Chapter 2 Shloka 25
अव्यक्तोऽयमचिन्त्योऽयमविकार्योऽयमुच्यते।
तस्मादेवं विदित्वैनं नानुशोचितुमर्हसि।।२५।।
Lord Krishna says:
This Atma is said to be unmanifest, beyond thought, and without blemish. Knowing It as such, you ought not to grieve.
The Lord recounts the attributes of the Atma to Arjuna. This Atma is the soul which resides in our body.
1. It is not manifest.
2. It is beyond thought.
3. It is unchangeable.
The Atma is unmanifest, that is:
1. It cannot be seen;
2. It is not the object of the sense organs;
3. It is not individualised;
4. It is the unmanifest Essence;
5. It cannot be perceived by the senses.
The Atma is beyond the power of thinking:
1. It cannot be brought into the mind’s orbit;
2. It is unknowable;
3. It is not an object of the intellect;
4. It is not cognisable through intuition;
5. It is beyond description.
The Atma is unchangeable:
1. It is without blemish;
2. It is changeless;
3. It cannot be gripped by mental afflictions;
4. It is beyond conceptualisation;
5. It is beyond sorrow, fear, anger, anguish and perturbation.
The Lord is enumerating these attributes of the Atma to assuage Arjuna’s sorrow. “Arjuna, this grief does not behove you. Know yourself as the unmanifest, unknowable and unchangeable Atma and stop grieving.”
Ignorance is identification with the body.
Little one, knowing this to be the reality, it is sheer foolishness to:
a) grieve for this body or worry about it;
b) address this body as ‘I’;
c) desire anything for its satiation;
d) weep and wail on account of this body.
This is what the Lord is telling Arjuna.
When you renounce the idea ‘I am the body’ you will abide in perfect and eternal bliss. So long as you consider yourself to be this body constituted of the five elements, you cannot understand your reality – you are the Atma.
