True Scholar,Analogy of Clothes
Bhagavan Sri Krishna continues his upadesa to Arjuna,addressing Arjuna’s fears about participating in the war and the loss he believes it would bring to his dynasty and kingdom.
Through the earlier episodes,we understood the importance of patience at certain times and the concept of Atma tattva—the eternal nature of the soul.
Arjuna,though a warrior and a wise person,momentarily forgets his true nature and behaves like an ordinary,untrained individual on the battlefield.At this juncture,Sri Krishna seeks to bring him back to his senses by reminding him of the true nature of a knowledgeable person.
A scholar is one who understands and lives with the awareness of the essential nature of the soul—that it neither kills nor is killed and that it is eternal.
Analogy of Clothes
In modern times,we have begun to believe that we became cultured and civilized only with the help of so-called developed nations,which project themselves as torchbearers for developing and underdeveloped societies.
For those who hold this mistaken belief,the Sankhya Yoga chapter of the Bhagavad Gita serves as a powerful corrective.Here,Bhagavan Sri Krishna uses the analogy of changing clothes to explain the nature of the soul,enabling a deeper understanding of birth, death and continuity.
This clearly demonstrates that ours was a highly evolved civilization long before the rise of modern civilizations.We belong to a great culture that provides profound insights into life,death and the values that truly deserve importance.
Just as we mistakenly consider ourselves servants of the body—despite being its owners and meant to use it as a tool for attaining moksha—we similarly believe that we lack a civilizational foundation capable of uplifting humanity.
In doing so,we end up serving other civilizations that once drew extensively from our knowledge systems to build their nations and now attempt to claim original ownership of those very discoveries.
Therefore,the first step we must take today is to recognize,appreciate and reclaim our own dharma and civilization and consciously incorporate its wisdom into our lives—before others declare themselves its rightful custodians and reduce us to the role of followers.
Failing to do so would amount to a grave injustice to our freedom struggle and to the countless freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives and families for our independence.
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