The Indestructible Soul & the ....

It is heartening to note the interest in spiritualism shown by some of our techies.
But I am also worried about the confusion that our modern generation, interested in a bit of instant spiritualism, going to get in to about this definition of the soul, purely going by Chapter 2, Shloka.23 of the Bhagavad Gita mentioned below. It needs a bit of a background...

Place: Kurukshetra
Scene: A visibly shaken and weak Arjuna on his knees with his folded hands and a smiling, charming and reassuring Krishna standing next to him (I am sure you have seen this in over two dozen paintings and perhaps a few more calendars) A crestfallen Arjuna, horrified at the prospect of killing his own kith and kin, seeks guidance from his mentor. Krishna explains that he is not destroying the souls but merely the mortal bodies and that the soul is indestructible. He explains the concept of soul through definition by negation.

Here’s 2.23 of the Gita that our techie read for your benefit.

Nainam chindanti shastraani nainam dahati paavakah
Na chainam kledayantaapo na shoshayati maarutah

“Weapons do not destroy it (soul); fire does not burn it;
water does not wet it; wind does not dry it.”

Poor Arjuna was perhaps in a confused state and took this rather limited explanation of the concept of soul by negation. Of course, Lord Krishna explains his disciple (Arjuna) with more examples in later verses which our reader missed.

Coming back to the cause of my worry, the definition of soul almost fits our ubiquitous, no prizes for guessing this time, plastic stuff! I beg you to be a little generous in accepting the (slightly overstretched) comparison here. You will agree that the description fits in to ‘systems thinking’ of a geek.


1. Weapons can not really destroy plastic - you may cut them in to pieces but not really destroy or dissolve them in a safe way.


2. This is where you need to be a bit generous with my explanation. Fire can burn plastic but not before releasing very toxic fumes polluting the very air we breathe even more. So, you can not burn plastic without hurting yourself.


3. Anyone with half a wit will agree with me that I have a strong point here. You can not wet plastic!

4. Another strong point – how can you dry plastic when you can not wet it! Strong wind will only take plastic to places where it is not supposed to be. Plastic waste is found in Arctic region –not because of the wind but sure due to some insensitive waste disposal by ships traveling in that route.

So, a limited weekend reading of the Gita may cause you to put both the soul and the carry bag on the same pedestal. Make sure you read more verses on the soul. Whatever you do, don’t carry your Bhagavadgita home in a carry bag!


PS /PJ:

1. What happened to the confused techie who read 2.23 of the Gita and misinterpreted the meaning? He was very happy with his weekend ‘soul-full’ shopping …with several carry bags full!

2. Just in case you did not know, Bhagavadgita was the first ever rapid, on-demand and on-the-job learning course delivered by any one in Indian mythology!

Hanuman and the carry bag

Incase you are wondering about the connection, let me give you a bit of background. According to Hindu mythology there are seven chiranjeevis or immortals starting with Parashuram, one of the avatars of Vishnu. Perhaps the most well known of the seven immortals is Hanuman. I have told the story of Hanuman’s adventure of trying to catch the Sun and getting a nice round red mouth to my daughter 1065 times. She enjoys it still and I may have to go all over it again today. He is an all time favorite with the kids and the elders alike. I tend to think it has something to do with our own evolution and that we all have a bit of Hanuman in each of us.

Hanuman and the others of his ilk in the department of immortality had to do a lot of things to attain the status. Hanuman’s devotion to Rama is well known. He was the very first god in the books of mythology to conduct his own open heart surgery to show his devotion to his master. As I said, attaining immortality is not that easy. But Hanuman and co. are a worried lot because their high status is threatened by lowly polythene bags and many more ‘disposable plastic items’. It is estimated that non biodegradable plastic waste ‘lives’ for over 1000 years and it may not take very long for us to produce ‘immortal plastic’. Just think of all the trouble Hanuman and co. had to take to achieve immortality! Can you imagine their grief when they are joined by a silly carry bag or a plastic water cup in the ‘immortal hall of fame’ at the heaven? How about chanting ‘plastic chaleesa’? We may just be inviting Hanuman’s wrath if we use plastic. After all, which god would like a devotee worshipping competition!


PS: Guess what happened to a demon who asked for nectar in his body and immortality from the all generous god …he became a Frooti bottle!