Date: 19-06-1998 :: Pg: 24 :: Col: c
Cl: Religion
CHENNAI, June 19.
Man's insecurity and unhappiness are due to misunderstanding about his true nature. Identifying himself with his body he gets perturbed by its afflictions and thereby grieves over its impermanence. To remove this misconception every Vedanta school first clarifies the nature of the Ultimate Reality, souls and the world, which are the three categories basic to any philosophical enquiry.
Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita takes up a discussion of the nature of the soul right at the outset to remove Arjuna's confusion about the impending death in the war, which he cited as the reason for refusing to fight just as the war was about to commence. The commentorial works on the Gita in the Visishtadvaita tradition elaborate on the three philosophical categories which are real according to this school, in this context, and point out the differences between the Supreme Being and the souls (Jiva).
Though there are innumerable souls they all belong to one class (Jati) and are subservient to the Lord; their common features being their intrinsic consciousness and eternal nature. So the Atman (Self) does not get affected by birth and death which pertain only to the body as a result of Karma.
That destruction is only to the body and not to the soul is clarified in the Gita, ``The soul that stays in this body is talked of as attaining boyhood, youth and old age; even so is its taking up another body. So, a man, who understands that the soul is eternal, never worries over the change of tenancy of the soul from one body to another.'' As the Atman remains untainted even though there are changes in the bodies, a wise person will not grieve over death.
In his discourse on the Bhagavad Gita Sri Velukkudi V. Krishnan said, the corollary of the eternal nature of the Atman was its indestructibility. Lord Krishna points out, ``This Self which is subtle weapons cannot split, fire cannot burn, water cannot drench nor can the wind dry up. Incapable of being split is this Atman, it can never get burnt or drenched nor can it get dried. This is because its nature is to penetrate and comprehend everything.''
The soul acquires a body to work out its Karma and all that man enjoys in the world is a result of Karma acquired in previous births. The differences of status, birth and the like are due to Karma and does not pertain to the Atman. So the right attitude one must develop in life is to accept one's lot with equanimity of mind without getting affected by them and perform one's duty surrendering all actions to the Lord.