Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 28 (BG 2.28) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

From this verse onward, through several subsequent verses, the problem is presented before Arjuna with great elegance from the perspective of an ordinary person in the world. In these ten verses, Sri Krishna clarifies the problem according to the understanding and intellect of a common individual. In this material world, the law of causation operates unobstructed and is experienced continuously. Effect arises from cause. Generally, the effect appears in manifest form while the cause remains unmanifest. Therefore, creation means the transition of things from an unmanifest state to a manifest state. This process continues perpetually in an orderly manner. Thus, what is manifest today was unmanifest yesterday; in the present it exists in manifest form, but in the future it will again dissolve into the unmanifest state. This means that the present condition has emerged from the unknown and will again merge into the unknown. When understood in this way, there remains no cause for sorrow, for as a wheel continuously turns, it descends at times only to rise again afterward. For example, in a dream, a wife and child were first unmanifest and upon waking they disappear again. So what reason has a celibate to grieve for that wife and child with whom he was never married and that child who was never born? If, as Lord Sri Krishna has said, the cycle of creation and dissolution of this world continues perpetually as an eternal, unchanging truth, then why do we fail to understand even when this truth is repeatedly explained to us? According to Sri Shankara, Lord Sri Krishna considers that it is not proper to blame Arjuna for not understanding this truth. Sri Shankara says: Direct experience of this Self and knowing it in truth is difficult. Why should I blame you when the cause—ignorance—is the same for all? One may ask: What is the difficulty in Self-realization? The Lord replies: