“I Am Not Matter, I Am Spirit”

This eternality of the soul apart from the body is the basis for Lord Krsna's urging Arjuna to fight in the battle. "For the soul there is neither birth nor death, nor having once been does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain." (Bg. 2.20) The consciousness that pervades the entire body is the consciousness of the soul that inhabits the body. When the soul is not in the body he cannot perceive bodily pleasures and pains. Because the soul may be addicted to the pleasures of the body, he may take on another body after leaving his present body. Lord Krsna likens this struggling off and taking on of bodies unto changes of dress (Bg. 2.13). This constant change is senseless and very painful. Eventually, after so many changes, the conditioned soul becomes materially exhausted and so seeks a spiritual master who can teach him how to liberate himself from the constant repetition of birth and death (samsara). It is at this point that the jiva decides to revive his ever dormant Krsna consciousness in order to escape the miseries of reincarnation. Upon reestablishing his relationship with the Supersoul, the jiva attains the state of brahma-bhūta, realizing aham brahmasmi: "I am not this material body. I am not matter, but spirit." The first symptom of brahma-bhūta realization is joyfulness. Perceiving its eternality, seeing that it can never be cut to pieces, burned, moistened, broken, dissolved or dried, the soul becomes instantly joyful. It at last identifies with its true essence. As long as it is in identity with matter, it will hanker and lament, as Arjuna was hankering and lamenting on the battlefield. The message of Bhagavad-gita, then, is one of joy, for the lesson taught Arjuna provokes the conditioned soul to seek its eternal happy position.

In the material position, entangled in birth and death, the jiva tries to lord it over matter, and in his attempt becomes adverse to Krsna. The conditioned soul, forgetful of his spiritual nature, engages in a hard struggle in the ocean of material existence, but all this time the love of Krsna is dormant within him. This love is awakened by the spiritual master who engages the jiva in devotional service and so opens the way for liberation.