2.29: The Value of Wonder

So, Krishna said, there's a lot more when you're a human being that you don't know than what you can possibly know, and that's just the way it is. In the 29th verse, he continues a little bit on this theme when he introduces the idea of wonder and the value of wonder, and there's a word that is repeated a few times, and you might notice it as a recite, and I'll do that now, the 29th verse. So this word that comes up a few times is ascharya vat. So ascharya means something that is rare, something that is a mystery, something that is a wonder or sparks wonder or curiosity, something you can't quite fathom. Ascharya vat, this vat suffix means having that, something that has wonder.

So Krishna says, ascharya vat pashati kaschir enam. So this, this inviolable essence that he's been describing, he's been talking about, kaschit, now kaschit, you can say someone or somebody, he could also take it to mean hardly anybody, you can take it both ways, so we'll look at that in a moment, but some pashati see this, this soul, this essence, as being full of wonder. Ascharya vat vadati tatayva chanyah, and others, they vadati, they speak of it as being full of mystery and wonder. Ascharya vat chanam nyashrinoti, other people hear of it being described as full of wonder. Ascharya vat chanam nyashrinoti, but even having heard of it like that, who really knows it?

And so he says, you can understand, you can see, oh, you can see, yeah, this is something great, difficult to understand, difficult to describe. You can talk of it like that, you can hear of it like that, but do you really know it? And so he's saying, basically, who really understands it, and one thing that I find very beautiful here, and you see this a lot in the Gita and Yoga teachings, is the teachings explicitly remind us, don't take the teaching for what it's trying to usher you towards. The words are not it, they are just an invitation, they're just a suggestion, and Krishna's going to emphasize this very powerfully in a few verses' time. But here, he's saying, yes, some people, they see it, they talk about it, they hear about it as a wonder, but who really knows it?

But I find it interesting and telling that we have this word, ascharya vat, because for me, coming through this verse is also the idea of the utility of wonder, because when we have a sense of wonder, it keeps us alert, it keeps us curious, it keeps us inquisitive. So as he's just said, when you're a human being, there's going to be so much you can't possibly know, but when you keep intact your sense of wonder and your curiosity, you can maybe maximize your learning opportunity when you are an embodied human soul. So as one of the, another pop song from my youth used to say, never lose your sense of wonder, even if you lose everything else, and your sense of wonder can really spark that vitality and keep you learning.