Gita 18.71 Krishna compassionately offers connections at decreasing levels of commitment

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Krishna. Bhagavad Gita, 18.71 शद्धावान अनुसुयश्च शुनुयादपियो नरः सोपिमुक्तः शुभालोकान प्राप्नुयात् पुन्यकर्मणाम् Krishna is speaking here, the phalashruti of the Bhagavad Gita.
And he speaks this in four verses, starting from the 68. 68-69 talk about the glory of sharing the Gita with others. Such people will become most dear to him and they eventually attain him.
Text 70 refers to those who study the Gita. And text 71, the current text, describes those who hear the Gita. In a sense, Krishna is offering connections with the Gita at lower and lower levels of commitment.
So, trying to share the Gita means that we will have to hear and study it. But we also have to expend our energy to make it understandable to people and to create the resources by which we can make it understandable to people. In contrast, when we are talking about studying the Gita, it also requires some intellectual application.
But it doesn’t require that much commitment as is needed for actually sharing it with others. It is, if you want to, if you consider academic setting, if a student wants to learn a subject and joins a course to learn it, studies and gives exams, that definitely requires commitments. But the student also becomes a teacher of that subject in that the level at which the student has to study the subject is substantially greater.
Greater depth, greater clarity, greater ability to comprehend and communicate comprehension. Ability to connect with people, not just with the concept of the subject. So that concepts in the subject are conveyed properly.
Then, if somebody feels I can’t study, then just hear. Hearing talks, we could say is like uncommitted studying. Nowadays, we have adult education programs and there are different kinds of adult education programs.
Some may center on studying to a course is done in others. It might be just that we hear some talks and we leave it at that. We hear the talks and we move forward from there.
So actually speaking, when we hear that, no, there is if it’s not when we are hearing something, it’s not a matter of studying. We are not likely to answer any questions. Nobody is even likely to question us.
Many times when we go for a talk informally. And if you are asked, what did you like in the talk? You may struggle to tell any particular point that we liked. It might be that.
That. No, we were not so intellectually involved in the class. In general, people’s emotional memory is stronger than their rational memory.
So in this context, what I mean by these two memories is. People may forget what they heard in a talk. But people may remember how the talk made them feel.
The talk infused them with hope, with positivity, with energy, with comfort. Then that’s wonderful. That’s what is wanted and that’s what we got.
So therefore. Many people. They made overall sense.
I like this talk. I like the speaker. I find that speaker difficult to connect it.
So people can give overall impressions about what they felt. And it’s difficult for them to give specific recollections based on which they form those impressions. So basically, that is a different topic of psychology.
But the point that you’re making is that hearing classes require the significantly lower level of commitment than studying. And certainly lower level still then sharing. But Krishna is offering connection even at that level.
Krishna has offered a similar accommodating spirit. The 12th chapter when he offers connection at various levels, starting from 12.8. Let the mind and intelligence be fully absorbed in Krishna constantly to 12.11 and 12.11. Just work for a selfless cause. Even if it is not explicitly spiritual or devotional.
So here Krishna is offering a connection that will help Arjuna. In gaining elevation and elevating his consciousness upwards. And that connection is based on the understanding that he is looking just here.
Shraddhavar Anusuyasya Shunyadapiyonaraha If somebody hears this message with faith and without envy. Then what will happen by that? Sopintah Shubhal Lokaan That person will become purified. That person will become elevated.
That person will become liberated. Liberated from this Martiloka, the world of death. And Shubhal Lokaan Prapuhyat Punyakarma One will attain the auspicious higher planets that are attained by doing great Punya.
So Krishna is stressing that just hearing the Gita is a matter of great Punya. It enables us to move forwards in our life with enormous pious credits. Of course, when we hear the Gita, it is not just pious credits, we are getting spiritual credits.
But for those who would, if somebody would be connected enough with Krishna to understand the glory of loving Krishna and the glory of eternal destination thereof. A life of eternal ecstatic love. Then they would probably start sharing or at least studying.
But if they are not at that level, many people live at a level of piety, but not at much of a level of spirituality. That means they feel that they want God to be a part of their life, but not much more than that. So in such a situation, for them to connect with Krishna, it will be if the results are told in terms of the results of piety.
That is what they will appreciate. So the same result that we got by doing a lot of Punya, that result can be got just by hearing the Gita. So Krishna offers us this compassionate connection.
If you can’t share, study. If you can’t study, just hear. It’s like a person who has fallen in a well and that person is offered rescue.
How is the rescue offered? Somebody throws a rope down. You take the rope and pull yourself out. Hold on to the rope and pull yourself out.
Somebody says that, oh, I can’t pull. My arms will start paining. Then, OK, you tie rope around your waist, I will pull you out.
The person says, oh, but if I tie the rope around my waist, my waist will pain so much. Then the person says, OK, I’ll send you a large bucket. Just sit in that bucket and I’ll pull you out.
So that is an extraordinary level of compassion. Krishna is offering something like that to Arjuna. Pull yourself out with the rope, that is like sharing.
Tie the rope to the waist is like studying and just sit in the bucket. I’ll pull you out. That is like just hearing.
So in this last section of the Gita, time and time again, we see the enormous compassion of Krishna coming out in the way he exhorts Arjuna to connect with him at some level or the other. Thank you.