Category Archives: dehinaha

Bhagavad Gita Verse 59, Chapter 2

26 Saturday Nov 2011

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vishayaa vinivartante niraahaarasya dehinaha |
rasavarjam rasopyasya param drishtvaa nivartate || 59 ||

Objects turn away from the fasting individual, but their taste remains. For the individual who has realized the absolute, the taste also turns away.

vishayaah : objects (of the senses)
vinivartante : turn away
niraahaarasya : fasting
dehinaha : individual
rasavarjam : except taste
rasah : taste
api : also
asya : for this individual
param : absolute
drishtvaa : realized
nivartate : turn away

In the last shloka, we encountered the “tortoise technique” which taught us how to guard ourselves when we encounter factors that can cause us agitation. It does work assuming we remain aware and alert about our thoughts. But if we have strong predispositions or vaasanaas towards any object, person or situation, the memory or “taste” of that factor will keep popping up in our mind. So in this shloka, Shri Krishna provides an overview of how one begins to address the removal of deep rooted predispositions, which is one of the primary goals of any spiritual teaching.

Let’s go back to the black forest chocolate cake example from last time. You saw a piece of cake, you realized that you may succumb to it, and you took a few steps back. But a little later, the taste of that cake from a prior experience will pop up in your mind and begin to torment you. All you can think of for a while will be cake. This is what makes dieting difficult. Our mind keeps pushing us towards food each time we try to restrain ourselves.

So what is the solution? In the shloka, Shri Krishna says that the taste also turns away when we “realize the absolute”. What he means is that we need to set our goal on something higher than ourselves, and hold on to that goal throughout our life. The higher the goal, the greater chance that we will get rid of our predispositions.

When we begin any diet, we typically set a goal, e.g. “I have to lose 2 kg in 3 weeks”. Now, with this shloka in mind, we could try to set a higher goal, which could be “I need to lose this weight so that I can stay healthy to take care of my family”. Or it could be “I need to lose this weight so that I can fulfill my svadharma in the best possible manner”.

In later chapters, the Gita goes into great detail as to how we can gradually set higher and higher goals and ultimately set the highest goal, the “absolute” goal mentioned in this shloka, so that we can burn away all of our predispositions.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 13, Chapter 2

09 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in 2.13, asmin, chapter 2 verse 13, dehaantara, dehe, dehinaha, dheeraha, jaraa, kaumaram, muhyati, praaptihi, tatra, yathaa, yauvanam

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dehinosminyathaa dehe kaumaram yauvanam jaraa |
tathaa dehaantarapraaptirdheerastatra na muhyati || 13 ||

Just as in this body, the body dweller passes through childhood, youth and old age, so also does it obtain another body (after death); the steadfast person does not grieve over this.

dehinaha : body dweller
asmin : this
yathaa : just like
dehe : body
kaumaram : childhood
yauvanam : youth
jaraa: old age
tathaa : similarly
dehaaantara : another
praaptihi: obtain
dheeraha : steadfast person
tatra : by that
na muhyati : do not grieve

It is our experience that we pass through childhood, youth and old age. We can agree that this concept is familiar to us. But note the language used in the first line. It is not you or I that passes through these phases, it is something called the “dehina” or the “body dweller”. The body is born, it undergoes changes, and eventually perishes. But the body dweller remains constant through these changes. So, this means that the body dweller is something that is separate, distinct and different from the body.

Remember the example of Mr. X and his car from the first verse? Let’s revisit it. Mr. X is excited when his car is brand new. After 5-6 years, it starts to develop engine problems. After another 4-5 years, the problems have become so bad that Mr. X decides to sell this car and buy a new Mercedes S-class. Mr. X can be called a “car dweller”.

As the old car’s engine degraded over the years, Mr. X remained the same from the car’s perspective. But when the car had lived its life, he discarded that car for another new car. And there was nothing to be sad about this point. An extreme scenario is some unscrupulous people deliberately crash their old car just so that they can get insurance money to buy a new one.

Similarly, our body undergoes modifications of birth and aging, and eventually perishes. But the body dweller remains constant through these modifications. When the old body has become unfit to dwell in, the body dweller discards it and obtains a new body. The key point here is that the body dweller remains constant through the changes in its body, and also through the change from one body to another. And just like in the car example, a wise person should not grieve about growing old or dying, because the body dweller will always remain constant.

The body dweller is, therefore, the eternal essence that was highlighted in the prior verse. And since it is different than the physical body which perishes, it cannot be “found” in any part of the physical body.

So what exactly is this body dweller, this eternal essence? And how should we acquire the wisdom to see this eternal essence?

Footnotes

1. In one day we have several thoughts such as “I am happy”, “I am sad”, we join a condition to our “I”. Each time do so, we are “born” as a happy person, as a sad person and so on, even if there is no new physical body that is born.