[Advaita-l] GITA - 2.19

[Amuthan Arunkumar R]

namo nArAyaNAya!

in order to remove arjuna's grief and ignorance,
kR^iShNa now teaches the nature of the self with the
help of two R^ik-s from the kaThopaniShad. the first
of these is as follows:

ya enaM vetti hantAraM yashchainaM manyate hatam. 
ubhau tau na vijAnIto nAyaM hanti na hanyate.. 2.19

he who thinks that the self is the slayer and he who
thinks that the self is slain - both these do not know
(the self), for the self neither slays nor is slain.

here, 'slaying' is indicative of any action. 'to be
slain' is the result of that action. 'slayer'
indicates the doer of that action. all these pertain
to the body only. it is only due to the identification
of the self with the body that we think 'I did this',
'this happened to me' etc. the self is neither a
subject nor an object and no action is possible for
the self. 

all our worries and activities are based on the twin
delusions of aha~NkAra and mamakAra. our real nature
can be realized only when these two are destroyed.
though this verse is primarily meant to teach the real
nature of our self, we can also use it to live as per
our varNAshrama dharma till chitta shuddhi is
attained, patiently bearing all the obstacles that
come in the way with a vairAgya that these obstacles
are only for the body and cannot affect our self.

MS points out that this verse also refutes the
naiyAyika's view that the self is an agent and the
chArvaka's view that the body is the self.

vAsudevaH sarvaM,
aparyAptAmR^itaH. 

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