Everyday Bhagavad-Gita: The Soul.

Verse 2.13: As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

In this verse, Krishna reveals the essence of the Gita’s teachings by directly addressing the misconception at the heart of Arjuna’s dilemma.

Arjuna is ultimately confused and distressed because of his identification with the material body; a condition which afflicts not just him, but the majority of us.

So, in order to address this condition, Krishna cuts right to the quick and informs Arjuna (and us), that while we have a material body, our true identification is with our soul. Krishna tells us that the material body is temporary and changing, but our soul is eternal and always traveling with our body through time.  Thus, in order to move beyond our bewilderment with our situation in this world, we should realize, “I am a soul who has a body” and not “a body with a soul.”

At this point, you may ask, “So what if I identify myself with the material body? What does it matter?”

It matters because the body is temporary, limited, and often a cause of misery. The soul, on the other hand, is characterized by three intrinsic characteristics. It is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss and as such can never find real happiness in place of impermanence.

A beautiful analogy is given with respect to this verse. Just as a person puts on clothes and discards them later, the material body can be viewed in a similar way. The only difference is we wear this body for a longer time than the pants or shirt we put on this morning. The body we receive is a direct result of our karma and consciousness in our previous life. These determine the type of body and facility we receive now. In this manner, the cycle continues and the soul gets trapped in the cycle of repeated birth and death.

In addition, this verse can help ease our misconceptions and trepidations regarding death by confirming that the soul never dies.

The body, every body will die, but the soul will live eternally. The loss of friends, family and loved ones which confronts us and Arjuna alike is overwhelming. However, we can take comfort in knowing that the souls we are fortunate enough to encounter and embrace will never cease to be.

Vrindavan Rao was born into the bhakti tradition and grew up enveloped in it. However, her personal discovery of the bhakti path began in 2004 when she had the opportunity to go to a Vedic College in Belgium and since that time she has embraced it completely. Her love for travel has given her the opportunity to study Vedic texts, such as the Bhagavad-gita, in places such as India, Canada, Belgium, Ukraine and the United States under the guidance of several advanced practitioners.

She especially loves the Gita and refers to it as her “Guidebook for Life” since it contains practical answers for complicated questions and is currently writing a daily blog on every verse of the Gita. In addition, you can keep track of all the happenings of Everyday Bhagavad-Gita on Facebook and viaTwitter.

Her background is in science and she not only has a Bacherlor’s degree in Biochemistry, but also a Masters in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. In her free time she loves to write, read, give presentations, sing and work out.

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Editor: Thaddeus Haas