Bhagavad gita 2.41 – 2.46 Lord Krsna compares faithful persons working in buddhi-yoga and non followers

Lord Krsna explains that followers who work in buddhi-yoga are resolute in purpose and have single aim of being in Krsna consciousness. They have strong faith and unflinching trust that Krsna consciousness will elevate them to the highest perfection of life. Such persons possess vyavasayatmika intelligence.

When one is engaged in the duties of Krsna consciousness, one need not bear any obligation to family traditions, society, humanity or nationality. Such persons also need not aspire for good results of their own activities. While functioning in Krsna consciousness, one is situated in a subtle and absolute plane and hence one is not subject to dualities of good or bad.

A person in Krsna consciousness is in samadhi or fixed mind and has perfect knowledge that Vasudeva or Krsna is the root of all causes. By watering the root of a tree one automatically distributes water to the leaves and branches. Similarly, if Krsna is satisfied by one’s actions, then everyone including self, family, society, country, humanity will be satisfied. Highest transcendental position is attained when one is fully dependent on the goodwill of Krsna.

Service in Krsna consciousness is best practiced under the able guidance of a spiritual master who is a bona fide representative of Krsna, who knows the nature of the student and who can guide him to act in Krsna consciousness. To further progress in Krsna consciousness, one has to act firmly and obey the instructions of the spiritual master as one’s life mission.

Persons who do not have faith in Krsna consciousness are men of small knowledge and are not firmly fixed in mind. They are diverted by various types of fruitive activities. As explained in the Vedas, all material activities involve actions and reactions in the three modes of material nature – goodness, passion and ignorance. Fruitive results of such activities cause bondage in the material world.

Such unintelligent persons desire sense gratification and opulent life.  They even follow the karma-kanda rituals of the Vedas since they are attracted to enjoying life in heavenly planets with soma-rasa wine and angelic, beautiful apsaras. They also seek resultant good birth and power for gain and safety.

However, the ultimate goal of the Vedas is to gradually elevate on the transcendental plane or nistrai-gunyah which is transcendental to the three modes of material nature. Lord Krsna therefore advises Arjuna to start inquiring about the Supreme (brahma-jijnasa) and enter into transcendental life of working in buddhi-yoga.

Lord Krishna compares a small well and a great reservoir of water, both of which serve the same purpose although varying in dimension. Similarly all the purposes of the Vedas are served if one realizes that Lord Krsna is the author and knower of the Vedanta philosophy and best purpose of Vedic culture is served by chanting of the holy name of the Lord.

Bhagavad-gita 2.39 - 2.40 Lord Krsna begins explaining working process in buddhi-yoga or karma-yoga

Working process in buddhi-yoga or karma-yoga is the practice of devotional service only for the pleasure of the senses of the Lord. 

Buddhi-yoga or bhakti-yoga is the direct communion with the Lord, who is sitting as Paramatma in everyone’s heart. Communion with the Lord does not take place without devotional service or transcendental loving service to the Lord. The stage of buddhi-yoga is attained by the special grace of the Lord only to those who are always engaged in devotional service of transcendental love. He awards such devotees the pure knowledge of devotion in love to enable them to reach Him easily in the ever-blissful kingdom of God.

In other words buddhi-yoga means to work in Krsna consciousness in the full bliss and knowledge of devotional service. One who works for the satisfaction of Lord Krsna automatically finds himself in full transcendental bliss and knowledge by the grace of the Lord. He achieves complete liberation.

In the endeavour to act for the benefit of Krsna, there is no loss or diminution. Any work begun in Krsna consciousness has a permanent effect even though not finished. Even one per cent devotional service has everlasting result such that the next beginning is from the point of two per cent. Ajamila performed specific duty in Krsna consciousness in his earlier days. In spite of leading a degraded life thereafter, he enjoyed total success at the end of life by the grace of the Lord. This is unlike material activity that requires to be 100% complete to be called successful.  

A little advancement on this path of devotional service can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear. Work in Krsna consciousness carries a person again to Krsna consciousness even after loss of body. At least one is sure to attain a human life in next birth. Such knowledge can also free one from the bondage of material activities.

Bhagavad-gita 2.31 - 2.38 Lord Krsna explains specific duty as ksatriya to fight

Lord Krishna spoke of svadharma or specific duty as per religious principles. In the bodily context this specific duty is called varnashrama-dharma which becomes the cornerstone for spiritual understanding and elevates one to a higher status of life.

Arjuna was a ksatriya, one who gives protection from harm. ksat means hurt and trayate means to give protection. A ksatriya protects citizens from all kinds of difficulties. He applies law and order and rules the world under religious principles. He is even trained in forests for killing and be ready to counter religious violence.

Only out of ignorance a ksatriya refrains from fighting and becomes non-violent in the discharge of his duty. Hence Lord Krishna condemned Arjuna’s attitude of ignorance. Arjuna would certainly incur sins for neglecting his duties.

Arjuna would also lose his reputation and prestige in society if he withdrew as a fighter. He would earn ill fame of misusing Lord’s friendship. He would be declared a coward and declared non-Aryan. Infamy is worse than death.

Arjuna would attain heavenly planet if he was killed in the religious battle. He would anyway enjoy a kingdom If he conquered the enemy.

He would also not incur sin for the sake of fighting. This is because everything performed for the sake of Krsna is transcendental consciousness and there is no material reaction. Also a person who has completely surrendered himself in activities of Krsna consciousness is no longer obliged to anyone, nor is he a debtor to anyone.

Bhagavad-gita 2.29 - 2.30 Mystery of soul revealed through Sankhya yoga

Arjuna was affected by grief at death of his relatives and fear of sinful reactions. Since the soul who dwells in the body can never be slain, there was no need to grieve for any living being. Also since the instruction to fight was coming straight from the scriptures and spiritual master there was no fear of fall down.

Lord Krsna insisted on the Vedic conclusion that the living entity is the soul and not the body. Material bodies are perishable in due course of time  (antavanta ime deha) and soul is eternal and unchangeable (nityasyoktah saririnah). 

Example - The body is like a dream in which we think of flying in the sky or sitting on a chariot as a king. When we wake up we can see that we are neither in the sky nor seated on the chariot. Similarly the material body has no factual existence in relation to the eternal soul. 

The soul is amazing and the wonders of the individual soul are not easy to understand by mundane people. However the fact is that the atomic soul is within the body of every living entity be it human, animals, trees or insects as explained by the greatest authorities of knowledge.

Some people even remain misguided about the Supersoul and individual soul and out of ignorance do not accept the distinction of magnitude between them. Each of them fail in their ultimate understanding of the self.

Under the authority of a bona fide spiritual master and the causeless mercy of the pure devotees, the truth of Sankhya yoga or the science of self realization is revealed and one's life becomes successful.

Bhagavad-gita 2.26 - 2.28 Lord Krsna's logic to make Arjuna to stop lamenting and engage in discharging duty

After Arjuna declined to fight in the battlefield of Kurukshetra because of his bewilderment, Lord Krsna explained that there was no need to lament since all living entities are eternal spirit souls which are eternal, unchangeable and unable to be destroyed.

Lord Krsna then provided logic and counter arguments:-
1. Even if someone considers the soul to be always born and die forever, there was no reason to lament. There are philosophers like lokayatika, vaibhasika, nihilistic non-devotional Buddhists, anthropologists and modern material scientists who maintain that life symptoms take place at a certain mature condition of material combination and by the interaction of the physical and chemical elements. No one laments the loss of a certain bulk of chemicals and stops discharging his prescribed duty.

2. If someone believes that the soul or atma vanishes along with the deterioration of the body, then there was no reason to be afraid of being affected by sinful reactions due to his killing his grandfather and teacher. According to this theory, since there are so many living entities generating out of matter every moment, and so many living entities being vanquished every moment, there is no need to grieve for someone's death. Although unable to prove their theory, these philosophers have no faculty to understand the soul. Hence Lord Krsna even used this material conjecture to explain His conclusion.  

3. All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when annihilated. The material existence remains unmanifested before creation eg. a big skyscraper manifests from the earth. Before it's construction it was not manifest and after it is destroyed, it again becomes unmanifest. This fact is true whether one is a believer in the existence of the soul or an atheist. Since all elements remain unmanifested in beginning and at the end, there is no reason to lament for any entity either in the stage of manifestation or unmanifestation.

4. jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur dhruvam janma mrtasya ca - One has to take birth according to one's activities of life and after finishing one term of activities, one has to die. Also, after death one is sure to take birth again. In this way one is going through cycle of birth and death. By avoiding the discharge of proper duty, Arjuna would not stop the death of his relatives. Instead he would be degraded due to his selection of the wrong path of action.

 Lord Krsna addressed Arjuna as maha-bahu, mighty-armed and behooved him to continue to follow the Vedic principles as a ksatriya. Hence Arjuna need not be afraid or aggrieved at the death of his relatives since he was discharging his proper duty. There was no reason to be subjected to the reactions of sinful acts while carrying out prescribed duties under the instructions of the guru or spiritual master (Lord Krsna).

Bhagavad-gita 2.23 - 2.25 Individual Soul is eternal, unbreakable, unchangeable, cannot be burnt, moistened or withered and present everywhere

The individual soul is invisible and inconceivable because the soul cannot be seen even by the most powerful microscope being so small in magnitude. The soul is eternally the atomic particle of the Spirit whole and remains the same spiritual atom eternally, without change.

The soul is unbreakable and insoluble. Spirit soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor dried by heat, nor withered by the wind. 

Weapons may be made of earth elements like swords, based on fire element like firearms, flame weapons or nuclear weapons, water weapons or even tornado weapons based on wind power but they cannot kill the spirit soul. Modern scientists know about fire weapons but have limited knowledge of water or tornado weapons. Nonetheless, the soul can never be cut into pieces, nor annihilated by any number of weapons, regardless of scientific devices.

The individual soul is everlasting and unchangeable, immovable, immutable and eternally the same. Because of ignorance, one cannot explain how the individual soul came into existence. By revealed knowledge, one understands that individual souls are eternally separated parts of the Supreme Soul. In the Varaha Purana, the living entities are described as separated parts and parcels of the Supreme. Individual souls are prone to be covered by the illusory energy and become separated from the association of the Supreme Lord.

Individual souls are like the sparks of a fire. The sparks have the same quality as the fire although limited in quantity. They are prone to be extinguished when out of the fire. Separated individual souls have similar quality as the Supreme Soul although limited in quantity. Being unchangeable, the infinitesimal soul can never become equal to the infinite Supreme Soul.

Living entities are sarva-gata and present everywhere all over the universe. They live on land, in the water, in the air, within the earth and even within fire. Living entities are also present in the sun planet with suitable bodies made of fire to live there.  

According to Bhagavad-gita, the individual souls are eternally separate entities. Even after being liberated from illusion, the living entity retains a separate identity. The existence of the soul and the qualifications of the soul can be established from the basis of sruti or Vedic wisdom. The superior authority of Vedas is like the authority of the mother to identify one's father. 

Bhagavad-gita 2.22 Soul changes body like a person changes garments

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya navani grhnati naro 'parani
tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany anyani samyati navani dehi ... BG 2.22
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

Change of body by the atomic individual soul is an accepted fact. After old age, the soul is transferred to another body. Transference of the atomic soul to another body is made possible by the grace of the Supersoul.

There are two kinds of souls - namely the minute particle soul (jivatma or anu-atma - limited in quality) and the Supersoul (Paramatma or vibhu-atma - unlimited in quality). This is also confirmed in Katha Upanishad (1.2.20) that states that both the Supersoul and the atomic soul are situated on the same tree of the body within the same heart of the living being. The Supersoul fulfills the desire of the atomic soul as one friend fulfills the desire of another.

In Mundaka Upanisha (3.1.1 & 3.1.2) and Svetasvatara Upanishad (4.6 & 4.7), soul and Supersoul are compared to two friendly birds sitting on the same tree. Of these two birds, one is captivated by the fruits of the material tree while the other is simply witnessing the activities of His friend.

Although they are friends, one is the Master and the other the servant. Forgetfulness of this relationship by the atomic soul is the cause of one's changing his position from one tree to another or from one body to another. This makes the atomic soul struggle very hard engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree or of the material body.

As soon as the atomic soul agrees to accept the other bird as the supreme spiritual master the subordinate bird understand the glories of the Supersoul and becomes free from material desires and lamentations.

Krsna is the fountainhead of the Supersoul and Arjuna is the atomic soul, forgetful of his real nature. Krsna is like the witnessing bird and Arjuna the eating bird. Therefore Arjuna required to be enlightened by Krsna. Since Arjuna had turned his face towards his eternal friend, Krsna, he was understanding the Bhagavad-gita from Him and becoming free from lamentation.

Bhagavad-gita 2.18 - 2.21 Soul is unborn, eternal and does not die unlike the body

Material body is sure to come to an end. It is perishable in nature. It may perish immediately or after many years. It cannot be protected permanently or maintained indefinitely.

Spirit soul is immeasurable (aprameyasya), indestructible (anasinah) and eternal (nitya). Its dimension is extremely small to be measured and cannot be seen. Lord states "ukta" since this knowledge is authorized in Vedic literatures and ascertained by authorities (acarya).

Soul cannot be killed. When an embodied living entity is hurt by fatal weapon, the living entity within the body is not killed. It is only the body that gets killed. Soul is not slain when the body is slain. na hanyate hanyamane sarire.

Killing of the human body or animal slaughter is not encouraged by Vedic injunction. Also, killing of body without authority is abominable and punishable by the law of the state and the law of the Lord. In Manu-samhita lawbook for mankind, a murderer is supposed to be condemned to death so that in his next life he will not suffer for the great sin he has committed.

Arjuna however was engaged in killing for the principle of religion and hence was advised to fight. For the administration of justice, violence committed in the act of fighting under instructions from Krsna is permitted. This is similar to a surgical operation meant to cure a patient and not kill him.

For the soul, there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being and will not come into being. He has no past, present or future. He is unborn (ajah), eternal (nitya), ever-existing (sasvatah), primeval (puranah) and immutable (avyayam).

The soul is called steady or kuta-stha. The changes in the body do not affect the soul. He does not grow nor does he deteriorate like a tree. He does not become old as the body does. The soul also has no by-product or off-shoots. Body on the other hand appears to have by-products or children. However, even a child has different individual soul and the body develops because of the presence of soul.

In Vedanta-sutra the living entity is qualified as light because he is part and parcel of the supreme light or Supreme Spirit. As sunlight maintains the entire universe, spirit soul maintains the material body. As soon as the spirit soul is out of the material body, the body begins to decompose. Therefore it is the spirit soul which maintains the body.

Bhagavad-gita 2.17 Soul is perceived through consciousness pervading the body

avinasi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idam tatam … BG 2.17 Consciousness is spread all over the body. Real nature of soul is perceived from this consciousness, which is the symptom of soul’s presence. sarvam means all over the body and tatam means pervaded. Consciousness pervades all over the body because of the soul.

Individual soul - Each and every living body is the embodiment of an individual soul. Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body in part or as a whole. This spreading of consciousness is limited within one’s own body. The pains and pleasure of one body is unknown to another. Symptom of the soul’s presence is therefore perceived as individual consciousness.

Influence of the spirit soul is spread all over the body just as the active principle of some medicine spreads throughout the body. This influence is felt all over the body as consciousness. Therefore consciousness is the proof of the presence of the soul.

Size of soul is described in Svetasvatara Upanishad as one-ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair point. When the upper point of a hair is divided into 100 parts and again each of such parts is further divided into 100 parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul. These individual particles of spirit soul are spiritual atoms. Such spiritual atoms are smaller than material atoms.

Innumerable - Spiritual atoms are innumerable in number. Soul is like very small spiritual spark emanating from fire. This is the basic principle of the material body. There are 84 Lakh different species in the material world having different bodily structure. Each body is embodied by individual spirit soul.

The atomic particles of the spirit whole are compared to the sunshine molecules. In the sunshine there are innumerable radiant molecules. Similarly, the fragmental parts of the Supreme Lord are atomic sparks or prabha of the rays of the Supreme Lord.

Location - As per Mundaka Upanishad, the atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of life air (prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana). It is situated within the heart and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of life air, its spiritual influence is exhibited. In hatha yoga, the five kinds of air encircling the soul are controlled by different kinds of postures. This liberates the minute soul from the entanglement of the material atmosphere.

Material scientists - Atomic soul can be perceived by perfect intelligence. Because the measurement of the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material scientists, some of them assert that there is no soul. Medical science however admits that the heart is the seat of all energies of the body. They recognize the importance of red corpuscles of blood but they cannot ascertain that the source of the energy is the soul. The corpuscles which carry oxygen from the lungs to the cells of the body gather energy from the soul.

Example of SUN - Soul is full of knowledge or consciousness. Even if one does not find the soul within the heart, one can still understand the presence of the soul simply by the presence of consciousness. Sometimes we do not find the sun in the sky owing to clouds but the light of the sun is always there are we are convinced that it is daytime. As soon as there is little light early in the morning, we can understand that the sun is in the sky. Similarly, since there is consciousness in all bodies – whether human or animal – we can understand the presence of the soul.

Bhagavad-gita 2.16 Seers of truth know the difference between matter and spirit

Seers of truth have concluded that there is no endurance of the non-existent material body and there is no change of the eternal soul.

As per modern medical science, body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of different cells and thus growth and old age are taking place in the body. Spirit soul exists permanently, remaining the same despite all changes of the body and mind.

jyotimsi visnur bhuvanaani visnuh … Visnu Purana (2.12.38)
Visnu and His abodes have self-illuminated spiritual existence. Hence spiritual world is existent unlike non-existent material world.

This is the beginning of the instruction of the Lord to the living entities who are bewildered by the influence of ignorance. Removal of ignorance involves thorough study of oneself, re-establishing the eternal relationship between oneself as worshipper and Supreme Personality of Godhead as worshipable and understanding the difference between part-and-parcel living entities and the Supreme whole. 

In the Vedanta-sutra as well as the Srimad Bhagavatam, the Supreme has been accepted as the origin of all emanations which are experienced by superior living entities and inferior natural sequences. The Supreme is accepted as energetic and material nature or energy is accepted as subordinate to the Supreme Lord. Hence He is the source of all knowledge. Lord Krishna therefore teaches the Bhagavad-gita for the enlightenment of all living entities for all times.