" O Arjuna! I (Shreeman Narayanan) am the Paramaatman-supreme lord of
everything, unparalleled and unsurpassed, eternal and imperishable.
There is no doubt regarding this aspect. The jeevaatman is also
eternal and imperishable. There is no doubt regarding this aspect
also. You have to understand the meaning of the terms like "death",
"birth" of jeevaatman properly. The jeevaatman takes a body as per my
sankalpa according to his karma. This is called birth. Only the body
of the jeevaatman undergoes changes from childhood, youthfulness to
oldness. The jeevaatman remains unchanged in this nature. "Death" is
nothing but the Jeevaatman leaving his body for taking a new body as
per his karma. Therefore, he who understands the eternal imperishable
nature of the jeevaatman, never worries or feels sad for death.
No weapon can cut the jeevaatman. Fire cannot burn the jeevaatman.
Water cannot make the jeevaatman wet. Air cannot make the jeevaatman
dry. The jeevaatman is eternal and imperishable. The jeevaatman is
finite (aNu-sUkshma) and therefore he can penetrate into the body.
This jeevaatman cannot be killed. Therefore understand that the
people who will be killed by you in the kuru-kshetra battlefield,
will
leave their body and reach swarga and will take up another body. Just
like a person who removes his torn/old cloths and wears new cloth,
the
jeevaatman removes his body and takes up a new body. After having
understood this, you need not worry for killing the enemies in the
battlefield. You may now worry for destroying their bodies. Even this
is not appropriate because the body is just made up of the five
elements of the nature namely ether, fire, water, air and earth. It
has become the abode for the jeevaatman to experience his karma. Even
if you are not going to be instrumental in war to kill them, their
bodies will naturally get destroyed one day as per their karma.
Therefore do not worry for this also. O Arjuna! Get up and execute
your duty.
From the Veda-Saastras, know that the jeevaatman's nature is as told
above. Having known this, do the karma-yoga, which is executing the
duties prescribed by the saastra for you with saatvika tyaaga as
service to my lotus feet. That is, you have to sacrifice the ego "I
am the doer of karma", "I am the enjoyer of its results" and the
"Results are mine". But you should never sacrifice the karma itself.
You have to do your karma without fail. "War" as per kshatriya-dharma
is a prescribed duty for you. Therefore remove all your
misunderstandings from your mind and get up to execute your duty. If
you do the karma-yoga as told above, it will purify you and gradually
lead you to adopt mokshopaaya (means to attain salvation).
With this karma-yoga practiced, you can have you mind under your
control. Then by continuous contemplation on the nature of jeevaatman
who is the body of Paramaatman, you can do jgnyaana-yoga and get the
jeevaatman's swarUpa fully realized. Then, with these two yogas as
accessories, you can do bhakthi-yoga and finally reach my lotus feet.
Therefore O Arjuna, first get your wrong ideas removed from your
mind. Understand very clearly that the Jeevaatman is different from
the body. Doing Karma with Satvika Tyaga is very important.
"