If we think seriously, "Suppose if I would have been put into that condition, that 'Stand up here for five hundred or five thousand years. You cannot move an inch, and you bear all the sufferings, scorching heat, storm,' would I agree to do that?" No. I will not agree. But the tree is also a living entity. He is a living being. I am also living being. So I am put in a different condition of life and the tree is put in a different condition of life. Why? Why this distinction? Is there any upper hand, superior judgment, that one is put in the condition of standing tree and one is put in the beautiful human body, freely moving? There must be, because we are all living entities. We are all soul, spirit soul. We are simply put in different dresses.
Therefore, in the beginning of the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, this lesson is the first lesson. We have to understand,
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
Ninety-nine point nine percent, they do not understand this philosophy, especially in the modern age. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo (SB 1.1.10). They are very, very dull rascals. This is the challenge. Mandāḥ. Mandāḥ means dull, no intelligence. A simple truth, Kṛṣṇa is explaining to Arjuna. It is authoritative statement because Kṛṣṇa says, and Kṛṣṇa says not unreasonably, very reasonably, "I am giving very common example that asmin dehe, within this body, the proprietor of the body, or the spirit soul, is there. And on account of this," dehino 'smin yathā dehe, "because the living entity is within this body, therefore the bodily changes are taking place." What is that changing? Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā: "The body is sometimes child and sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man. So the body is changing."