BG 2.18

antavanta ime deha

nityasyoktah saririnah

anasino ‘prameyasya

tasmad yudhyasva bharata

SYNONYMS

anta-vantah — perishable; ime — all these; dehah — material bodies; nityasya — eternal in existence; uktah — are said; saririnah — of the embodied soul; anasinah — never to be destroyed; aprameyasya — immeasurable; tasmat — therefore; yudhyasva — fight; bharata — O descendant of Bharata.

TRANSLATION

The material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is sure to come to an end; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata.

antavanta ime deha, ime, all these deha body is antavanta, it is going to end, it is bound to end nityas + yoktah saririnah, but that which is inside the body saririnah is nityas, the soul is eternal residing in the body. nityas + uktah saririnah known as the soul.

anasino ‘prameyasya, anasino, that is indestructible, and it is ‘prameyasya, it is immeasurable.

The preceding leads to the conclusion. tasmad yudhyasva bharata, Krishna is stating, actually the body is bound to destroy and the soul is indestructible; therefore, Arjuna you will not be able to save the body even if you avoid fighting. And you will not be able to destroy the soul, even if you will fight. So that which is the essential nature—the soul, remains unchangeable and unaffected by apparent changes at the bodily level. We are born with a death sentence on us. Like an expiry date on a product. But the embodied soul is eternal

Here it is said aprameyasya — immeasurable, but in previous verse Srila Prabhupada has quoted that the size of the soul is 1/10000 of the tip of the hair. But immediately after that, it is mentioned that the soul is aprameyasya, immeasurable. So this means it is not subjected to material measurement. It is not material, and it is not materially measurable, since it is spiritual in nature. There are dimensions, but that is not material. They are spiritual dimensions, because the soul itself is spiritual. So aprameyasya refers here that the soul (in a physical dimension) is so small that it can’t be measured by our physical perception.

Now what is the point of aprameyasya, in the context of indestructibility? For example, Bhisma pitamah was struck with so many arrows that perished him. It is said, there was no place even to put one finger between the arrows, but still the soul was there and not destroyed. So aprameyasya also implies to the point of further indestructibility. We have discussed in 2.17 yena sarvam idam tatam: Ramanujacharya explains, that the soul is so subtle, that it pervades everything and actually nothing can destroy it. Similar point is continued over here, the soul is indestructible.

So Krishna has given a call for action in the previous verse…

Scriptural verses can have multiple messages embedded within it. BG 2.13 Dehno Asmin yetha deha (this is more of an educational tone and there is indirect suggestion that you should also not lament, but that is not direct), certain instructions in scriptures are direct statements this is what you should do.

Nashate vidyata bhava, there is no direct instruction in it, but BG 2.14, BG 2.18 are instructional verses which are most important for sadhaka, because of its instructional nature. Educational and informational verses both are important; thus, enabling us to understand philosophical terms. For example, a Doctor can do a lot of lecturing—educating about a disease—but giving instruction is most important, as it teaches what we should do.