Bhagavad Gita Chapters 15-18 Overview

[Talk to Bhakti Shastri students at Wellington, New Zealand] Video

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Hare Krishna So today we continue our discussion in the overview of the Bhagavad Gita and We have to do four chapters today, so I'll try to Do 15-16 probably in 20-20 minutes 15-16-17 in 20 minutes and then maybe 40 minutes for the 18th chapter and then we will have some questions Of course if there are some short questions along the way after each chapter also, we can discuss that So chapters 12 and 15 are the shortest chapters in the Bhagavad Gita both of them have 20 verses and Chapter 15 is also one of the most important chapters in the sense that it is often a chapter that is recited frequently we have a Gita recitation and So it is called Purushottam Yoga now interestingly We will see that several of these chapters start without any direct question by Arjuna Now it's not that now when we recite the Bhagavad Gita we often say that Atah Panchamodhyaya Atah Panchadashodhyaya When Krishna and Arjuna were speaking, Krishna was not ready. Now I have completed the chapter now. I'm going to start a new chapter It's a normal conversation.

The chapter division has been made by Vyasadev later So that is made based on the broad themes So, like I said Krishna is taking this opportunity, Arjuna is taking the opportunity to address various, to ask various questions and Krishna is also taking the opportunity to clarify various concepts Even if those concepts are not specifically being asked by Arjuna but related with that So basically the last six chapters are talking about how to move through the various conceptions of Jnana, of the Jnana Marga and to move toward Bhakti So now in the 15th chapter Krishna addresses a new theme and The theme is that How are the material world and the spiritual world related In the 14th chapter Krishna talked about how the material world is a place of entanglement and the spiritual world is what we need to attain by becoming disentangled So then the question remains, okay, so the material world is what we have to give up and go there but then is there any relationship between the material and the spiritual world and How is, how are we to see the material and deal with the material while moving toward the spiritual So that is the overall theme of this chapter How are the material and the spiritual worlds related and of course the chapter is called the Purushottam Yoga The Yoga of the Supreme Person as Prabhupada translates it. What that means is that Supreme Person is not just the Lord of the spiritual world He's the Lord of the spiritual world and the material world so Maybe we can write down, somebody can write like yesterday If possible, of course, I can just dictate it also and you can write it if you like whichever way it works out So Verses 1 to 5 Talk about How the material world is a reflection of the spiritual world and And the famous metaphor is used of the upside-down tree So I'll just go over the overview and then we can record how the material world is a reflection of the spiritual world is 1 to 5 then 6 to 10 is How the soul struggles in the material world Then 11 to 15 is So 6 to 10 is how the soul struggles in the material world Then 11 to 15 is How the material can point to the spiritual How we can look at the material world, but then for that we can perceive the spiritual level of reality How the material points to the spiritual that's 11 to 15 and then 16 to 20 How all knowledge culminates in the supreme spiritual person How all knowledge Culminates culminates it attains its supremacy attains its zenith culminates in the supreme spiritual person Purushottam That's the broad overview of this chapter So the the thread of thought going on is in the 13th chapter Krishna talked about Okay Here complete So broadly we could say there are four divisions of this chapter How the material world is a reflection of the spiritual world how we struggle in the material world How the material can point to the spiritual and how all knowledge material and spiritual ultimately points to the not just some vague spiritual conception in the supreme spiritual reality So within this let's look at the first section We had yesterday I took the metaphor of what are the main metaphor I took from 13 chapter Does anyone remember how the soul is entangled Based on 1322 Purusha Prakriti Sthohi Bhoomte Prakriti Jaan Gunaan Yeah, it's the BG Vakya, but what are the what are the example or metaphor for explaining yes Yes watching a movie So now there are different metaphors used to explain the nature of illusion So one metaphor that has often uses like a dream in the Bhagavad Gita the world we live in like a dream So another metaphor is used it's a reflection So another metaphor is that it's a sleep It's a famous song sung by Bhaktivinoda Thakur about sleep. What is that song? Jeeva Jago, Jeeva Jago The idea is that there are the whole point is that This world is in some way not the full reality And there is some reality beyond this world So, how do we understand this this so there are different metaphors which are used And thinkers across various traditions have come up with some ideas anyone In today's world also there are movies like Matrix Any of you heard of that movie? Some of you so let's talk about maybe our whole world is like a Virtual reality created by someone and we are lost in that so the idea that the world we live in Is not exactly the real world or at least not the complete world, but there's something beyond it That is there in various schools of thought Even science also talks about this idea that We have a particular world that we see with our senses, but the world of quantum physics We can't see it with our eyes so this is Now there are different ways in which we can understand that this point of unreality so let's look at the metaphor that is given over here in the 15th chapter let's recite the first verse Shri Bhagavan together Shri Bhagavan uvacha Urdhva maulam adashakam Ashwattham prahuravyayam Chandam seyasya paranani Yastam vedasa vedavet So vedavet Is the knower of the Vedas who one who understands this tree Now clearly the Vedas are not a book on botany So one who understands this tree knows the Vedas, Krishna is not referring to literal knowledge of some tree over here Krishna is referring to the tree as a metaphor for something else And the strangeness of this tree is Urdhva maulam adashakam It's upside down Now Prabhupada says in a lecture that If somebody is suspended upside down They are not very comfortable So like that he says we are not very comfortable in the material world That's a simplified explanation of this verse But the point is that when Krishna talks about this He does not literally use the word reflection anywhere in the section But that's an inference that we can draw Because where do we see an upside down tree? That's in a reflection If there is a river and there is a tree and we see the tree reflected in the river So the idea is there are three distinct points which you can draw from this If there is a reflection there must be a reality of which there is a reflection Otherwise there cannot be any reflection Secondly is that there must be some observer who is looking at the reflection instead of the reality How do we know something is a reflection? Unless somebody is looking at it the reflection might exist But I am looking at the reflection and I look at the reality If I am looking at the reflection and don't look at the reality I might be caught in it And there must be something in which the reflection is taking place Isn't it? The object is there How can the object be reflected unless there is something? Say if we see a reflection in a mirror The mirror is an object, something has to be there So the point of all this is that this metaphor itself points to the illusion of the monistic idea that everything is one That this metaphor is often used to talk about how this world is illusion Well that's not exactly true unless we redefine what is Brahman A Brahman is if we consider that to be simply the Brahma Jyoti Then that's just not true because if this world is like a reflection Who is observing the reflection? Something apart from Brahman is observing the reflection Then there is a reality which is reflected over here That means something about the reflection must be there in the reality Otherwise how does the reflection come? And there has to be something in which it is reflected So the Vedantic understanding of Brahma is that Brahma is not just the spiritual effulgence Brahman is the absolute truth with material and spiritual energies, both So Prabhupada writes in the Nectar of Devotion introduction that Krishna doesn't just refer to the person Krishna Krishna refers to Krishna with all his expansions and energies together He is the absolute truth So now Krishna develops this metaphor further And just like if you have a tree and say it's an unwanted tree That means it's a tree which is like there are some trees which are like weeds which have overgrown and become huge trees So just like weeds need to be cut so like that this is an unwanted tree Now when we see an unwanted tree we look at several things First is how is this tree growing? A tree needs some water A tree needs to have roots and the roots need to be watered So another thing is if we want to cut the tree we can't just push and cut the tree We need an axe to cut the tree That's how Krishna develops the metaphor and he says that this tree is watered by the three modes of material nature So what does it mean? That this tree will grow depending on how the modes are nourished If we act in a particular mode accordingly the tree grows in that direction And once it grows in that direction it just keeps growing, growing, growing And then how do we need an axe to cut it? That axe is the axe of detachment So then Asanga Shastrena with the weapon of detachment To the extent we are attached to material things 1322 had the word Sang And here 1504 has the word Asanga So just like how if a person is watching a movie The more they watch the movie the more they get captivated and deluded But as soon as they stop watching the movie their delusion goes away They decide I don't want to watch it Then gradually even if it is a horror movie which has been going on and on They are horrified but if they stop watching it Then gradually the effect of the horror will start going down So Sang is what entangles, Asanga is what disentangles Asanga Shastrena Drudhena Chitva Now this theme that the tree has to be cut Now every metaphor has its context So the point is that it's not that the tree will ever get cut But rather our entanglement with the tree will get cut Suppose you are watching a movie Now we decide I don't want to watch the movie It's not that we have to go and destroy the TV I don't want to watch the TV anymore So like that we can't destroy the material world We can't end the metal entanglement of everyone What we can do is we can disentangle ourselves And it's interesting right in the beginning only Krishna says That after you become disentangled As 14.5, 15.5 he says Then that's not enough Once you go to that world from which you never come back And then Then surrender to that person From whom this whole world has manifested The point Krishna is making here is That actually the just liberation from the material world is not the perfection It is after getting liberated we have to surrender to the one From whom the whole world has come That is the supreme person So then Krishna says what is the process for surrender He talks about in 15.5 So broadly speaking the first 5 verses are talking about The supreme lord And 6th verse talks about how there is a spiritual abode The whole theme is that the material world and the spiritual world How are they related So the material world is a reflection Now from the reflection from the reality comes a reflection So what is that reality That is described in 15.6 Can you recite that Together So So So it's interesting Krishna is describing that spiritual world And then we will see later he will contrast that with the material world That is self luminous It does not require any heat, light or electricity But it is self luminous and if you attain that you will not come back to me You will not come back to this world And Krishna identifies this is my abode Now but we are not there right now So it's like somebody is watching a movie and they tell Ok if you stop watching the movie what do you have Is there something attractive which you can do Oh this beautiful self luminous world where you can be So if you don't stop watching the movie then what is going to happen That is described in the next verses So Krishna is talking about how First he gives the goal of disentanglement Of the reality that is there And if you don't accept that reality then how we stay entangled So the next verses talk about How we are parts of Krishna But we have become apart from Krishna So 15.7 is a well known verse I have written this verse as Be a part Be not apart We are a part, a part of Krishna But we should not be apart from Krishna We have unfortunately become apart from Krishna So manha shashthaan indriyaani Prakruti sthaani karshati The senses drag us here there and everywhere In the material world And that is our predicament That is our trap No matter what we do The senses are very powerful And getting disentangled from the senses It's not easy Senses and the mind of course So the idea is The point here is that We may say there are so many people Who don't seem to be Just slaves to their senses So many people who may not be devoted They seem to be well disciplined They seem to be hardworking They seem to be nice people They are not just like gross sense gratifiers Yes that may be true But everybody is driven by their mental conceptions Now some mental conceptions may be better than others If somebody has a conception that I want to collect People have all kinds of hobbies I want to collect some shells And I want to have a collection of seashells I want to collect coins I was once going for a Did I mention this about the nail bag incident here? So what happened I was going from Mumbai to Pune I was in a train And I saw somebody standing over their head They had a bead bag in their hands But there was only a bead bag on their left hand So I was a little surprised Maybe they charged left I thought I said Hare Krishna It was nice to see devotees Hare Krishna So I said when were you introduced to Krishna? He said what Krishna consciousness? Oh really? I said what are you doing with this bead bag? He said bead bag? It's not a bead bag It's my nail bag I said what do you mean nail bag? He said that I want to win the Guinness I want to enter Guinness Book of World Record For the longest nail in the world So he had like a long nail And to keep it he had kept it in the bead bag Not in the bead bag in the nail bag And I could see that he was More careful of his nail bag Than we will be of our bead bag And then finally Maybe I guess about 2 years ago It might be the same person Maybe a different person But it was a person from Pune Who won that award So that was probably 10-12 years ago I had met him But anyway what happened after that The news was not that he won the record But after he won the record Then he decided to cut the nail But when he cut the nail What happened Because he had not used that left hand For so many years If one nail is so long You can't use the left hand So his hand became atrophied Because of disuse And he could no longer use the hand itself So now We may not think of this as a harmful thing But it's just a mental conception And different people are driven by their own mental conceptions So manah shashtani indriyani And for fulfilling our mental conceptions We often struggle so much Trying to get this or get that And then Krishna talks about how We stay entangled He says the soul goes from one body to another body And then soul gets particular senses According to its desires That means the soul might The soul has a desire to eat a particular kind of food Somebody wants to eat meat The soul gets a tiger's body So that it can have the nails and the teeth So that it can eat So Krishna says that Can you go to the 9th verse So The soul gets the appropriate senses To enjoy the material world And in this way the soul stays bound Now the soul thinks I am enjoying The soul is governed Can you go to 10th verse That the soul thinks I am enjoying But the soul is bound Vimudha naanupashyanti Naanupashyanti means unable to see Because one is deluded So what happens is As long as we are bound We As long as we are bound We will try to free ourselves But if we don't realize we are bound Then we will not try to free ourselves So that's how what happens to the soul The soul thinks I am free I am going to enjoy this I am going to enjoy that The soul stays bound Vimudha naanupashyanti We can't even see the bondage Because it is invisible But then They say there is no such thing as consciousness Only matter exists But to say That there is no such thing as consciousness That itself requires consciousness The denial of consciousness requires consciousness It's like suppose You have a notice board on which there are 20 notices And there is one notice over there All the notices on this notice board are false Is there any problem with that? Sorry? Yeah, if all the notices are false Then that notice is also false, isn't it? All the notices on this notice board are false Similarly, when people say There is nothing except matter existing Then who is saying That nothing except matter exists? See matter exists But matter doesn't say Whether it exists or doesn't exist It just exists So consciousness is required To even acknowledge Or to claim that consciousness doesn't exist So there is a philosopher who said that Materialism is the philosophy Of the philosopher Who has forgotten the philosopher You do all kinds of philosophy But you forget that There is a conscious being Who is doing the philosophy So materialism is itself not very Reasonable idea So if we are little observant We start thinking that our very existence Requires something beyond us For our existence And what is that beyond? Krishna says, he points that out to us In the next 4 verses From 12 to 15 He will talk about As the section is How the material points to the spiritual So if we have Jnana Chakshu If we have the eyes of knowledge Then we will see We need light We need light To look at the world around us To observe Otherwise we can't function without light So that light Krishna says Is what Comes from me Now Nowadays People are often so What shall I say Lacking in consciousness That if you ask a child Where does milk come from? Milk comes from the refrigerator It comes from the refrigerator But where does it come In the refrigerator from? Don't say that Milk comes from a cow Similarly Where does light come from? It comes from the switch It doesn't literally Come from the switch We can say it comes from The power plant But where does it come In the power plant from? Ultimately the source of all energy Is the sun So Krishna If you see 1512 And earlier there was 1506 1506 said that There is In the spiritual world There is no Sun Sunlight Moonlight Or fire that is required But here these are required And where do these come from? Krishna says I provide these That means it is by Krishna's arrangement The sun gives light So It is Krishna who has set up The system by which We can maintain ourselves Now of course we have to Maintain ourselves But our maintaining efforts Are only secondary In the sense that If it's We are in deep dark In a deep dark dungeon We can't see the sun So if you want light You have to come out of the dungeon But even after coming out Of the dungeon It's not that We produce the light We just reach the light So So this is the cosmic level The next verse Krishna talks about Of the earth level How the earth is floating in space And that is Krishna says Because of me I maintain the earth in its orbit Now somebody will say It's gravity which maintains the earth Ok That's ok But where does gravity come from? Gravity Is just a name For an existing phenomenon It's not an explanation It's a name How do planets float? It's by gravity But where does How does one object Exert One celestial object Exert some force On some other object Which is millions of miles away There is a mechanism Which is already existing And scientists have only Found the mechanism They have not created That mechanism So We might use the name Gravity for it But actually It's not an explanation In the sense of It's not explaining the origin So the scientific explanation And the spiritual explanation Can go in parallel It's not that The two are contradictory It's just like If There is a nice prasadam After this program And then If you ask How Who made this? So and so person Made this How was it made? Now how was it made That is telling the ingredients Telling how The recipe basically Now the knowledge Of the recipe Does not Contradict With the Knowledge of the cook The cook And the recipe Exist together So we could say Gravity is like the recipe But But who is it That is actually Making it happen? There has to be An arrangement behind it So both of them Move together And then Like this Krishna talks about Various sections Then he talks about The stomach And how we digest food So Now of course One common saying is That you know If I don't work Is your prayer Going to put food On your table? Well Even if Food comes on the table After food goes Inside the mouth Now who is digesting it? Only time we think about Our digestion is When it doesn't work But It's not something Which we consciously Make it work Somehow it works So all that Krishna Is maintaining it And then lastly Krishna says that It is Not only do I Maintain this particular Mechanism But it is I Who give knowledge Remembrance and forgetfulness And that's how We move forward So for whatever Function we do in our lives Whether it is Material knowledge Spiritual knowledge It is Krishna Who gives us that And then toward the end Of this chapter He talks about How There is The This is what Is being pointed towards By all the Vedic knowledge The Vedic knowledge Krishna earlier said We the with In 15.1 One who knows the tree Is the knower of the Vedas But what is the point Of knowing the tree? It is to know that I have to get out of the tree And attain the real world So the last five verses Talk about How we as souls Can understand The nature of reality That there is There are two kinds of beings There is the Finite conscious being And there is the Infinite conscious being And for the soul Who is finite To love the infinite That is life's Ultimate perfection Can you go to 19th text? 19th Let's recite this together YOMAM EVA ASAMMUDHO JANATI PURUSHOTAMAM SASARVAVED BHAJATIMAM SARVABHAVENA BHARATA So one who SARVABHAVENA BHARATA One who wholeheartedly Devotes oneself to the Lord That is the person Who is SASARVAVED It's a person Who is having complete knowledge Knowledge of the Vedas And knowledge beyond the Vedas All kind of knowledge Is there with one One who becomes Devoted to Krishna So that's the theme Of the 15th chapter Any quick questions About this? Ok, let's go to The 16th chapter now Now if we consider What is going on here The 15th chapter Talks about this Tree Of material existence Now every tree Begins from a seed The seed was 1322 Where it is said that PURUSHYAH PRAKRITI STOBHI A soul Because of the desire To enjoy Gets caught in the material world And that's why The soul goes up or down The soul The whole material world Expands So then What is happening over here Krishna says that Ok, on this tree There are two extremes There is the Divine nature And the demoniac nature So that division That means On that tree Like you remember What I said That the modes Nourish the tree So if a person Lives in goodness Somebody is Hooked to watching TV But some people might be Some people might be Hooked to watching Discovery channel And just getting Some good information And some people might be Hooked to watching Obscenity and violence And things like that So although both are Watching TV Still there is a Categorical difference Between it So Krishna is saying There is godly nature There is ungodly nature So if we consider this tree There is the Upper part of the tree There is a lower part of the tree The characteristics Of the godly and ungodly That is what We are going to describe In this 16th chapter So 16th chapter A quick overview we can do So we have Texts 1 to 3 is Godly qualities Then So 1 to 3 is Godly qualities Then there is a Different ways to classify this But we could just Go shortly From 4 onwards Till 20 Krishna talks about Demonic qualities Activities And mentalities Quality, activity, mentality And then 21 to 24 Is broadly about Choosing between the Godly and ungodly paths Choosing between the Godly and the ungodly paths There are 24 verses in this chapter Broadly speaking So what is going on In this chapter First Krishna talks about The godly qualities Abhayam, sattva, samshuddhi Jnana, yoga, vyavasthiti He gives a Various list of Beautiful qualities Which are characterizing The godly Now this godly And ungodly Can be seen in Different ways That Krishna does not mention Bhakti in any of these Directly Because Krishna is Talking about Material nature Now those who are In the godly nature They can easily be Elaborated They can practice Bhakti very easily But it may not Necessarily be that They are devotees And those who are Ungodly They are demoniac So usually you would say They are the opposite Of devotees But Krishna is not Stressfully focused Krishna is here Analyzing material nature Not so much Teaching bhakti He will go toward Bhakti later But right now He is analyzing Material nature And Now we will Go through A few verses over here Let's look at 16 7 Pravrttim We can recite together So pravrttim cha nivrttim cha Now do you remember Yesterday we discussed The word pravrtti Comes somewhere Yes Very good For the mode of passion Krishna describes three words Prakasha is for goodness Pravrtti is for passion And moha is for ignorance So here When pravrtti is used It is a slightly Different sense Here pravrtti is not just Like material entanglement But pravrtti means The action which should be done Nivrtti means Action which should be Given up So The demoniac people Do not know this They do not care for it And therefore If you don't know What is to be done And what is not to be done Then cleanliness they don't follow And then They do not have proper conduct also And So satya is As you know Truthfulness The demoniac They see truth As simply a tool to power That means A for getting power They speak truth It's helpful They will speak the truth If not They will speak something else Their purpose is Krishna first talks here About the activities And then he goes to The world view The world view is Similar to what we Mentioned earlier About the atheistic world view Which says that There is no god There is no higher reality And this world is All that there is And there is nothing Beyond this world And when we live In this way The result of living Like this is That They are always Always Dissatisfied Why is that? Because If all our desires Are centered on Getting material Enjoyment only Then there is Never enough For everyone in this world Because the material world Desires keep increasing Keep increasing Keep increasing The communist idea was that If we take all the wealth Away from the wealthy And distribute it Among all people equally Then Everybody Will become Equally prosperous But it didn't work out Like that Because what happened was That See people Need inspiration People need motivation To work So in every Social structure There will be some Kind of hierarchy Just like in a class If right at the Beginning only The teachers tell That Everybody is going to Get the same marks So what do you think Will happen if you say Everybody will get The same marks That's a good one Equal marks are zero But what do you think Will happen If everybody is Told in advance You will get equal marks Is that a bad thing No one studies Yes The lazy Will anyway stay lazy And those who are Intelligent They will also become lazy So there is always Within Human beings A desire for excellence And It is that Now The desire for excellence Itself will create Inequality Because in any field There is some people Who can do better than others So when we talk about Equality The Bhagavad Gita talks about Equality at the Spiritual level But not at the Material level At the material level If you try to Implement equality That means Currently now There is a court case Going on in Harvard Because what happened was They found that The most intelligent Students who come In these Ivy League universities Are from India and China And then at a Subtle level They were managing Things in such a way They wanted to have Diversity and inclusion So even Children who were From Africa Or from South America Or other countries Even if these kids Didn't have very good marks Still they were Given admission And there was one Indian Parents Indians who settled There in America So this child had like 5 CGPA The best you can have And it was like Impeccable record And still He did not get admission In Harvard And then His parents were furious And they made a Court case against him So now Harvard is trying to Defend But they are finding Very difficult to Defend diversity And Explain how it is Not discrimination So the point I am We don't want to Wander too much From our discussion But the point here is That In the material world There will always be Some kind of Inequality And that inequality Comes because simply Talents are Unequally distributed And some people have Talents in some fields Some people have talents In some other fields So because of this Unequal distribution of talents There will be inequality So the way to deal This inequality is Not by Denying the existence Of unequal talents But by providing Facility For those who are More gifted That they should share Things voluntarily Not that You say You are better talented No you cannot have that It's not like that So the demoniac ways Can come up in many Different ways So Why am I talking About this hierarchy is In today's world We can try to understand What demoniac means One way of being Demoniac is That I am better Than everyone else And because I am Better than everyone else I will crush everyone else So that's what Krishna Will talk about In 16th chapter When 12, 13, 34, 15 verses When he says I'll destroy this person I'll destroy I'll kill this person I'll kill that person So hierarchy Is something which Always exists in the Material world Now Those who are On top in the hierarchy If they are demoniac Then They will crush Those who are below them So that is One way the demoniac Nature can come up But the other way The demoniac nature May come up is That you You say this whole Hierarchy itself is bad So destroy the hierarchy But when you destroy The hierarchy What remains after that So there was a British political commentator Who said about communism So in communism All people are equal But some people are More equal than others What that means Although they said We'll have no classes But how can you ensure That there are no classes There has to be a Government Who will ensure That there is no class division But then the government Gets so much power When the government Gets power Then what happens is That Those who are in power They become powerful And eventually You end up creating classes So there is a So the demoniac Can work By saying that We are on top So we'll crush you Or the demoniac Can work by saying Those who are on top Will destroy you But then you destroy Those who are on top Then what happens Those who are not talented Those who are not competent Then if they are in power They can't do much So The Varanashram for example Is a hierarchy But the hierarchy Is maintained By encouraging virtue Those who are at the top The Brahmanas and Kshatriyas Are at the top And naturally They have some abilities But if they have virtue Then they can move forward Peacefully So the We see this demoniac In the modern Political discourse You say there is right And there is left Right wing politics Left wing politics So the right is where Hierarchy They emphasize that This hierarchy is important Now we have this border There is Nobody should come inside That border The left is Oh there should be No hierarchy There should be equality There should be no borders At all Now both can go Towards the extreme And extremism In either way Can lead to Demoniac ideas Now demoniac means Destroy Just destroy Whatever is there So one is Those who are on top Destroy those who are at the bottom Or the other is You destroy the whole structure itself Now it's very easy To destroy existing structures But to create Something else Is not so easy So it's often sometimes There are revolutionaries The revolutionaries They blow up a bridge Blow up a government building But then when they get power After that Then They are in power For 4 or 5 years But still this bridge Is not yet built Because to build anything To maintain anything Is tough So both ways There is demoniac nature That can come in the world And when this demoniac nature comes It can It can be very exploitative Say for example One way we see This attitude of Destroying one's opponents That is there in the world today That is With respect to this whole Issue of abortion Now Prabhupada would often say that If a man and a woman unite Inappropriately Then it is the woman who becomes Burdened with a child And then she has to take care So now There is a hierarchy There are males and females So now The current idea is Destroy this hierarchy So how do we destroy this hierarchy Well there is a difference Biologically there is a difference Between male and female So their argument is There are some very You could say Extremists on the left side So they say that Nature has been unfair to women By burdening them with pregnancy So their argument is that Pregnancy Is biological slavery And abortion Is technological liberation So with this idea They militantly Oppose Anyone opposing abortion Now this is Yes There is a particular hierarchy But like yesterday I was talking about how Nobody has it very easy In the middle world Some people may say Oh men abuse women It can happen There are men who can Abuse their power But actually Throughout history Life itself has been so tough That men and women Together are trying to face The difficulty of life Nobody has time To abuse and exploit others And like I said In the past When wars would happen There would be coal mine workers All these would be men Who would be working So hierarchies There is always a possibility That hierarchy can become abusive But if you destroy the hierarchy Then nothing is left Yeah That's true Because they are more mature About it Ok It's a It's a big subject I'll answer briefly Maybe we can talk After the class also Little bit Because I want to complete We have to complete The 18th chapter But I'll mention quickly See as far as Welfare programs are concerned Anything material Can be useful Anything means If anything is Well thought out It can be helpful And there is nothing wrong In per se Providing support To people But The point is At what expense See the idea is There was British think There was this German thinker Frederick Nietzsche Who said that God is dead Famously So he said The death of God Will lead Now God never dies But the idea that People's faith in God Has died So that can either lead to Two things Authoritarianism Or nihilism Nihilism is The complete destruction Of hierarchy There is nothing Life has no meaning Life has no purpose Rejection of all traditions And authoritarianism Is where what happens Is that Basically people Reject God And then they make The government into God And the government decides That Who will get how much money The government decides How much who can earn The government Will take care of everything So ok If somebody is old and sick The government will take care of them Somebody needs this help The government will take care of them Now the government has its place But now the government Is not a faceless entity Government is also Full of people And those people Can also become corrupted So If there is There are people with As you said A sense of honour Then with a sense of honour They can make any system Work reasonably well But what happens In general If there is any kind of Authoritarian system Then If it is governed by A person who is honourable Then it can work quite well But how long will that Honourable person last After that Some dishonourable person Might come and grab power And then to dislodge them Will be very difficult So there are Traditional systems of dependence Like In America I have studied America A little bit more But might be similar To other countries also They had the African Americans And they were Economically rising Till about 1960-70 75 But then America decided to Launch a war on poverty And their idea of War on poverty was That They would provide Governmental support Not so that African Americans Would get jobs And get education But if somebody Is like a If somebody is a single mother They would provide If somebody is not earning A particular amount of money They would provide support So by that What happened Basically Many men They started Uniting with women And stopped taking up responsibility So then Basically Similarly When if you are below A particular financial level Then you Take care Then the government Will take care of you So people will not do jobs And stay below the income level Basic income level And then get money From the government So There is basic Human nature Which is Which tends to be Go downward And if there is That is facilitated So if the government support Is in addition To the family bonds That is good But if the government Supports are replacing The family bonds Then That leads to Disruption of the structure Of society And that leads to A lot of problems In the long run So I would say that Good people are there Then Hierarchy Is it that Can everybody If there is no hierarchy at all If people are sufficient And evolved It can work without hierarchy I doubt it very much Because not everybody Will be equally evolved No matter how How much Education is there Facility is there So there is Actually I am doing a whole Three day seminar In Mumbai this Are people innately good Or people innately bad So now Today the idea is The Christian idea is People are innately bad Because we all Committed sin The original sin The modern leftist idea Is that people are Innately good But there are situations Which make them bad Now they are economically Deprived They are politically suppressed They are racially Discriminated against Now the reality Is a combination of both Combination that the soul Has an innate Potential for virtue But the mind Has an innate Propensity for vice And we exist above this So is there Are people innately good If you want to say innate In terms of the soul Yes we all have a potential For good Because we are part of God But All of us The soul is covered by the mind And most often Kali Yuga The mind has a propensity Towards passion and ignorance So therefore The potential for good Has to fight Against the propensity For evil And then come out And that's not very easy So There might be some atheists Who because of past life Or whatever They are relatively in goodness And they think that If everybody becomes atheist They will all become like us But it's not like that They might be in goodness But others will not So We have to recognize that At one level Situations can make people bad But in another level We see that even in those situations The same bad situation Can be there for two people But one person becomes a criminal And other person becomes An upstanding citizen So situations Don't produce Don't make people In a particular way Situations can prompt people To become a particular way So we at one level Can work For social change So that everybody is provided The facility to grow in life But we don't think Social change Is omnipotent In today's world The idea is that Social engineering Will solve all problems But that is You could say almost A demoniac idea Because it thinks that Through social engineering We can play God If people have Lower tendencies People like Rajas and Tamas Then No matter how much Social engineering You may do They will use it Or abuse it For their own purposes So social engineering Is required to facilitate People's potential For goodness But at the same time Because the mind Has a propensity for vice That needs to be checked And hierarchies Are required for Keeping that in check So Let's move on to Where were we I was talking about 14th, 15th verses So now after this Krishna talks about How we become entangled And This is very Can you go to the 18th verse No sorry 19th verse Let's recite this Vishwaiva yo nisho So Krishna is saying That I cast Those who are sinful Those who are demoniac Into demoniac species What does he mean by that If they are demoniac What is the point of casting them Into demoniac species That means It's not that Krishna is Like a God who Casts people into hell deliberately He is saying This is your nature Then this is the situation You are best situated So he is simply reciprocating With our actions So Basically the whole world's Purpose Is to give us Opportunity to act According to our desires Say sometimes asked That In this world The good paths The good choices are so few And the bad choices Are so many So why is it like that That's how it always is In any multiple choice exam Isn't it One right choice Four wrong choices But it's not Probability or chance By which you have to make The right choice It's education So because most souls Have these lower desires That's why Krishna Allows them to go In the lower directions And then Krishna talks about Later the three gates to hell Which are those three gates Does anyone know Lust, anger and greed Now it's interesting When Krishna talks about These three He says that They are They are The gates to hell Trividham, Narakasyaidam Dwaram, Nashanamatmana Dwara is a door Nasha is destruction So they are the doors To the destruction of the soul Now the soul By its very nature Is indestructible So how can there be Destruction of the soul So Krishna is using this In a metaphorical sense Not in the literal sense That the soul will be destroyed But rather the soul's Spiritual inclination The soul's capacity For spiritual self understanding That's what will be destroyed And then after that He talks about how Therefore Now somebody might say But then Ok I am born with a Demonic nature Then what do I do Krishna says Follow Shastra That's the last verse Of this chapter Let's recite this 16-24 tasmat shastram pramanam te karya karya bhyavastitau jnatva shastra vidhanoktam karmakartam ihar hasi So Scripture does not deny That we have our Particular nature But scripture says That channel your Nature according to Shastra And that's why Shastra Is not Uniform Shastra is Multiform Uniform means Everybody has to Follow one set of Rules But that's not Going to work Because different People are at Different levels That's why you know For brahmanas There are certain Rules of purity For Kshatriyas There are different Rules For Vaishyas There are different Rules For Shudras There are different Rules And the word Shudra can be used To talk about Low class people But it's not So much matter of Low class As it's matter of Human types There are different Types of people There are people With different mindsets Different attitudes So in a sense Scripture gives Different rules For different people But we need to Follow the rules According to our level And when we follow In this way Then we can get Elevated So not everybody Can live according To brahmanical Standards of purity But that doesn't Mean that they Should live completely Impure lives And they can follow The rules According to Whatever level They are at And gradually They will rise upwards So Shastra Is According Shastra basically Its purpose is That we have Ungodly side We have godly side Within us So that the godly side Is gradually developed And the ungodly side Is kept in check So that it doesn't Take us too much Off track And that way One acts One moves on But if one starts Justifying One's ungodly side Duryodhana When he was advised That please Return the Pandavas kingdom To them He was Absolutely Not ready To do that And one justification He gave over there Is He said Why are all of you Blaming me He says The creator Has given everyone Their nature And all living beings Act according to Their nature So this is My nature And I am acting According to my nature Now Here there is A misuse Of the word Nature Nature means He is a Kshatriya He cannot be told To become a Brahmana But Nobody can say It's my nature To steal from others And I will keep stealing Nature refers there To the kind of Occupation That one does The kind of Profession one chooses Brahmana Kshatriya Vishnu They have Particular professions But if somebody says My nature is to be lusty My nature is to be greedy My nature is to be Ok If somebody has greed There is a Dharmic way That you Use the Craving for more To work hard And earn But If there is Somebody uses that Greed To rob others To swindle others Then that's Unethical So greed itself Is not So you could say that The desire for more Itself Is not necessarily Intrinsically the problem But when the Desire for more Goes beyond Ethical limits So the Difference between Ambition and Greed is that When ambition Crosses the limits Of ethics Then it becomes Greed When our Ambition makes us Go beyond ethical Boundaries Then it becomes Greed So scripture Gives us certain Boundaries Those boundaries Are not meant To suppress us But the Boundaries are Meant to make sure That we don't Cross We don't give Unrestricted We don't give Unrestrictedly to A demoniac nature So everybody Who follows Their particular Nature According to Shastra They will Gradually get Elevated That's the Essential conclusion Of this chapter Any questions About this Ok one question Yes Similar yes Ok there Are many Slits given Are there Any differences Not necessarily But There are different Contexts Say for example Now If you want To say that If somebody Wants to become A preacher They need to Have these qualities If somebody Wants to become A counselor They need to Have these qualities If somebody Wants to become A manager They need to Have these qualities Now you could Say there might Be 80% overlap In all the three qualities But there May be some Differences The managers May need to Have certain skills Say if somebody Wants to be a preacher They need to be at least Fluent in expressing Themselves Now that might Not be required If somebody It may not be a Good public speaker If they want To be managers Or they want To be mentors So that can vary So overall There is not much Difference But based on the Thrust We can spot Specific differences How do we Understand the Extension of Various species Existence Extension Extinction Ok Quickly an answer How do species Become extinct See the body Is like a dress Is like clothes And We could say Material nature Is like a global Clothes manufacturing Company So now Say if it's Summer You go to the Shops also You might not Get any warm Clothes over there Why Is not because That company Doesn't stop Producing warm Clothes Because that's not What is suited To the atmosphere Over there So like that The body Is like a Clothing for the Soul And if the Particular Environment Changes Then particular Clothes May no longer Be viable For the soul So then Those That clothing Is no longer Manufactured by Material nature So if you Say dinosaurs Have become extinct All that It means is That particular Body for a Particular soul Is no longer Available because Is no longer Manifest because That body Is ultimately The soul Is given a Particular body So that it can Exist and Fulfill it's Desires in The particular Atmosphere it is in But if that Body itself Cannot survive well Then what is the Point of providing That body So what it Means is That simply Material nature Has stopped Manufacturing That particular Body For that Particular For some time Because the Atmosphere may Change So when we Say 8.4 Million species Exist That does Not necessarily Mean those 8.4 million Species Have to Exist at Every place In the Universe At all Times There are Always upheavals And when upheavals Are there Certain species May become extinct Certain species May be manifest More That can Happen So let's go to The 17th chapter Now The 17th chapter Is again A further study Of material nature In terms of 3 modes So The first 8 verses 1 to 8 They talk About Shraddha And guna The interaction Of modes And faith And then I think from 9 to 24 We look at the Numbers as we Move forward 9 to 24 Krishna Talks about Yajna Dana Tapa And Anna In the 3 modes Yajna Dana Tapa And Anna Anna is food In the 3 modes And then 25 onwards Om Tat Sat As Means of Spiritualizing Everything See So now Om Tat Sat As a means Of Spiritualizing Everything So if we Look at The 16th chapter 16th chapter Talk about The divine So that means Krishna has talked about The Tree which Those who are at the Top of the tree Those at the bottom Of the tree The godly and The ungodly But Arjuna has a Question What about those Who are in between His first question His question The 17th chapter Starts is Lets recite this Yaha Shastra Vidhi Mutsrujya Vartate Shraddha Yaanvithaha Teshaam Nishtha Tukha Krishna Sat Mahorjas Tamaha Janate Shraddha Yaanvithaha So those who Are having Shraddha But not in Shastra They have some Faith in something And they are Living accordingly So what is the Nature of their Faith How can we Understand this So its interesting Now Krishna says That Lets recite the Third verse This is quite An interesting Verse Sattvaan Roopa Sarvasya Shraddha Bhavati Bharata Shraddha Mayo Yam Purusho Yo Yash Shraddha Sa Ev Saha Shraddha Mayo Yam Purusho So now here Shraddha Mayo Krishna has said Two things over here That Sattvaan Roopa Sarvasya Shraddha Bhavati Bharata So according to Our existence Our faith is Shaped That means Some people Just come to a Temple And they have Such innate faith Just come to a Temple and Ya God exists They don't need Any Reasoning or Proving for that Purpose And some people No matter How much You reason And argue They just Don't accept this And All of us Have faith In something Some people Have a lot of Faith There is no Problem that Money can't Solve They will Be almost Like pure Devotees of Money Money at All costs So now Yes So The point I am Making is Everybody has Certain faith in Certain things Satman Roopa Sarvasya One of the Most famous Patriots in America I forget His name He said I have only One regret In my life And that Regret is I have only One lifetime Of serving America Now You could Say he has So much Love for His country So he has Faith in the Greatness of America So how does Different people Have different Kinds of Faith So according To our Existence Our faith Is Shaped And then Shraddha Mayoyam Purusho Essentially We are Nothing but Our faith We are Made of Our faith So Maya means Filled with Or made of Like we say Shraddha Mayoyam Purusho We are Made of Our faith So Bhakti Is not just about Chanting Hare Krishna Or coming to a Temple It is basically About changing What we have Faith in We may have Faith in our Intelligence We may have Faith in our Wealth We may have Faith in our Country We may have Faith in our Abilities And all this is Good These are things Which we require In our lives It's not bad But if these Become our Ultimate faith Then it can It will be a Problem sooner or Later So Bhakti Is about Shifting the Foundation of Our ultimate Faith from all These things To Krishna So according To our Modes We will Have faith In something Or the Other Some people Have great Faith In alcohol There is No problem So big That its Solution is Not found At the bottom Of the Bottle of Alcohol Drink And forget Your problems So now They have Faith in that So we all Have faith In something And as Is one's Faith So will One become So Krishna Is talking about Three things According to Our existence Our faith Is shaped And we are Nothing but Our faith And as our Faith is So our Existence Will be in Future So he is Talking about The centrality Of faith In our Actions And then He says That if You want To know What is The level Of people Who are not Explicitly following Shastra Then look At how They live Look at What modes They are Situated in If you Understand the Modes They are Situated in Then we Will be Able to Understand Their level So The Bhagavad Gita does Not Earlier Bhagavad Gita Is talking About The divine And demoniac But as I Made very clear Krishna doesn't Use the word Bhakti In associating With the divine Because even People who might Be demoniac They might Take up bhakti And people Who might Be divine They might be Proud of their Piety And they May not Take up bhakti So divine And demoniac We can say There is a Correlation between Them and bhakti But it's not causation It's not that Demoniac will be Necessarily away From bhakti And divine will be Naturally devotees So Our philosophy Doesn't say That anybody Who doesn't follow Our path They are all going To go to hell They say Okay If you are not Following this path Then what are the Qualities according To which you are Living And those qualities Will determine Where one will go And how do we know What are the qualities Of a person That we know By their actions And then Krishna Talks about So this whole chapter Is basically Try to understand Where a person Is going By how they are living So then he talks First about Anna So this is All this goes on Till 6th verse But then let us see Yeah So So actually This starts from 7 No 7th one What did I say 8th or 9th No it's So it's 1 to 6 Sorry And from 7th onwards You go on So Krishna talks about There are 3 kinds of food Some people Like food Which is Not very Not very spicy Not very oily Some people If you give them Food also They will say Please give me some Mirchi Please give me some Spice And then take that And they eat that And then they feel It's fun Now I am not Saying it is good Or bad It's just that We all have Particular choices In our diet So Krishna is Saying that There is certain Kind of food Which will be Dear for certain Kinds of people So by the kind Of food people Are eating We can understand There is one Indicator of Their Of their Level of consciousness So if somebody Doesn't even think About say What is Killing animals And eating them Then that is That means that Their consciousness Is very low Any kind of animal Slaughter is very bad Killing is But you know among Various animals I think there are Crabs Crabs are actually They are Cooked alive Now people Catch the crabs And then directly Put them in the Hot vessel So it's horrible So Now there you can Actually see them Suffering But still people Cook and eat So that means The consciousness Becomes so diminished There is an Indian Saint Tukaramal He says that When A slaughterer Kills an animal The slaughterer If they hold The animal Their care The slaughterer Is careful That their finger Doesn't get the Slightest cut But they are ready To cut off the neck Of the animal That means They are so conscious Of not causing The slightest pain To themselves But they are causing Enormous pain to others They don't perceive That also So basically What we eat Indicates In one way What is the level Of our consciousness Yeah Yeah of course There is no doubt about that No doubt about it Yeah No doubt But we can say Three things over there First is that Plants definitely Have nervous system And this is how Our Philosophy that All living beings Have souls Even plants have souls That's what has been Indicated by it But We can also say that The principle of karma Is that We cause As less pain As possible to others That So For G-O-G-V-S-C-G That is the principle Of material existence That One life form Is the food For another life form So We cannot avoid That principle That's why We cause minimum pain As minimum pain As possible So because The nervous system Of the plants Is far Far less developed Than that of animals Although they Experience pain The pain that they experience Is far lesser From the spiritual perspective The soul's consciousness Is developed Far less In a plant body Than in a Animal body And in an animal body It is far less developed Than in a human body So for example In a human body Say If Somebody Whom we trust Or love They betray us That betrayal That causes great pain In an animal body There is There is no such thing as marriage There is no such thing as That kind of pain is not there So Because the consciousness Human body is more developed So we can experience Deeper pleasure But we can also experience Greater pain In the animal body It's lesser In the plant body It is even lesser So because the Plant body The pain is lesser So that's why That is considered Far less sinful Second point is that Quite often Whenever We Whenever we take The Products of The Vegetarian world For our food It is more or less They have already Attained the end Of their life span Fruits More or less fall off From that If we don't Plug them They will fall off And then they will Rot on their own Crops They are more or less Harvested When they are harvested They are more or less grown If we don't Cut them at that time They will just Decay and die But usually When animals are slaughtered They are not slaughtered At the end of their lives They are slaughtered At the prime of their lives So with respect to Fruits and crops It's more or less That their life is ending But animals It's not like that And thirdly We could say that Beyond Beyond logic Or beyond This kind of reasoning Intrinsically Intrinsically we understand There is a difference Say if tomorrow Your children Come and say that Oh our teacher Has said that We are going for a field trip We are going for a picnic Where? Oh we are going to a farm To see harvesting festival So you say Okay nice It's a good thing to go and see But if the teacher Comes and says Oh Your children say Tomorrow our teacher Is going to take us To a slaughterhouse To see a slaughter festival Slaughter festival Can't even use that word Slaughter festival isn't it So We intrinsically understand Also there is a difference Between the two And of course ultimately We say that Even vegetarian food Is not enough Vegetarian food should be Offered to Krishna So that's when It's completely karma free But relatively speaking The karma is much lesser So then Basically then Krishna talks about Yajna Dana And tapa Now these three Can be understood In a narrow sense As well as in a broad sense What do I mean by What is the concept of Yajna, Dana, Tapa The remaining sections Krishna will talk about These three things As a means by which We can know What is the level of Consciousness of a person So Yajna See basically the soul exists Within three cosmic circles The circle of the body The circle of society And the circle of nature And In whichever circle we exist We need to live in harmony with it So that means That if we live in a body While living in the body The way we harmonize Or the way we sacrifice Is by doing tapa So the body Instead of indulging indiscriminately We have some kind of regulation That's tapa Then That's the way we harmonize With our body in the circle Then for society in which we are living We do Dana That's charity We give something In contribution And then with nature Or with the higher reality There is Yajna The whole idea here is That What is the level of Consciousness of a person If a person is Simply in gross Sensory consciousness Then that person will think that Okay this body is simply for my pleasure This society Is simply for my enjoyment But in every society If we take something from society We are also meant to give something to society Because that's how reciprocation is So if a person is aware That Yajna, Dana, Tapa These basically indicate The levels of consciousness of a person So a person who is in Tamas They think that Why do I have to give Dana I don't have to give any charity at all I'll just take whatever I want from society And if at all I have to give something They give also For Destructive causes What do you mean for destructive causes It's like Suppose somebody has gone To a bar for drinking And They are drunk from a bottle And they may be last Maybe last one tenth of the bottle is remaining And outside the bar There is a beggar lying over there And the beggar looks at them And they Give that bottle Tu bhi kya yaad rakhega Lele Take this bottle Now Okay you could say it's charity But what is that charity That charity Is actually going to degrade the consciousness Of the person to whom you are giving the charity So We may give charity But For what do you give charity That also determines Our level of consciousness So basically the idea is By looking at These activities How does a person Take care of their body Or not take care of their body We can get obsessed With taking care of our body And make that the Primal business of our life Or we can just neglect our body And just think I'll enjoy my senses No matter What Whether it is healthy or unhealthy For the body So By looking at How we live We can How somebody is living overall Means how much is their consciousness Related with their bodily circle With their social circle With their environmental circle So for example now We see that there is a lot of Environmental consciousness Which is rising Now to some extent There is In any area There can always be Alarmist propaganda And there can be Extreme propaganda Some people say that The ocean is going to rise so much And all the coastal cities Are going to go under water Now there are some Some scientists who said that Some scientists who opposed that And more or less Earlier the word Which was global warming But now The evidence for global warming Has been so much challenged That now they changed the word And they call it climate change Now there is definitely Some concern For how We human beings are Exploiting And disrupting the planet And that awareness of that Is indicating some level of Rise of consciousness So In today's world There are broadly four areas In which we can see A slight rise of consciousness Towards sattva One is the Environmental consciousness Environmentalism You could say veganism Yoga And mindfulness So all these Everybody needs to Take care of their health But instead of just Putting chemicals into the body And trying to take care of health People do yoga That is better than Just pumping chemicals So they are doing some discipline Sitting in some kind of postures Doing some kind of regulation There is also one way They are doing some austerity So people give charity And giving charity It's a good thing If somebody gives charity Of course if they give charity For the highest cause That is the best But if they are giving charity That is good So In one sense If you talk about Welfare programs They are good Because at least There is concern For those who are Not doing Those who are Less well off than us But another problem With With welfare programs Is often that It When It doesn't increase The compassion Within one's heart Because when the government Takes taxes from you We don't feel that Oh What happens is Because we are not Connecting with the people Who are benefiting from it So it doesn't really Increase the compassion Within our hearts But the point is Some people might Themselves be giving For some good cause And then if they understand How Krishna consciousness Is the highest cause Then they can move forward Much better So by looking at The level at which People are acting Then we can understand That There is What the level of Consciousness of the person So What kind of Yajna they are doing What kind of Daan they are giving And what kind of Tappa they are doing So Yajna means Some people Like I said Environmental consciousness Some people just Think that the whole World is there for our taking Just exploit And use And don't bother Anything about nature No we have to consider Future generations also We have to live In such a way That our future generations Should also be able to live So that's A slightly Broadened consciousness So by looking At the consciousness Of people We can see That even today's world There are a lot of Thoughtful people Who are concerned About the future They may not be Directly devotees In the sense That we define As devotees But if they are Thinking about the long term They are thinking About the bigger picture That indicate that The consciousness has evolved So It means How do they Broadly speaking I will summarize This part of that How does one See one's relationship With one's own Body and mind How does one See one's relationship With society And how does one See one's relationship With nature That vision Will determine The level of one's Consciousness And accordingly One will get Elevated or degraded So if somebody Is thinking about Environmental consciousness Then They are Thinking at least In some terms About having a Healthy relationship With nature If somebody Is doing yoga Or mindfulness Then they are Thinking about Taking care of their body In a way that Involves them Taking up some responsibility Not just Outsourcing the responsibility To take some pills To do whatever they want And take some pills And everything will be alright There is some Amount of regulation there Similarly If somebody is Giving some charity They feel some sense Of obligation To others And that is good So this way We can understand Yajna, dana, tapa In today's context And the last part Of this chapter is Where Krishna talks about The Om tatsat So actually this starts from Actually starts from Let me see 23 rather Sorry 23 it starts off Om Let's recite this verse Om tatsat iti nirdesho Brahmanas trividhas smrtaha Brahmanas tena vedasya Yajnasya vihitapura So here what Krishna is doing is He is talking Om tatsat These three words are there And often In the Broad Hindu tradition We talk about these three words As means for Spiritualizing an activity Any activity So Prabhupada also At the end of the introduction Of the Srimad Bhagavatam He says Om tatsat So the idea is Om Om indicates Now this is a whole subject And this is because it is technical I cannot go into all of it It requires a lot of Understanding of the Vedic context But simply I put what is this Om is a way of Invocation Like we say Om namo Narayanaya Om namo Bhagvate Vasudevaya Om is means of invocation Then tad refers to that And sat is real Or eternal So Om tatsat What it means is I invoke that Which is eternal That is the Simple meaning of this word So Om tatsat is Om is invocation Tad Tad refers to That reality And sat is That which lasts forever Or that which is eternal Om tatsat Is a way of Invoking the eternal I invoke the eternal That means Whatever I am doing We can do it For immediate Or short term purposes Or we can do it For eternal purpose What does that mean? That means that If somebody has some God given ability Somebody can sing well Somebody can write well Somebody can speak well Somebody can decorate well Now We might directly do that As a service to Krishna Wherever we can And that's good But if there are times When we can't do it As a service to Krishna It's for our profession Or it's as a hobby Or whatever But then If we think of it That these are abilities Which have been given to me By God And let me use These abilities For service For Spiritualizing For eternalize For invoking the eternal For attaining the eternal Or for contributing To the eternal So then In a mood of service Then that itself Will give some Eternal result So Narayanayati Samarpayami As I had said In the famous prayer That whatever I am doing Let me offer this To Lord Narayan Now people may not have The idea of Specifically Narayan But Almost across the world Those people who have been Involved in any creative endeavor Artists Or Painters Or writers They recognize that There is something Beyond this world Which we are invoking That There is an Inspiration Which enables people To do wonderful things And sometimes The inspiration comes Sometimes the inspiration Doesn't come And for that inspiration To come There is We become a channel For something higher And when that inspiration Doesn't come We do our best But we Understand that When the inspiration comes I'll be able to do Something extraordinary When it doesn't come I'll just do the best That I can in my situation So if we think of Our abilities As our abilities And if we Think of the results Of that As our possessions Then that is narrow mind That is short sightedness But when we say Om When Om Tatsa After this said The idea is That I am doing this To connect with Whatever is the bigger reality So there is a Something Higher than So Newton would say Whenever he would make Some scientific discovery He would say that Oh father I think Thy thoughts After thee That means He saw his Scientific discoveries As spiritual insights Into the way That God has Created this world What are the Principles by which God has created this He is trying to Understand that So if we have That vision So we might be Doing our job And job It might be Competitive It might be Very materialistic Atmosphere But if our mood is I am in this position And I am doing this As a service I am going to use Whatever God given Talents I have And I work Then we will be Spiritualizing our Consciousness that way So that is about Om Tatsa Now Is Phalashruti And then Arjuna's Understanding And Sanjay's Understanding Three parts to it Krishna gives the Phalashruti Then Arjuna gives his Understanding And then Krishna gives His understanding Sorry not Krishna Sanjay gives his Understanding Phalashruti Is the fruit of hearing Thank you So it is 1 to 12 13 to 14 41 to 45 And 56 to 66 Isn't it? And 67 56 to 66 And 67 to 78 So let's go over this We will try to go As fast as we can Now Arjuna's dilemma At the start of the Gita was Should I fight Or should I not fight And he was thinking In terms of Two options If I fight I will get entangled Because I will be Doing bad karma I will be fighting Against my relatives But if I don't fight Then what will happen I will be Giving up my dharma So what should I do? That is the same question With which Arjuna begins again Please tell me What is tyaga And what is sanyasa So Sanyasa broadly refers to The ashram Or sanyasa Tyaga Tyaga refers to The mood of renunciation So Krishna says Essentially While analysing this Krishna also brings The three moods over here And he says There can be Renunciation in the Mood of ignorance In the mood of passion And in the mood of goodness Renunciation in the Mood of ignorance is Ignorance and passion That is undesirable Why because That renunciation Is driven primarily By the desire To avoid trouble So If somebody says that You know This is such hard work I don't want to do hard work So then Then That is okay We should not We don't have to work Unnecessarily hard But spirituality is not about Avoiding hard work It is about Having productive hard work Practising bhakti also requires hard work So I think Maybe I mentioned this Last time when I had come that This is an example of say Renunciation in the lower moods There is one boy Who came to When I was in Pune He came once to me And he said that He is not very regularly Coming to the temple also So he said that What is the process For becoming a brahmachari here I said You want to become a brahmachari He says yes I am thinking about it By Sunday evening I will decide This was Friday What is going to happen By Sunday I said So he says I have Proposed to a girl And she is going to Reply by Sunday So if she says no I will become a brahmachari So now Frustration is no Qualification for renunciation Frustration may start Stimulating Okay because Frustration one may start Exploring spirituality But On the spiritual path also One may experience frustration So if somebody just Feels that There is too much Trouble over here Or there is Not much pleasure here That's why I want to go there But then if you get Trouble over there What are you going to do So renunciation Which is seen as a Simply as a Escape way from Life's responsibilities Or life's challenges That kind of renunciation Is not very sustainable Renunciation for us Is meant Primarily To Not to avoid The world's problems But to increase Our absorption In the Lord Renunciation is for What purpose Krishna says Naiva tyaga phalam labhed I think it is in 18 Where were you 18-5 I think Naiva tyaga phalam labhed is it Next one 5 only 6 7 It's going on 8 Yeah Naiva tyaga phalam labhed That if somebody Renounces Without A proper understanding Of the purpose Then you may renounce Oh this is very Troublesome for me So I'll give it up But no If it's troublesome That alone is not the solution So now After this Krishna says Ok then how should you work Says work With detachment So there is There is Actual And there is renunciation These are the two options Which Arjuna had Should I follow action Or should I adopt renunciation So instead of action Instead of action Or renunciation Krishna gives him Integrated vision That you can have Renunciation In action That means you act But act with a mood Of renunciation How can we act With a mood of renunciation It is if we have A higher purpose Say for example Some students are studying For an exam Now there is An immediate result Immediate result That is that They want marks But if somebody wants to do PhD in that subject If somebody wants to do Research in that subject Then the primary concern Is not just getting marks Because If they don't understand That subject properly And that is the subject Which they are going to study Throughout their life Then they are not Going to do well So we could say While working While studying One object is to get the marks But another object Is to understand the subject So if you understand The subject Then you can Go deeper into that subject So similarly When Krishna says When we work We can work to get The immediate results I want a salary I want position I want power But another purpose For working The big picture The big purpose is We work for Attaining Knowledge We work for getting Purification We work for Understanding The nature of reality We work ultimately For serving Krishna So detach Work with renunciation means That don't be so obsessed With the immediate results Of the work Understand this work Is for something bigger So when say We are preaching At one level We want results We want that People should come for The program People should grow But that's not The only purpose Ultimately the purpose Is that we connect With Krishna That we go toward Krishna That ultimately We attain Krishna So That way If we have this Bigger picture Then renunciation Will come more easily And then let's look At 18-12 now Anishtam ishtam Mishram cha Anishtam ishtam Mishram cha Trividham Karmanah Phalam Trividham Karmanah Phalam Bhavatya Tyagi Nam Pretya Bhavatya Sanyasi Namkoche Sanyasi Namkoche So Krishna says That normally When we work We can get good results We can get bad results Or we can get a Mixture of results Some good Some bad Anishtam Ishtam Mishram cha And those who do karma They will get these Three kinds of fruits But one of the sanyasi Now what does he mean By sanyasi Not one who does No action But one who acts With the mood of Sacrifice With the mood of Retachment They will not get Any of these Materially entangling Results Good or bad Or in between They will transcend And that's the Way in which We should function So now after Explaining this Krishna goes into Another kind of analysis You remember I said the last Six chapters Are about How we can Work in the world Or how to Understand From jnana To bhakti From analysing The world To transcending The world So Arjuna's question Is if I am Going to act Won't action Lead to entanglement That's a normal Understanding So then what Krishna Will do is he will Analyse the components Of action over here And then he will Talk about how We can We can Transcend With those With that understanding So first he talks about What are the various Factors in action That's 14th verse Let's recite this Adhishthanam tatha karta Karanam cha prathak vidham Vividhas cha prathak cheshta Daivam chaivatra panchamam So Krishna is Studying the five factors Of action over here What are they Adhishthanam tatha karta So let's We can understand This in different ways One interesting way Of looking at this is Say suppose Now the cricket World cup is going on Not suppose it's Going on But in a cricket Match The performance What all does it Depend on How well the Players are playing The players playing Is one factor But that's not The only factor Along with that You have to see How the pitch is How the weather is Now we could Also say that The players are there But sometimes the Players are informed Sometimes the players Are not informed The best players They are not informed Then they can't function So Now somebody might Take only one factor Oh the pitch was bad That's why our team lost Ok the pitch was bad But that's not the only factor But somebody may say Oh you have such good players Why did your team lose No even the best players If the pitch turns For one time Somebody is batting The pitch is very good And then after rains come And the pitch becomes very bad Then best players Might not be able to do so well So whenever we act There are many factors Which come into the picture And recognizing these factors Is important So if you consider The cricket metaphor We can say Karta is the player So The soul is there The soul interacts With the subtle body The soul interacts With the gross body And the soul interacts With the physical world So for the souls Actions to have results In the physical world What all is required What is the situation In the physical world That is important What is the situation In the mental world That is important And what is the soul The soul situation Is also important So The karta is the soul Then karanam Karanam is the senses The senses Are our means By which we interact With the physical world Say like now If I am going to give a class Right now over here Say Now if there were no Loudspeaker over here Now there are some people Their throat has a Natural amplifier Isn't it Even their normal speech Is very loud And some people Even their loud speech Is not very loud Isn't it You tell them speak loud Speak loudly So Now if somebody has There is no sound system Available And there is a big Ground to be addressed Large number of people To be addressed Then the karanam Karanam is the Sensory instrument That is going to matter So Try to understand in this way Say The soul is here The subtle body is here The gross body is here The world is here And the soul has to Act in the world For the result To manifest in the world This whole interaction Has to work out properly So the karta is the soul Karanam Is the instrument By which the soul Acts on The You could say Karanam is the Instrument by which The soul Acts on the physical world Then The physical world Is the Adhishtanam So if you consider We are going to public talk We are giving So now Either the person Has to have a loud voice Or there has to be sound system That is the Karanam But beyond that What all What all are needed If you are going to Give a public talk To understand The five factors of action That If the audience itself Is If the ground is very noisy Say If it's like a That's If it's like a market place And Not a western supermarket But an Indian market place Where Everybody is shouting out their wares You know What is it Three rupees a kilo Three rupees a kilo Something like that People are shouting it out So then There If that is the venue Where we are going to speak It's going to be very difficult To catch people's attention So Adhishtanam Refers to the venue It is the Gross Arena Where we are acting The Karanam Is the instrument By which we are acting On that gross arena Then If we consider Cheshta Cheshta is the endeavour Cheshta is the way The Depending on the kind of Modes That are influencing us Our moods are determined And When the mood is good When things are clicking Even in Professional circles People talk about Something called a flow When you are in flow Then you can Perform wonderfully But when you are not in flow You just can't perform so well So that is the cheshta So cheshta is We could say Our own motivation Our own mood Our own flow We Our flow Our Instrument that we have for acting The place where we are acting And ultimately Daiva Daiva is Our destiny So all these five Have to work out together So it could be that The ground is very good The batsman is in form But then it rains at that time Then you won't get any results So Krishna talks about How if we understand These various factors of action Then we can Act properly Now I cannot go into These factors very much But this The point of going into These factors is To understand How Krishna is Explaining The various Components of action So without going into Technicalities Krishna talks about After this Six things Those six things Are based on the verse I think it's 18 Yeah And based on that Krishna analyses That's text 19 So jnana Karma And karta So after this From text 20 onwards Krishna will talk about Jnana in the three modes Then he'll talk about Karma in the three modes Then he'll talk about Karta in the three modes So that is still From text 20 onwards Till text 29 Then text 30 onwards He talks about Then buddhi in the three modes Then dhruti in the three modes And sukha in the three modes So basically he's analysing Various things in the three modes We have to do some activity We have to have some knowledge With which we do the activity We have to have basic Driving knowledge Say if you want to drive a car But then Krishna uses the word Jnana and buddhi They are two different things We could say Jnana Is with respect to How we take in information From the outer world Buddhi Is with respect to How we act in the outer world So we have jnana indriyas And we have karma indriyas So jnana refers to How we take in information From the outer world And that's with respect to How we handle the jnana indriyas And buddhi refers to How we handle the karma indriyas How we act in the world And then Then we have Buddhi Dhruti Dhruti is determination While acting in the world We need to push on With determination So there can be three kinds Of determination Determination in goodness Determination in passion Determination in ignorance So what is determination In ignorance? That means That If somebody says I have no determination If somebody says Alcoholic Or somebody is very lazy I have no determination What if somebody says Oh I have no determination To wake up in the morning That means You have determination To keep sleeping in the morning Everybody else is Woken up But still sleeping on So everybody has determination But based on the modes It is misdirected We could say At one level Addiction is also determination Isn't it? That That person loses their health If a person is alcoholic They lose their health They lose their money They They become Full of themselves Sometimes while driving Under alcohol While talking Under alcoholic influence While driving They may get into legal trouble But in spite of all this They keep drinking There is determination There is determination In three modes And then there is Happiness Happiness in the three modes And the idea of Talking about happiness is That When we understand That there are Different kinds of pleasures Some kind of pleasure is Simply say Watching movies all day Another kind of pleasure Is doing some Tangible work in the world And achieving something Constructive by that So like that There are different modes And based on Understanding those modes We can analyze actions And with this analysis Then Krishna thinks that There is Varanashram Varanashram means That There is Brahman Kshatriya Vaishya Shudra And all of them Have their duties And if all of them Work according to their karma Then they all Can be elevated So can you go to 1846 46 47 48 So let's recite 46 one Yathah pravrttir bhutanaam Yena sarvam idam tatam Svakarmana tam abhyarcha Siddhim vindati maanava So siddhim vindati maanava He says you attain perfection How will you attain perfection? By worshipping By svakarmana tam abhyarcha By your work Worship him Now this is often Translated as Karma hi pooja hai Now Work is worship Is good as an ethical principle Or as a Moral principle That no work should be Looked down upon Everybody should be respected Whatever work they are doing But it is not a Spiritual principle If work is worship Then what will happen? The donkey will become The greatest worshipper Now work itself Is not worship Krishna is not saying Work is worship Krishna is saying Work in a mood of worship Svakarmana tam abhyarcha By your work Worship the lord So If we understand That actually My abilities have come From some higher source And let me use those abilities In a mood of service In a mood of Contribution Then we can Actually grow in our life This is the way we can Even if somebody is doing some work They can spiritualize their work A brahmana will actually be intellectual But if they are intellectual For the purpose of Understanding and sharing Life's deeper truths Then they are growing by that Then Krishna after this Talks about So this is karma yoga But it is karma yoga Directed with higher consciousness Then Krishna talks about Gyan yoga from 49th verse onwards And 54-55 He talks about bhakti And then when he talks about bhakti The idea is That by practicing bhakti One can attain life's perfection Then from 56th verse He talks about So this is a gradual way It's like say If we want to There is a big Skyscraper building And from one side There is a staircase And you take one step One step One step One step And a long flight of stairs We take up over there And finally we reach to the top So this is Krishna describing the gradual Incremental way of rising From 41-45 is From karma yoga Through gyan yoga To bhakti yoga But then If somebody Goes around the building And they find There is an elevator Just get into the elevator Straight you will go up So that Krishna says Is bhakti yoga So 56th can you go Ya very good So Krishna here The key word in this Is the first word Sarva karmaani Sarva karmaani api sadha Kurvaano madhya paashrayaha Ok Sarva karmaani api sadha Whatever work you are doing You can do that work But offer it to me Become conscious of me If you do it in this way You will come to me This is a direct call For bhakti yoga And This This one call Is continued And elaborated As Krishna moves forward And he says Yes you have your nature But Don't Simply act according To your nature Act according to your nature In my service So a brahmana Is meant to be brahmana But don't just be a brahmana For being a brahmana Be a brahmana For serving me If you do this You will attain me And then after that He says Moves forward In 1863 he says Now I have given the message Think about what you want to do As Arjuna becomes Deeply lost in thought Then Krishna's heart overflows With compassion And he says Oh Arjuna I will tell you What is the highest truth And then he says Sarva dharman parityajya Maam ekam sharanam vraja Aham tvam sarva papebhyo Okshai shyami Maam shuchaha So there Krishna Acharya Thakur says that If you consider the Bhagavad Gita To be like a treasure chest The treasure chest has a Upper Upper wooden covering Lower wooden covering And in between there is the Real jewels So like that The upper and the lower are The outer Top 6 chapters The last 6 chapters And the first 6 chapters And the real treasure is in between But Suppose like a big wooden chest In which People may not even take the trouble To check open And what's checked So just to indicate to them On the cover Say if There are 2 jewels That are put In the upper cover Then oh there are jewels Embedded in the cover of this Chest There might be so many more Let's dig in Let's open and find out So like that On the upper cover Of the Treasure chest These 2 jewels are put These are 65 and 66 words 65 is Manmanabha 66 is Sarva dharman parityajya And then after that Krishna Gives the falashruti He says just surrender to me After he says that then Actually last time If you remember I had come and I had spoken On the last 7-8 verses Of the Bhagavad Gita In Sanjaya's instructions I had spoken So what is happening Krishna first says You preach this message And you will be very dear to me Now somebody may say Preaching is very difficult I can't do that Then Krishna says Okay then you study this message It's like say somebody Has fallen in a well And somebody from Outside the well says Okay you just Catch this rope And I'll pull you out The person says You know if I catch My arms will pain so much Then the person says Okay I am sending This rope down There is a knot over here You just tie it around Your waist And I will pull you out You don't have to do anything But then the person says Oh but you know If I tie it around My waist My waist will pain so much So Krishna says First you just preach I would like you Hold on to the rope I'll pull you out But you can't Krishna says You just study But somebody says I can't even study It's very difficult To understand Somebody says I can't even hold on To the rope And it is tied So what Krishna says Is okay I will Send a rope Which is tied To a nice Big bucket You sit in that bucket I'll pull you out So like that That's 1871 Krishna says You just hear My message If you hear You will come to me But unfortunately What happens is While being pulled out We turn the bucket Upside down And fall down So Krishna is offering His mercy over here And then he asks Can you In 72 then he asks Have you understood clearly And Arjuna replies Karishche Vachanam Taval He says My illusion has gone And I have understood I'll do your will So this Karishche Vachanam Taval The starting question And concluding answer They both indicate The universality Of the Gita That The starting question Was in 2.7 Pruchhamitam Dharmasammudh Chetah I want to know What is Dharma And the conclusion In 1873 Is Karishche Vachanam Taval Arjuna is not saying I will fight Because fighting Is yes He is going to fight But the central point Of the Bhagavad Gita Is not to fight the war The central point Of the Bhagavad Gita Is to actually Do God's will At that point Doing God's will Meant fighting But for different people In different situations Doing God's will Can mean different things The essence of the Gita Is that You should do God's will And then after that This is where The Gita ends And Sanjay gives his understanding So The next five verses Tell about Sanjay's gratitude Oh because of Vyasa I heard this It was so wonderful Such an amazing conversation So 74th verse He appreciates the conversation 75th verse He appreciates The person By whose grace He got to hear the conversation That Vyasa gave Then 76th He appreciates The result of the 76th and 7th He appreciates The result of the conversation For him One is That he remembers Krishna's words And he remembers Krishna's form And by that He becomes thrilled And Then finally 78th verse is His indirect answer To The question of Dhritarashtra That is The question of Dhritarashtra was What happened at the Kurukshetra war So he says that He doesn't say that What happened in the literal sense He says Wherever there is dharma There will be victory So if we see The Bhagavad Gita has a beautiful Symmetry to it The starting question And the Last The starting verse has a question The last verse is a Prophesy which is the answer And thus there is a Cyclicity to it And it's interesting Dharma Dharmakshetra Kurukshetra So the first word First First First verse First word is dharma And What is that dharma So the last verse The answer is Dharmakshetra The Kurukshetra So The indication over there is that The war is happening But it is happening in dharmakshetra And the last verse is answering That wherever there is dharma Wherever there is dharma There will be victory That On that dharmakshetra In the Kurukshetra The Wherever there is dharma That's where there is going to be victory And where is dharma The essence of dharma is Where The soul And the super soul Are together Where Yatra Yogeshwara Krishna God who can do anything And the soul Who is ready to do anything for God Who is ready to fight So Arjuna's surrender Is that he is ready to fight Even against his Venerable elders For the sake of God So God who can do anything And the soul Who is ready to do anything And both of them come together That is where Victory will be And it is with this Declaration of the Bhagavad Gita concludes So thank you very much I quickly summarize what I spoke And then we can stop So I spoke today about The summary of chapters 15 to 18 15 chapter talks about The upside down tree metaphor And I talked about how Illusion, nature of illusion Can be explained through various metaphors We can have dream We can have sleep We can have Virtual reality Or watching a TV Or movie And we can have an upside down tree Which indicates reflection The point is that There is something more real Than the reality That we are experiencing right now And what is the relationship Between the material reality And the spiritual reality That is what 15 chapter talks about Essentially It is about how This world is a reflection How we struggle while We are in this reflection While being in this reflection How we can understand That there is some reality beyond And then how By Vedic knowledge We can pursue that reality That is what 15 chapter talks about 16 chapter talks about Those who are at the top And the bottom of this tree The divine And the demoniac natures And mainly it is about Krishna has talked about The divine qualities Many times in the past So he focuses on the demoniac Their qualities Their activities And their mentality And we talked about how Both Those who are on top Of the hierarchy In any kind of power structure They can dominate And destroy others And that is demoniac Or those who want to Destroy the hierarchy itself That can also be demoniac Because There will be nothing That will be result of that Nothing constructive will remain And then Whatever we are nature If we follow Shastra accordingly Then the ungodly side Of our nature can be regulated And the godly side Can be developed So are people Innately good or innately bad We have an innate Potential for good But we also have Also an innate Propensity for bad And the potential for good Will not come out automatically It has to be It has to struggle To come forth Through the propensity for vice Fighting against it And then beyond that We talked about In the 17th chapter About How do we understand People who are not Explicitly following Shastra We have to understand Their Shraddha What is the level of Shraddha And their actions Basically What is the level Of consciousness That can be seen By what food they eat And how they interact With their own bodily circle That is Tapa How they interact With their social circle That is Dhana And how they interact With their Larger environmental circle That is The Yajna And by that We can understand The level of consciousness And Om Tat Sat Is basically Indicating Invoking the Divine While doing Whatever we are doing So that It can be spiritualized It can be for higher purpose 18th chapter talks about Not action Nor renunciation But renunciation In action And how can renunciation Be done in action For that It analyzes action In various ways And explains The components of action We discussed The five components Can be understood as The soul Soul's interaction With the subtle body That is the Cheshta The soul's interaction With the gross body And the world outside That is the Karanam The senses Then the setting In the outer world itself That is the Adhishtana And then ultimately Daiva The will of destiny Then we talked about How the 18th chapter says It analyzes Karma Karta And Jnana And then Buddhi Dhruti And Sukha As various components of action To understand how we can act In the higher modes Act in goodness Then By acting in such a way With detachment One can rise from Karma Yoga Through Jnana Yoga To Bhakti Yoga Or one can directly Practice Bhakti Yoga The Bhagavad Gita concludes With the call For the direct practice Of Bhakti Yoga And it Arjun accepts that And he says Not that I will fight But I will do your will And Sanjay uses Conclusion Describing how he is Deeply absorbed In Krishna's message And Krishna's words And declaring the And reiterating As a prophecy The essential message Of the Gita That when the When God who is ready To do anything Who is capable Of doing anything And the soul Who becomes ready To do anything for God When they come together Then that is where Dharma and victory Will be Thank you very much Hare Krishna Shreemad Bhagavad Gita Ki Jai Krishna Prabhupada Ki Jai Kaur Bhaktum Kaur Premad Jai.