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In the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna is overcome by compassion for his relatives. Compassion is a nice sentiment, but it rendered him unable to do his duty, which as a ksatriya, was to fight to establish dharma in human society.

na hi prapasyami mamapanudyad
yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam
avapya bhumav asapatnam rddham
rajyam suranam api cadhipatyam

“I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not even be able to destroy it if I win an unrivaled kingdom on the earth with sovereignty like the demigods in heaven.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.8]

Arjuna’s compassion was due to a materialistic conception of life. Therefore he didn’t want to attack his relatives and teachers, even though they had performed all manner of heinous acts against him and his brothers. Finally Arjuna submitted to Kṛṣṇa as a disciple, because he could not solve his problem independently. Of course, Arjuna represents all of us who are in illusory material consciousness, and he is asking Kṛṣṇa for advice to benefit us.

sanjaya uvaca
evam uktva hrsikesam
gudakesah parantapah
na yotsya iti govindam
uktva tusnim babhuva ha

Sanjaya said: “Having spoken thus, Arjuna, chastiser of the enemy told Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, ‘I shall not fight,’ and fell silent.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.9]

Although Arjuna has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa and accepted Him as guru, still he maintains his unwillingness to perform his duty. This is our position also. Even though we are willing to hear about the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas, we maintain our illusory material identity and attachments.

tam uvaca hrsikesah
prahasann iva bharata
senayor ubhayor madhye
visidantam idam vacah

“O descendant of Bharata, at that time Kṛṣṇa, smiling in the midst of both the armies, spoke the following words to the grief-stricken Arjuna.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.10]

Even though Arjuna is very serious about his dangerous position, as if he is completely lost, Kṛṣṇa smiles. Is He mocking his friend because he has become a disciple? No, this is called illusion. Just like there is a man dreaming he is being attacked by a tiger, crying, “Help, there is tiger! It is eating me!” and his friend who is awake, simply smiles, “Where is the tiger?”

Similarly, when we are very much perplexed, it is due to our dreaming condition in the sleep of material consciousness. Just like the politicians, they are sometimes perplexed in their political situations, claiming, “This is my land, my country,” and the opposing party is also claiming, “This is my land, my country,” and they are fighting very gravely.

Kṛṣṇa smiles, just like we smile when we see the actions of a foolish child. Why these nonsense politicians are claiming ‘my country, my land’? It is Kṛṣṇa’s land, and they are claiming ‘my land’ and fighting. Actually, the land belongs to Kṛṣṇa, but these fools, under illusion, claim, “It is my land, it is my country.”

They do not realize that national boundaries are not real; they are only a figment of our human imaginations. They are forgetting that this life is temporary, and therefore the time we shall belong to this country or this nation is limited. They are forgetting that they soon will have to take another body, and they have not solved the problem of material existence. That forgetfulness is called illusion.

So this is our position. Without understanding our real position, we are perplexed with these all worldly problems, which are all false. We forget that our life in this world is only temporary, and that we have only a limited time to solve the real problems of life. And the cause of this confusion is our attraction to material sense gratification.

pumsah striya mithuni-bhavam etam
tayor mitho hrdaya-granthim ahuh
ato grha-ksetra-sutapta-vittair
janasya moho ’yam aham mameti

“The attraction between male and female is the basic principle of material existence. On the basis of this misconception, which ties together the hearts of the male and female, one becomes attracted to his body, home, property, children, relatives and wealth. In this way one increases life’s illusions and thinks in terms of ‘I and mine.’ ” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.8]

Moha means illusion. This is the illusion: “Let me enjoy sense gratification in company of my devoted wife, children and other relatives. I shall act piously and work very hard, and amass sufficient riches to take of everyone very nicely.” Everyone in the material world is under this illusion.

One who is intelligent, if he can understand that this worldly position is simply illusion, takes up the process of self-realization given in the Esoteric Teaching and awakens, becomes free from illusion. Try to understand: all the thoughts which I have concocted based on the principle of ‘I and mine,’ are all illusion. All of this is simply dreaming, temporary coverings of the actual identity of spirit soul. But like a man who has fallen into a well, it is impossible to get out of illusion by our own efforts.

Therefore, when one is intelligent wants to get out of the illusion, he surrenders to a spiritual master. That is being exemplified by Arjuna. When he’s too much perplexed by his material problems, he approached Kṛṣṇa for a solution. He was talking with Kṛṣṇa as friend, but he saw that this friendly talking will not solve his problem.

And he selected Kṛṣṇa as his guru, because he knew the value of Kṛṣṇa. As an eternal associate of Kṛṣṇa, he ought to have known. He is Kṛṣṇa’s intimate friend. And he knows that Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the greatest authority by all the great Vedic sages as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That was known to Arjuna.

So Arjuna said that “I’m so much puzzled that I cannot understand. Even if I shall be victorious in this battle, still I shall not be happy. What to speak of being victorious on this planet, if I become the king of all other planets or if I become a demigod in the higher planetary system, still this distress cannot be mitigated.”

So this is the same existential conundrum we are all facing: we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Out of all the choices, all the tactical decisions we have to make every day on the battlefield of life, none seem to lead to happiness, but only to more uncertainty, anxiety, illusion, bondage and unhappiness. Should I buy this house or that one? Should I keep this job or find another? Should I marry this woman (or man), or wait for someone else?

Under these circumstances, whatever choice we make will lead to negative consequences. To paraphrase Arjuna, even if we attain a position as a corporate CEO, with power over thousands of workers and multimillion-dollar assets, still we will be saddled by anxieties and troubles, and we will not be happy. Therefore, having experienced that life in material existence is miserable no matter what we do, few of us can muster the gumption to fight hard for such exalted material positions.

Similarly, Arjuna cannot marshal the determination to attack his relatives and teachers, because he does not see how either winning or losing could possibly make him happy. Kṛṣṇa is smiling because He can see that Arjuna is asking the wrong question. Therefore when Kṛṣṇa finally speaks, He says,

sri-bhagavan uvaca
asocyan anvasocas tvam
prajna-vadams ca bhasase
gatasun agatasums ca
nanusocanti panditah

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.11]

The Lord at once took the position of a teacher and chastised his student, indirectly calling him a fool. The Lord said, ‘You are talking about religious principles and morality as if you are learned, but one who is actually learned, who knows what is body and what is soul, does not lament for any stage of the body, either living or dead.’

As explained later on in Bhagavad-gita, it will be clear that spiritual wisdom means to know the difference between matter and spirit, and that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the controller of both. In the first chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics, but apparently he did not know that knowledge of matter and realization of the relationship between the soul and the Supreme Lord is much more important than religious rituals and philosophical formulas.

Because Arjuna was lacking in that esoteric knowledge and spiritual realization, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man. As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation.

No one who is sane will lament over a broken toy doll. Similarly, the body is born today and is destined to be vanquished tomorrow. Death is inevitable; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who has realized this is actually learned. For him there is no cause for lamentation at any stage of the material body.

All material phenomena pass through seven stages of existence: conception, gestation, birth, growth, production of byproducts, degeneration and death. This is true for everything, from a rock to a planet, and especially any living being. Knowing this, and knowing the soul to be separate from the body and eternally existing, why should one grieve for the body?

Kṛṣṇa says, “This body, either dead or alive, is not to be lamented over.” When the body is dead, it has no value. Simply it is to burned or otherwise disposed of. What is the use of lamenting? You can lament for many thousands of years, but that will not make the dead body come to life. So there is no value to lamenting over a dead body.

And the spirit soul is eternal. Even with the death of this body, the soul does not die. So why should one be overwhelmed by grief, “Oh, my father is dead, or other relative or friend is dead,” and crying? He’s not dead. We should clearly understand that our crying and lamentation in such circumstances are for ourselves, the living, who are deprived of the association of the soul who has passed on.

One must have this knowledge of the difference between the body and the soul; not only knowledge, but also realization. One must be convinced that he and everyone else is actually a soul, temporarily riding in the material body like the driver in a car. Then he’ll be cheerful in all situations and conditions of life, and he’ll be interested simply in spiritual realization or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is nothing to be lamented for the body, either alive or dead. That is the real message of Kṛṣṇa in this second chapter of Bhagavad-gita.