soul. The Supreme Soul is infinite, and the atomic soul is infinitesimal. Therefore, the infinitesimal soul, being unchangeable, can never become equal to the infinite soul, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This concept is repeated in the Vedas in different ways just to confirm the stability of the conception of the soul. Repetition of something is necessary in order that we understand the matter thoroughly, without error.     Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur (combined commentary for verses 24 and 25)   Therefore the atma is described in this way (taking the descriptions of the previous verse): it cannot be cut, burned, dried or moistened. The repetition of the word signifying the eternal nature of the soul in this section (such as the use of the words nitya and sanatanah in this verse, and statements of previous verses) is for the purpose of precisely defining the soul for those of confused intellect, just as one will repeat several times in order to make certain that everyone understands, "This is the dharma of kali yuga, this is the dharma of kali yuga."   Sarva gatah (gone everywhere) means that the soul goes into all sorts of bodies such as human, animal and deva by its karma. Sthanu and acala have the same meaning, "having stability," and the repetition is to make the meaning clear.   Because it is very fine, it is called avyakta. Because it pervades the body with consciousness, it is called acintya, beyond conception. Being devoid of the six changes such as birth, it is called avikarya.

  comment: Srila Visvanath Chakravati Thakura is refering to the previous vers when he talks about Sthanu and Acala:   acchedyo ’yam adahyo ’yam akledyo ’sosya eva ca nityah sarva-gatah sthanur acalo ’yam sanatanah   "This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same." Thus when we studie these verses with the help of Srila Prabhupada and the acaryas we can getter a deeper inside into these verses that will otherwise obviously not be as clear .     Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya: Visnuswami Sridhara Swami's Commentary   Analysing the subject further it is known as avyaktah or unmanifest not being able to be perceived by the eye or any other of the senses, acintyah or inconceivable not being able to be perceived by the mind. The word avikaryah meaning unchangeable is in the sense of not being modifiable by any of the organs of action. The word ucyate meaning it is said thus indicates that authoritative testimony corroborates the validity of the immortal soul being eternal and everlasting as given in the previous verse. The word tasmat means therefore and by its use it is shown that this is a concluding statement.    Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya: Madhvacarya   Madhvacarya's Commentary   The Supreme Lord is verily the manifestation of the inconceivable Himself. Now begins the summation. It might be questioned that if the Supreme Lord is all pervading why is He not visible? The reason is because He is inconceivable. It may be further queried how does He appear so endowed? Because of His power of remaining unthinkable; but this power does not come from any outside source but is contained solely within Himself. Whatever forms He exhibits in all these He alone manifests fully. To emphasise words like enam and ayam indicating the eternal soul are used in different contexts. In the case of the living entities it is to show that their eternal soul has qualitatively the same essence and attributes as the Supreme Lord but infinitesimal quantitatively. This is further confirmed in various Vedic scriptures. In the Paingi Struti it is stated: The physical body, pleasures and fragrances, light of wisdom, impeccable bravery; these things reflect the best of all wisdom, the best of all pleasures and bravery which find their source within the Ultimate Supreme Personality the Supreme Lord Krishna. In the Parama Sruti it is stated: The Supreme Lord Krishna is known to be both possessing a body and devoid of body. This is because He possesses a spiritual transcendental body but he is not possessing a physical body. Because His body is not constituted from the elements of material nature it is said to be a-dehah. The head, the feet, the arms and other parts of this spiritual, transcendental body are made up of the Supreme Lord Himself. There exists nothing which is distinctive from this spiritual, transcendental nature which can be called His body therefore He is called a-dehah without body. He Himself is His form and this spiritual, transcendental form is eternally existing beyond the scope of material existence. Other than the Supreme Lord Krishna, none else is competent to comprehend this form. There is never for the Supreme Lord the creation or separation or destruction of His spiritual, transcendental body. He and His body are one and the same spiritual, transcendental essence. All of His beauty and all of His wonderful and phenomenal attributes are recorded only to understand that He is the source, the original repository of all attributes. The awareness that I am this physical body is an experience common to all living entities. Even though such a distinct awareness is normal it is perceived as special. Even though it is special, one does not perceive it as being separate from one's own individual consciousness. So how can there ever be a manifestation of the resplendent Supreme Lord for one who cannot even first perceive their own individual consciousness within themselves? Although attributes may which appear contradictory in normal, mundane human behaviour, it should be understood without a doubt that no such discrepancy ever exists in regard to the Supreme Lord when spoken of in various scriptures. Discrepancies imagined during reflection or speculated due to non-reflection are all a product of ignorance. They do not exist as a reality. These attributes are self revealed. In the Suparna section of the Rig Veda it is stated: The one only, without a second, before which there was nothing else whatsoever. Death was enveloped by death. Nothing else was visible. Like the waters which emanate from the mountains flow down in various rivers, whoever sees the attributes of the Supreme Lord in various manifested forms loses merit. Whoever sees even the slightest difference in the descents of the Supreme Lord Krishna's multifarious and variegated incarnations such as Narasingha, Kurma and others from His attributes and actions and also a difference in these manifestations will go to the world of nescience. Therefore living entities who desire to learn about the Supreme Lord should start by knowing Him as indivisible. Even if there appears to be some special difference it should be understood to be so due to time and circumstance. For example there is no difference between His special attributes and His special strength. There is as well no factual difference whatsoever between any special attribute and any of His special incarnation and His supreme distinctive and indivisible aspect. There is complete and absolute continuity and similarity in all respects in His original two armed form as the Supreme Lord Krishna and all of His unlimited incarnations and expansions. There are six categories of incarnations of the Supreme Lord Krishna. The Four Kumaras, Hamsa, Varaha, Narada, Nara-Narayana, Kapila, Yagna, Dattatreya, Hayagriva, Prsnigarbha, Rsabha, Prithu, Matsya, Kurma, Dhanvantari, Mohini, Narasimha, Vamana, Parasurama, Vyasa, Rama, Balarama, Buddha and Kalki are known as Lila Avatars. The three manifestations of Visnu are known as Purusa Avataras of the Supreme Lord Krishna. Brahma and Shiva are known as Guna Avatars, incarnations such as Hari and Ajita are known as Manvantara Avatars, incarnations such as Anantadeva and Sesha Naga are known as Saktyavesa Avatars and incarnations such as Sukla, Rakta, Shyama and Pita are known as Yuga Avatars. In the Varaha Purana it is stated: All these avatars are bonafide incarnations of the Supreme Lord Krishna and then there are still all of His numerous, authorised expansions and His unlimited associates who descend to a material world with Him to assist in His pastimes. Those who have been blessed to know the Supreme Lord in this manner, onto them is the love of the Supreme Lord Krishna bestowed. Those who think otherwise due to misguided false conceptions, lack of opportunity for learning the Ultimate Truth or the inherent limitations of their own mind will fall permanently into the worlds of nescience.   Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya: Ramanuja Ramanuja's Commentary   The word avyaktah means invisible or imperceivable this is because the eternal soul being totally transcendental to the material existence cannot be practically examined as can objects which possess qualities of a physical nature. The word acintyah means inconceivable because the eternal soul is impossible to perceive by the mind and the senses being in every way transcendental to the material substratum which is what the consciousness of the living entities base their understanding on. The eternal soul differs from all other existences and levels of existence is in transcendence. Therefore it is avikaryah unchangeable and immutable. The Supreme Lord Krishna instructs that by knowing the eternal soul to be immortal there is no cause for grief.      Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya   Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary   In this verse Lord Krishna gives additional reasons why one should never grieve for the soul. Because the soul is unmanifest it is not able to be cut or burned like objects which are manifest in this world and being unmanifest it is inconceivable as it is not possible to equate it with the form or nature of anything that one could imagine in the material existence. Being unable to imagine the constitution of the soul indicates it is immutable because it is devoid of any process of modification for example milk transforming to youghurt. Therfore comprehending the nature and quality of the soul as enunciated above one should not be under the delusion of lamentation.  

 comment: I can simply prostrate myself in the dust of the lotusfeet of the 4 Vaisnava sampradaya acaryas and Srila Prabhupada that I may realize these purports. Srila Prabhupada has given 2 lectures to this vers:  http://www.prabhupadavani.org/main/Bhagavad-gita/GT087.html   Srila Prabhupada load unlimeted transcendetal knowledge even in the first few sentences of his lecture: "So in so many different ways, Krsna is convincing how the spirit soul is immortal. In different ways. Avyakto 'yam. It is not manifest to the blunt material eyes. We cannot see, Because as we have explained several times, the magnitude of the soul is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair, very small. I think, smaller than the atom. That spirit soul is everywhere. Sarva-ga. Sarva-gata. Everywhere. Andantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham [Bs. 5.35]. And wherever the spirit soul is there within this material world, he has got a body and there is heart, and within that heart, Krsna is also there. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese arjuna tisthati [Bg. 18.61]. Both of them, living there. Therefore anor aniyan mahato mahiyan. Krsna can become greater than the greatest and the smaller than the smallest. This is God."   Srila Visvanath Chakravati Thakura has given us this same explanation of Sarva Gata from Bg 2.24 : "Sarva gatah (gone everywhere) means that the soul goes into all sorts of bodies such as human, animal and deva by its karma. Sthanu and acala have the same meaning, "having stability," and the repetition is to make the meaning clear."   Srila Madhavacarya has really gotten into how Krsna and the jiva are different in his purport to this vers.Srila Sridhara Swamis commentary I have to read over and over again. Srila Prabhupadas lecture http://www.prabhupadavani.org/main/Bhagavad-gita/GT087.html is just amazing and I am blessed I can read these verses with the help of this lecture. Srila Prabhupadas vani is most essential.   I am simply awstruck by his words:   "So whole Krsna consciousness process is again transferring the loving propensity from maya to Krsna. This is the simple method. We have got love for Krsna, but being illusioned, being falsely positioned, we are trying to love something which is not Krsna. maya, Krsna's maya, illusion. Mama maya. Krsna says, "Maya is also Mine." Just like the cloud. What is this cloud? This is also made by the sun. Everyone, you know. The cloud means the sun evaporates water from the ocean, and it becomes cloud, and the business of the cloud is to cover our eyes to see the sun. Actually, the cloud has no existence, separate existence, and as soon as the sun is bright, the cloud disappears. This is bhutva bhutva praliyate [Bg. 8.19]. It comes into existence and again it disappears. This is maya. But the sky remains there; the sun remains there. Similarly, maya, illusion, is sometimes is generated. This is the creation of the material world, mahat-tattva-maya. So this is not permanent. It comes and goes. Similarly, maya is simply covering our eyes. Just the... Just like this cloud, it is not possible for the cloud to cover the sun. Sun is ninety-three millions, or at least, fourteen, fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this earth. So how a cloud, spreading over, say, a few miles, ten miles, it can cover the sun? No. The cloud cannot cover the sun, but the cloud can cover my eyesight. This is the position. Similarly maya cannot touch Krsna. The Mayavadi philosophy is that maya also covers Krsna. When Krsna comes here, He comes covered by this maya. No. This is not. Maya cannot touch. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam... When Vyasadeva realized Krsna, before writing Srimad-Bhagavatam..."   The Sun also creates the clouds, and he compares attachement for maya to the clouds..amazing...   Srila Prabhupada mentiones Brahma Samhita vers 35,I made me look it up again:   TEXT 35  eko 'py asau racayitum jagad-anda-koti myac-chaktir asti jagad-anda-caya yad-antahandantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham -govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami   SYNONYM Sekah--one; api--although; asau--He; racayitum--to create; jagat-anda--ofuniverses; kotim--millions; yat--whose; saktih--potency; asti--there is; jagat-anda-cayah--all the universes; yat-antah--within whom; anda-antara-stha--whichare scattered throughout the universe; parama-anu-caya--the atoms; antara-stham--situated within; govindam--Govinda; adi-purusam--the original person; tam--Him;aham--I; bhajami--worship.   TRANSLATION   He is an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potencyand the possessor thereof. In His work ot creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout theuniverse, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.   PURPORT by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada:   Krsna is the highest of all entities. In Him is an entity which is termed cit(spiritual) which is distinct from the principle of limitation. By His inconceivable power, He can at will create numberless universes. All the mundaneuniverses owe their origin to the transformation of His external potency. Again His abode is beyond human conception; since all worlds, limited and spiritual(cit) exist in Him and He resides simultaneously in His fullness and entirety inall the atoms in all the worlds. All-pervasiveness is only a localized aspect ofthe majesty of Krsna, the Lord of all. Though He is all-pervasive yet in His existence everywhere in a medium shape consists His spiritual Lordship beyond human conception. This argument favors the doctrine of simultaneous inconceivable distinction and nondistinction, and knocks down the contaminating Mayavada and other allied doctrines.

Srila Prabhupadas second lecture to this vers is found at http://www.prabhupadavani.org/main/Bhagavad-gita/GT088.html

additional note:

  Srila Madhavacarya refers to Paingi Struti I could not find much about this text but it was used by Srila Madhavacarya according to a vaisnava scholar  . http://archive.org/stream/handbookofsrimad031587mbp/handbookofsrima...   Parama Sruti is also quoted by Srila Madhavacarya in his commentary to Gita 2.17

Thus is stated in the Parama Sruti: Attributes are threefold: relating to time, relating to place and to being complete in themselves. All these attributes are residing fully only in the Supreme Lord Krishna exclusively