Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 - Samkhya Yoga - Sloka 16

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of  The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

The Real and the Unreal Sloka 16-20

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 2 - Samkhya Yoga - Sloka 16 

Na asatah vidhyate bhavah na abhavo vidhyate satah I

Ubhayoh api drishtah antah tu anyahoh tatva darshibih II

न असतः विध्यते भावः न अभावो विध्यते सतः ।

उभयोः अपि दृष्टः अन्तः तु अनयोः तत्व दर्शिभिः   ।।

The unreal has no existence.; the real never ceases to be. The truth about both has been realised  by the seers.

Tattva darshana is seeing into the reality of things. Beings are seeking to have a correct understanding of things about them. To the extent their understanding of things is perfect their adjustment too becomes perfect. Life is a series of experiments to get at the permanent in preference to the impermanent. A man is attracted by a panoramic plot of land on a river bank and he decides to put up a beautiful house there. But on investigation he finds out that the land is liable to inundation during the rains. Though the plot happens to be ideally situated it has to be rejected for valid reasons. Many things in nature are unreal and unreliable while seeming to be real and reliable.

The seers of truth behold the body and the pleasure and pain associated with it as unreal. Our bodies were not existent in the distant past; they will not be in the distant future. Though they are now, their existence is equivalent to non-existence - abhavam. The pleasure of wealth enjoyed in a dream is unreal even while enjoying it.

The body is devoid of bhava and therefore unreal. It was not in the past; it has come into being now; it will not be in the future. What seems to be real now is only a modification of the elements. It is therefore to be discounted as non-existent. The man of understanding should not be affected by pleasure and pain which are all born of identification with the body.

Atman is Existence;it is Real; it is bhava  which means awareness or pure consciousness. Awareness remains untouched by time, space and causation,. States of mind such as wakefulness, dream and sound sleep do not affect the Atman. Modifications which are characteristics of things phenomenal do not take place in the Atman. It is ever Itself. Prajnanam Brahman - Awareness is Reality. This is the finale of the definition of the Absolute Reality. It is sought to be explained further.

The ocean of Infinite-Existence-Knowledge-Bliss is ever Itself, unaffected by the phenomenal 

Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa