The sunshine, the sun disc and the inner affairs of the sun planet cannot be separated from one another, and yet the students of the three different phases are not in the same category. Therefore, the bhaktas, or the transcendentalists who have realized the Bhagavān feature of the Absolute Truth, are the topmost transcendentalists, although all students who are engaged in the study of the Absolute Truth are engaged in the same subject matter.
And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the personal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth. The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramātmā feature of the Absolute Truth. Ordinary students who are satisfied by simply understanding the sunshine – its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature – may be compared to those who can realize only the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. And one who can enter into the sun planet is the highest. One who understands the sun’s surface is further advanced. One who studies the sunshine only is the preliminary student. These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects, namely the sunshine, the sun’s surface and the sun planet itself. This realization is possible when one works without attachment to fruitive results and is situated in the fixed conception of the real self. This chapter instructs us in self-realization by an analytical study of the material body and the spirit soul, as explained by the supreme authority, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, can dissipate the lamentation of the ignorant man, and for this purpose the Bhagavad-gītā was sung by Him. Arjuna was a kṣatriya, and this conduct was not expected from him. One who does not know this and laments for the outward dress is called a śūdra, or one who laments unnecessarily. A man fallen in the ocean of nescience cannot be saved simply by rescuing his outward dress – the gross material body. Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is senseless. No one knows where compassion should be applied. Lord Kṛṣṇa killed the demon Madhu, and now Arjuna wanted Kṛṣṇa to kill the demon of misunderstanding that had overtaken him in the discharge of his duty. The word “Madhusūdana” is significant in this verse.
Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization. Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self.