Summarized by Deepa Kumar:
Krishna explains to Arjuna the concept of absolute reality in shloka 11-25 and from shloka 26 onwards he talks about relative reality.
When an object like a bullet or sword tries to cut the flow of water, it does not happen. Water just flows around it and the flow never gets affected. Similarly, Atma can never get affected by any action; hence it is AKARTHA and ABOKTHA. Atma is hence subtler than the subtler. We do have free will to continue our action in the journey of life.
Example from Upanishad: When a guru tried to drown his own student and held him under water, the student was surprised with the guru’s action and was constantly struggling to come out and breathe. When the guru let him out after sometime, he asked his student what was he thinking when he was drowning. The student stated he was thinking about nothing other than resurfacing to breathe. The guru told the student that thinking about the lord in difficult times or in every action is required and this can only be practiced by doing more Shravanam and Mananam regularly. The urge to acquire is knowledge or attain this realization, should be just like the desire the student had to come out of water and breath.
There are many beliefs that the Atma itself is being born again and again, or everything is limited to body, which is easier for everyone to understand. In Buddhism they believe that the Atma is born again and again. While in Christianity, they believe in body (or rather, what they see), and believe in going to heaven or hell after death. In either case, death is the final truth!
Benjamin Franklin said this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. He firmly believed that death is certain and inevitable.
We talked about the story in Mahabharata about the Yaksha Prashna. When the Pandvas where in exile and went to the river bank out of thirst, Yama himself appeared as Yaksha, and asked them questions before they could drink water. Yudhisthira had patience to answer his questions, while others died without answering. One among the many questions where “What is most surprising?” for which Yudhisthira replies “ Day after day countless creatures are going to the abode of Yama, yet those that remain behind believe themselves to be immortal. What can be more surprising than this?”
In the materialistic realm each individual comprises of 3 types of body –Gross, Subtle and Casual.
The soul manifest with the gross body
Example 1: Kids manifest different characters in video games to accomplish their task in the virtual world, and un-manifest once completed
Example 2 : Sun’s reflection in the bucket of water
Example 3 : Dust visible when a ray of light falls on an object
Atma cannot be searched, it has to be realized.
Example 1 : Once a sanyasi was travelling, carrying his wealth to give to needy. Along with him travelled a thief who was waiting to take away his wealth, so the sanyasi was very cautious while he was awake. During the night fall, the sanyasi slept so peacefully while the thief was searching through all his possession. But the thief was disappointed every night as he couldn’t find anything. The last day of travel the thief asked the sanyasi where he hid his wealth while he slept every night, and sanyasi replied that he had it under the thief’s pillow, since he knew that he would not check there.
Example 2: Mother asked her kid to search for her lost ring near the front door. The kid searched near the neighbor’s front door since it was brightly lit as opposed to his own front door. Mother explained to the kid that he would never find the ring, since he is searching in the wrong place.
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