Reading Bhagavad Gita - Ch. 2, V. 12 -16 - 4th January 2018

So I felt today to start by reading some verses from the Bhagavad Gita. So this is Chapter 2, Verse 12. And here, most of you know the story of the Gita, but the Lord Shri Krishna just about started speaking with Arjun, who is at the moment bound with a lot of grief, despondency for the fear of losing his attachments, fear of death, the fear of the unknown—everything that can afflict someone seems to be afflicting him.

So the Lord says in Verse 12: 'Never at any time have I not been, neither you nor these rulers of men, and never shall we all cease to be.' Never at any time have I not been, neither you nor these rulers of men, and never shall we all cease to be. The Shankaracharya's commentary is also here; he makes a very important point. He says the plural in Verse 12 refers to differences in respect to bodies; it does not point to a plurality of selves. So you know, when Shri Krishna is saying 'and never shall we all cease to be,' he's referring to only the apparent difference in the bodies, but the Atma is one. They never really... so beautiful words that he starts with.

Then he says: 'Just as the embodied self has in the body childhood, youth, and old age, so does it win another body. An intelligent man is not bewildered by it. O son of Kunti, the contacts of senses with their objects cause cold and heat, pleasure and pain. These come and go; they are fleeting. Endure them, O hero. The man whom these do not agitate, who is the same in pain and pleasure and who is wise, becomes fit indeed for immortality.'

This is perhaps my favorite verse of all time; this is Verse 16: 'The unreal comes not into being. The unreal comes not into being; the real never lapses into non-being. The truth about both these has been perceived by the seers of reality.' The unreal comes not into being; the real never lapses into non-being. The truth about both these has been perceived by the seers of reality.

So in this one verse itself is the greatest pointer. It's very, very similar—by divine grace you cannot really call it a coincidence—to another beautiful verse which occurs in a completely different seeming scripture, A Course in Miracles, which says: 'Nothing real can be threatened and nothing unreal ever existed. Herein lies the peace of God.' The peace. Now, what is this real? It never ceases; it always is. And what do we consider to be real? It's only when we consider something which is coming and going to be real that is the root of all suffering.