Gita, lesson 9: the disciple, death and the Self that never changes

The Bhagavad Gita's teaching proper begins the moment Arjuna stops justifying himself and declares himself a disciple. That passage, and Krishna's opening verses, are the subject of the ninth lesson in Swami Dayananda Saraswati's series.

Three types of student

The tradition distinguishes three attitudes toward study. The vidvatsutṛṣṇu is the intellectually curious, who wants to know but makes no commitment. The śrotṛ is the regular listener, who attends class but absorbs almost nothing. The śiṣya is the disciple, who seeks transformation rather than mere information. By declaring himself a śiṣya, Arjuna admits his own ignorance and makes himself willing to listen. Only then can the teaching be received.

Wise words, confused mind

Krishna begins to speak with a smile, which Dayananda reads as a gesture of compassion. His first observation is that Arjuna speaks words of wisdom without understanding what he is saying. Arjuna's arguments about ethics and tradition sounded solid, but they arose from fear. According to Dayananda, it is common to justify flight with beautiful ideas, and quoting principles is not the same as understanding reality.

Death and the Self

Arjuna tries to avoid death by sparing lives. Krishna's answer is that whoever is born dies, and whoever dies is born again, and that this cycle depends on no one's will. Dayananda adds that death, called Yama in the Indian tradition, follows no order of age. The wise, in this reading, do not identify with the body, which comes and goes, but with the ātman, the Self, which is never born, never dies and never changes. That does not make them cold: compassion remains, but without blind anguish.

Renouncing what

For Krishna, true renunciation is not abandoning action but abandoning ignorance. Right action is born of knowledge, not of emotion.

The full study is in the book The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, by Swami Dayananda Saraswati.