Arjuna knew that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so his perplexed position can be solved by Kṛṣṇa. That he knew. Therefore he said, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7): "Kṛṣṇa, no more friendly talks. We are wasting time. Now I become Your disciple, śiṣya." Śiṣya means disciple. "You kindly advise me. I'm surrendering unto You." Tad viddhi praṇipātena (BG 4.34). Spiritual master means you must surrender to him. If you talk foolish, then you will not be benefited. You must submissively hear and accept whatever he says. So when Kṛṣṇa began to teach him as teacher, the first thing He uttered . . . anyone can say what He first said?
Devotee: Aśocyān anvaśocas tvam.
Prabhupāda: Ah.
- aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
- prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
- gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
- nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
- (BG 2.11)
My dear Arjuna, you are talking like very learned scholar, but you are so rascal that you are talking of this body.
So, so far the body's concerned, either it is dead or alive, it is not the subject matter of any talk. Nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ. Those who are learned scholars don't talk about the body. They'll talk about the soul. That is paṇḍita. What is the . . . this is dead body. Suppose this is cloth. Uh? Now if you talk about this cloth, you can talk. You can write volumes of books: "This silk was purchased from that shop, and it was manufactured in such and such date, and the man manufactured, he's like this . . ." You can go on talking nonsense like that and can write books. So all these rascal philosophers, they are writing about this cloth. That's all. Yasyātmā-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13).
But this is not the subject matter for the learned scholars. Nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ. What is this body? A combination of matter. It is already dead. Because the living soul is there, it is moving, and as soon as the living bo . . . soul is out of this body, it is useless, dead matter. So what is there important talking about this dead body? It is made of this earth, earthly ingredient, bhūmir āpo 'nalo (BG 7.4), and it will become again. It will go away. Either . . . there are three, how do you say, transformation of this body. One transformation is ash. Another transformation is stool. Another transformation is earth. There are three different types of transformations. Just like Christian people, they bury the body. So, in due course of time you'll find, say, after ten years, your body's finished. It is now earth. The body has become earth. And Hindus, they burn it, so the body becomes ash. And the Parsis, they throw the body to be eaten by the vultures. It becomes stool. This is the last, I mean to say, transformation of this body. And we are so much busy about this ash, stool and earth. Just see how foolish we are.