Circle of Life: according to the Bhagavadh Gita

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so, we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.

-The Lion King

Death is an important part of every religion; Hindus cremate their dead, Christians and Muslims bury their dead, and Parsis often leave the deceased out to be eaten by crows that they see as embodiments of their ancestors. But what about after death? 

The Bhagavadh Gita is a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna on the battlefield and the advice Krishna gives Arjuna to pacify his qualms and anxieties are telling on Hindu values, ethics, and beliefs about but not limited to life after death. While Arjuna worries about killing his family on the battlefield, Krishna lays out a series of reasons why it is Arjuna’s duty to continue fighting the battle. Krishna’s strong intention to convince Arjuna is brought out by Krishna posing different theories about the journey afterlife, in hopes of appeasing Arjuna: the soul is imperishable hence Arjuna isn’t destroying his family and the body is perishable and Arjuna mustn’t grieve over something so temporal.

Hindu philosophy suggests the existence of the circle of life. Each individual must strive to live their best life and fulfill their dharma or duty to god in order to secure a better life the next time around. Krishna says through the course of the Gita, that it is every individual’s duty to work, not motivated by the fruits of their toil, rather the duty owed to God. Until the individual lives the perfect life, not being led astray by materialistic, worldly pleasure that often has the tendency to instill toxic traits of greed and selfishness, their soul will be reborn into another body. Once the person has fulfilled their duty as an individual to God, they achieve moksham or nirvana and won’t be reborn again, but be liberated from the world and the cycle of life, and their atman (soul) merges with brahman (the divine). Krishna argues that our atman is eternal and cannot be destroyed through the death of the mortal.

Up in the gates before Heaven sits a man called Chitragupta. When a soul dies, he tallies all the wrongdoings and the good deeds that the soul did in its lifetime to decide whether they should be rewarded (sent to heaven) or be punished (sent to Hell) before being reborn. Arjuna sees killing his family as a sin and he doesn’t long for the victory of the war if it comes at the cost of bloodshed. Krishna, however, sees not fighting the war as a failure of duty to owed to God, a sin in the eyes of Chitragupta. Is the argument of the circle of life enough to persuade someone to commit a sin? Is committing a sin in the name of God ok? Krishna lays out two theories of why Arjuna shouldn’t feel ambivalent:

I) We should not grieve over what is Imperishable

Atman is imperishable, it simply changes from body to body. Krishna says that wise men don’t grieve over the living or the dead. The soul in Hindu philosophy is seen as an independent entity that is not affected by birth or death. Krishna says this to Arjuna to convince him that the souls of his family and friends on the side of the Kauravas will never die but will simply be transferred to another body; changes in the physical form doesn’t mean any changes to the soul. There was never a time when people and God didn’t exist and there never will be: Krishna’s argument puts into perspective Arjuna’s qualms, telling him that he is a mere fraction of the history and the future of mankind and Arjuna in no way will hinder the existence of humankind on earth. 

‘He is never born nor does he die at any time, nor having (once) come to be will he again cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, permanent and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.’-II(20)

No one can bring the destruction of the soul, especially not a mere human being. Krishna ends this segment of his argument with a metaphor. The body is to the soul what clothes are to us: just as a person removes worn garments and puts on new clothes, the soul does for bodies. Arjuna remains unconvinced to which Krishna introduces a new aspect of the soul: the inevitable cycle of death and life.

II) We should not grieve over what is Perishable

Krishna argues that even if Arjuna believes that we are born and we die, he still mustn’t feel despondent about it. People are put on this earth to be taken away ultimately; death is the final destination regardless of the path the individual chooses to take. Unlike the soul, our bodies are perishable by nature and there is nothing that anyone can do to avoid death.

‘For to the one that is born death is certain and certain is birth for the one that has died. Therefore for what is unavoidable, thou shouldst not grieve.’-II(27)

In terms of the greater message of the Gita, Krishna had to layout this framework to detangle the web of guilt that exists in Arjuna’s mind. This clarification about the nature of the immortal soul and the mortal body being out of Arjuna’s control allows Krishna to layout Arjuna’s duty as a member of the warrior caste to fight the battle in the name of Lord Krishna. 

This concept of the circle of life is important in the Bhagavadh Gita because it is one of the great Indian texts that outlines and codifies Hindu philosophy on life after death. After Krishna explains this concept to Arjuna, he spends the rest of the book telling him that it is his duty to fight the war because that is the nature of his character and his position as a prince. It may be hard for Arjuna to carry out killing members of his family but he can rest easier knowing that he never really committed a sin by killing them nor did he destroyed them, rather helped in transporting them to their next life, a process that would have happened anyway. Krishna creates a clear distinction between the soul's immortality and the body’s impermanent nature. It also appeases the reader, putting their mind at ease that loved ones that may have passed away or may soon pass away, fortunately, will be reborn.