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!