Gita Lite 4 – Chps 9-11

[Online introductory course on Bhagavad-gita]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So the 9th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita continues off from the 8th chapter. In the 8th chapter Krishna talks about how we need to prepare for attaining him after death by remembering him at the time of death and for that we need to remember him throughout our life. Now from this theme the chapter moves on.
Krishna himself speaks further about how we can remember if we look at the flow earlier we see that Krishna has introduced a yoga of reclusion of being of the reclusive way of life in the 6th chapter where one withdraws from the world and focusses on solitary meditation and then in the 8th chapter he compares that and he says that as compared to solitary meditation the devotional meditation is much much more easy and much more effective and now so what is this devotional meditation that will be talked about in the 9th chapter. Now each of these chapters has different names I’ve not gone too much into the chapter names because different commentators give different names and we’re focussing on concepts but this central section chapter 7 to 12 focusses a lot on bhakti approaching the divine through love and there’s a term kevala bhakti. Kevala means pure only nothing except devotion.
So the chapter 9 is talking about the knowledge that fosters devotion. This is often called as the king of knowledge and let’s look at the overview of this chapter. So first three verses Krishna talks about how this knowledge is so special and what this knowledge which he’s going to give in the 9th chapter can offer us.
Generally most of us whenever we are reading something or hearing something a question of relevance always comes up. How is this relevant? How does this matter to me? To put it in more contemporary terms what is in it for me? What’s in it for me can be self-centred or it can be simply functional and utilitarian. Even if I’m pursuing spiritual quest we all have limited time and we will do the things which will add some value to our life.
So Krishna talks about in the first three texts of this 9th chapter that actually this knowledge is very rare. This knowledge is confidential and if you understand this knowledge and apply that knowledge then you can become free from all entanglement from the bondage of karma. So now Arjuna’s concern was that if he fights in the war he will be entangled by karma.
So how can he avoid that is what this knowledge is going to tell. That’s how he makes it relevant for himself. Then Krishna moves on to the next section.
The second section is quite interesting. So Krishna’s inconceivable relationship with the world. There this is often a common question that how does God relate with the world? That when we function in the world how exactly does what is the role of God? Does God control everything or do we have free will? If we have free will then how is God supreme? Now if we consider that at one level we do understand that we are making choices.
At another level we also understand that there are quotes often whenever like not even a blade of grass moves without God’s will. So if God’s will is supreme then how does it leave any room for our free will? So Krishna uses a beautiful metaphor over here in the 9th chapter 6th verse where he states says that just as the wind although powerful always stays within the sky similarly all living beings stay within the purview of my will. Now if we envision the sky to be like an upside down ball what this would mean is that the sky determines not the specific movement of the air but the overall range of movement of the air.
It determines the overall scope the overall area within which it moves. Similarly God how does God’s will is supreme means that God gives each one of us certain framework within which we function and within that framework what we do is up to us. That means that each one of us for example we have the power of speech.
Now we can use this power of speech to abuse someone to belittle and dishearten someone or we can use this to speak uplifting encouraging truths and inspire others. So we have been given the power of speech what we do with the power of speech is up to us. Now no matter how much power of speech we have so we cannot maybe sing like a nightingale or produce sweet sounds like a cuckoo on a regular basis.
So we have certain limitations but within those limitations we have our freedom. So God doesn’t determine our actions he determines the scope of our actions and within that scope we are free. So why is this important to understand? It is important to understand so that we understand what is our responsibility.
Generally if we overestimate our capacity then we think that we can do everything. If we underestimate our capacity we think we can do nothing and both are illusions. The balanced understanding is that there are some things which we can do and some things about which we can’t do and as is the famous serenity prayer that oh God give me the strength to change the things that I can change, the endurance to accept the things that I can’t change and the wisdom to know the difference.
So similarly for us this understanding that our framework is determined by God but our specifics are not determined by God. Specifics of our choices are up to us that infuses a certain sense of responsibility within us. So now when we look at the world and we try to function in the world at that time gradually our thoughts may go from the world to God.
When our thoughts go from the world to God then you know this world is so beautiful. Who made it? Where did it come from? What is the basis for its existence? Or it may be that oh this world is so many so many terrible things are happening here. Is there someone in charge? If they’re in charge why are such terrible things happening? Either way our thoughts go from the world to whether there is something higher.
So now when we understand the relationship we understand when bad things happen in the world it is not God doing them it is people misusing their free will doing it. So there is a connection of the Lord with the world at the same time there is a distance also. He is not directly responsible for what people do in the world.
This is an elaborate subject which I will discuss later in the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita that the things that happen in the world broadly there are three factors for it. There is God’s will, there is free will and then there is evil. God’s will, free will and evil.
Now what is evil? Evil is basically not that there’s a malevolent being like Satan who exists but evil is the accumulation of our own misdeeds which makes us do wrong which impels us to do wrong and not only do wrong but do it nonchalantly and do it even with a wicked delight in it. So that will come to later but the idea is that God we need to have certain amount of perspective to when we see the brutality in the world and we do see it sometimes when we see the brutality in the world to not let that brutality make us lose faith in God’s existence or his benevolence. Now what would be the relationship of God with the world that is discussed in the now that understanding based on how people understand it or don’t understand it they conceive God in different ways such as texts 11 to 19 talk about that conception and therein the focus is on first there’s 11 and 12 texts.
Krishna goes to the two extremes those who misunderstand him those who understand him properly and those who are in between with various degrees of right and wrong understandings. So one extreme understanding is that God there is actually no such thing as God that ultimately there is just consciousness and we are meant to merge into the infinity of consciousness. Sometimes this is put simplistically or provocatively or satirically as some people say I was an atheist till I discovered I was God.
Now God doesn’t discover that he is God. If God has to discover that that would mean that he something caused him to forget and then he’s not supreme. So the thing that God is just that the idea of God is just another manifestation of illusion.
It is an illusion that helps us to come out of illusion. Their idea is that there is no such thing as God but we all want to merge into the infinity of consciousness and because we can’t merge into that immediately so we can we imagine some kind of form and we worship that form and eventually we realise that that form is imaginary and go beyond it. That is called the monistic or the impersonalist mode of thinking and now there is something right about it there’s something wrong about it which I’ll come to but in the Bhagavad Gita itself in text 11 and 12 Krishna is quite strongly quite strongly disapproves that he says he says that such people are mudha they’re deluded and he even says that those who have this understanding they all their aspirations for spiritual elevation will be frustrated.
That is the 12th text and then he talks about the test. Those who have understood him properly. What is the test that somebody has understood God properly? The test is that they stop seeking alternatives to God.
That without any alternative they fix their mind in God and if they understand God is the supreme desirable and thus they seek him and him alone. Those are the kevala bhaktas. They’re the pure devotees we could say.
Now beyond this when you talk about the kevala bhaktas the pure devotees what is their primary role? They work in the world but their purpose is not in the world. Their purpose is to serve God and overall we’ll see Krishna’s thread of thought is that Arjuna you function in this mode. Then he talks about so this is text 13 and 14 when Krishna talks about those who are purely devoted to him.
So that means the two extremes are one is those who think that Krishna’s form is illusory and then one needs to go beyond that form to a formless infinity and the other is those who think that Krishna’s form is a ultimate reality and we are going to devote ourselves to him. Now in between these two are various conceptions and the text 15 of the ninth chapter is quite a pregnant text. Pregnant means it’s a seminal text from which the future chapters unfold.
So in that text Krishna talks about three intermediate conceptions. One is ahangaropasana. It’s worshipping oneself as the divine.
The other is pratikopasana. Pratikopasana means that there are many symbolic representations of the divine and one can worship any of them and the other is vishwaroopupasana. Vishwaroop is the cosmic manifestation of God that we can just that the universe itself is God.
So basically if we look at it from another perspective the world is here and is there some ultimate reality beyond the world and what is the nature of that reality what is the nature of that reality is relationship with this world. So one conception could be that actually there is a core to me which itself is eternal and that is the eternal reality. That’s one conception.
The other is that okay that ultimate reality we don’t know what it is but let’s have some symbolic representations for it and the other is this universe itself is ultimate reality and let’s focus on the universe itself. So now this idea of the universe itself being the ultimate reality is in today’s terms might be called pantheism. Pantheism is the idea that there is nothing that there’s no reality beyond nature that nature and everything is God.
Pan is like we have a pan-american initiative that means an initiative that is extending all over America. So pantheistic means that everything is divine. Now it’s true that at one level everything can be a way through which the divinity manifests but everything is not intrinsically divine but beyond that there is the idea that so that idea Krishna talks about in the next three verses 16 to 19 and he will come back to this again in the 11th chapter.
I will discuss about it a little later. Now along with this vishnu upasana, the idea that the universe itself is made divine, in the Indian tradition many people consider this to be a polytheistic tradition because there is the idea that there are many many gods and this idea is something which is often not so easily digestible for people. We discuss this in the 7th chapter of how there is one divine but there are multiple manifestations of that divine so that it’s not so much either monotheism or polytheism, it’s polymorphic monotheism.
There’s one divine who manifests at multiple levels and gives people pathways to access. So Krishna in the 7th chapter talks about how if you can’t worship me it reveals that he’s not a jealous god, he’s a zealous god. He wants people to be elevated and even if you can’t worship me his concern is not about his own glorification, his concern is about people’s elevation.
So if you worship some higher being then that will help you grow, become elevated. So if you can’t worship me, fine, you worship someone else and become elevated. In the 7th chapter Krishna shows how even the other beings who may be worshipped, you could say there is God in the capital G and there are gods in the small g and these other gods are his representatives, they get power from him.
If he is the king they are the ministers in the kingdom and they have particular departments. In this chapter Krishna is not focussing on how he is the source of the power of the devatas of the various gods but here his focus is on how worshipping him is better than worshipping the devatas. The whole idea is that generally if we consider the overall analysis of the Bhagavad Gita, broadly in our life we need to know two things.
If say we are at a place A and we have to go somewhere else. So where to go that involves why to go there. So in Sanskrit the words are sadhan and sadhya.
Sadhya is where should I go and how should I go there. Sadhan is how should I go there. So the whole Bhagavad Gita’s purpose is gradually to establish Krishna as the ultimate sadhya.
That God is the all attractive supreme reality and he is the reality to be attained. He is the ultimate desirable and among various ways to attain him the best sadhan is bhakti. So sadhan and sadhya.
The means and the ends. Just like if I decide I want to go from I am right now in LA I want to go to New York then okay that’s one decision then that’s the destination and how do I get there. Maybe I take a flight.
Okay then which flight. So that’s the means. So basically Krishna is doing two things in these chapters of the Bhagavad Gita is establishing what is the supreme sadhya and the supreme sadhan.
So here he’s comparing various conceptions of the divine so that he can establish which is the highest understanding of the divine and he’s talking about various approaches to the divine and he’s establishing which is the most feasible way for approaching the divine. The Bhagavad Gita is spoken to Arjuna and Arjuna is already a person who knows about various conceptions of the divine as well as various approaches to the divine. So Arjuna doesn’t need to need elaborate explanation of each of these approaches rather he needs a comparative analysis so that Arjuna knows what to do.
We know that Arjuna’s question was what is the right thing to do and Krishna’s answer centres on an incremental development of thought where the first thing you understand is understand yourself only then you can know how you should function. That is the first six chapters. Understand your own identity otherwise how will you know how you are meant to act.
In the next six chapters are about understand the nature of ultimate reality. Say if we are working in a company we need to understand our role then we need to understand who is the boss and what does the boss expect and then we need to understand the work culture around this. Okay who is it what hierarchy who will do what who can’t do what with whom I how I meant to interact what is the etiquette what are the codes of conduct.
So broadly Krishna’s answer to Arjuna’s question is in these three progressions. The first six chapters focus on understand who you are. The next six chapters focus on understand the nature of the ultimate reality and the next six chapters focus on understand the nature of the world and with these three things then you can know what is the right way to act.
So the 18th chapter will integrate all these three things. So here Krishna basically compares the worship of the various gods. Now some Gita commentators use the word demigod.
So the idea is that there is one god who is supreme and just like we have a semicircle semicircle is a half circle similarly we have a demigod. So somebody who has powers much more than what we have but whose powers are not supreme. Whose powers are not the powers of the omnipotent supreme being.
That’s the demigod. So Krishna in various ways says that actually worshipping me is far better because I alone can give eternal results. Worshipping me is very simple that you don’t need purity to worship me even if you are impure still you can worship me and even if while worshipping me you commit mistakes still you won’t follow me.
You can still come back to me. So there is no excessive emphasis on ritual purity. There is.
So 20 to 28 talks about how worshipping Krishna is much better and 29 to 34 says that how it’s inclusive. So if we consider say if we are in a building with multiple elevators. So one elevator goes the building is maybe 25 levels and one elevator goes on to the fifth level.
Another elevator goes to the 10th level. Another goes to the 15th level. And another elevator goes right to the 25th level and that’s where you want to go.
Then it’s better that we take that elevator which goes to the 25th level. Rather than something else take us half the way and from there we’ll have to choose something else again. So what Krishna says is you choose this so he’s giving the comparison of the various elevators and he says Bhakti elevator takes us to the highest level and it’s also an elevator.
So suppose we park our car in the basement then and then if the elevator starts right from the basement it’s convenient otherwise we have the basement we will climb up come to some level and then take the elevator. So the Bhakti elevator starts from the lowest level from wherever we are it starts and it raises us up. So in that sense Krishna says that this is the best way.
And this is a broad overview of the 9th chapter. I’ll just take one text in elaboration from it. The world sees outside in, God sees inside out.
This is 9.26 in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna says even if you offer me a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even a little water, if you offer this with devotion to me, I will accept it. So here Krishna tells us that what he wants essentially is our heart. He doesn’t want elaborate rituals of worship.
He doesn’t need grand offerings. Of course if we are devoted to God we want to offer the best to him. And that offering the best that we can offer is the way we express our love for him.
But the point is that what Krishna wants is our love. The world often looks at the outside in. The world first looks at what kind of clothes are you wearing, what kind of car do you drive, what kind of house do you live in.
So the world looks at the externals and somebody might not have any external accomplishments but they might have a heart of gold. But the world may never notice it. Because God doesn’t look at the externals.
He sees us inside out. He sees what is in our heart first and foremost. And that’s how he accepts even the simplest of offerings if they are made with devotion.
The idea is that the externals are meant to express the internals. And if the internals are rich and somehow there is a heart filled with love, and if somehow the person doesn’t have the resources to offer anything externally attractive, externally impressive, the Lord doesn’t see that. He sees the heart.
And this is a further revelation of what God wants because it’s a heart to heart connection. Every tradition has rites and rituals and to some extent they are important. But no rite can make us right with God.
We need to make our heart right. R-I-T-E right and R-I-E-S-T right. It’s a homonym.
No rite can make us right with God. It’s not that we just do some rituals expertly and then, yes, that’s the key to please God. No, we need to make our heart filled with love for him.
The simplicity of the offering which Krishna accepts indicates that what he’s looking for is not so much the externals but he’s looking for the heart. So by understanding how the Lord is looking for our heart, that inspires us to offer our heart to and the end of this chapter concludes with saying that if you offer your heart to me, Krishna says you will surely come to me. So that is an overview of the ninth chapter.
Any questions? Okay, so I took a little extra time on the ninth chapter today because this is setting up the trajectory for the future chapters and we’ll move on to the tenth chapter now. And the tenth chapter is called as Vibhuti yoga or the opulence of the absolute. Now in this chapter, the theme which was explored previously and what is God’s connection with the world, that will be elaborated further.
So here it is said that, let’s look at the overview of the chapter, that no one knows Krishna as he’s a source of all. This is an interesting conception that at one level, we all want to know God. At another level, we all understand that there is no way that the finite can know the infinite, at least not completely.
So in this series of verses, Krishna says, now the previous one said that God is the supreme desirable. So how is he the supreme desirable? How is he the ultimate desirable objective of life? That will be elaborated in this set of verses in this chapter. And here the focus is on first, first from a historical perspective of origins, that ultimately everything emanates from the ultimate reality.
That is the theme of this particular section. Now there can be many conceptions of God, but one overall definition of God is that he, that the ultimate reality is the source of all other realities. And we can have various causes.
Say we came from our parents, the house we live in, it came from some bricks and some cement and some concrete. So we can, whatever is around us, we can trace a cause of it. But if we go behind and we go behind the cause of one thing, second thing, third thing, fourth thing, wherever this causal chain ultimately stops, that final stopping point of the causal chain, that is the ultimate reality.
Now different philosophies in the world, in the history of science, we can have different scientific theories, but beyond the specifics of any theory, one of the biggest questions, which even science struggles to answer. The science observes nature and tries to understand the mechanisms by which nature works. And that’s, they have made a stupendous discovery by that, stupendous discoveries by that.
But why does anything exist at all? And whatever exists, where did it ultimately come from? Science acts based on the presumption that something exists and that something interacts with each other based on certain laws and science tries to discover those laws. But where does all this come from? That is something which science to some extent presumes the existence of nature and natural laws and it studies the interactions. But where does everything come from? That’s a very complicated question.
And the science magazine on its 125th anniversary published a series of, published about 125 questions for which science doesn’t have answers. And the first question was, where does the universe come from? The second question was, where does consciousness come from? So not just historical origins, but the ultimate origin of everything, that is something which is quite difficult. So the one conception of God is that he is the ultimate source of everything.
That’s what is established in texts 1 to 7. And texts 8 to 11 is one of the most cherished sections of the Bhagavad Gita, which is called the Chatur Shloki Gita. Chatur Shloki means the four verses which are the most, in which give the Gita’s message in a nutshell. And essentially those four verses, what do they say? First verse says that God is the source of everything and those who understand this become devoted to him.
Second verse says that those who are thus devoted, delight in discussing the glories of God with each other. Third verse says that those who are thus devoted, God gives them knowledge, wisdom from within to make wise choices and come closer to him, become more devoted to him. And the fourth verse says, even if those who are devoted thus sometimes suffer from a deficiency of knowledge, maybe because they are not sufficiently intellectual or analytical or whatever, God makes up for that deficiency and gives the wisdom and illumination from within.
These are the four verses. And why is this concept the essence? Because I said that Krishna is talking to Arjuna about what is the nature, what should I do? So the whole Bhagavad Gita’s message is see your actions as a reciprocation of love with the ultimate reality. Circumstantially we may have to do various things.
We may be working in an office where we have to negotiate and argue and even sometimes confront. A few of us have to confront the way Arjuna has to confront people on the battlefield. But beyond the specifics of what you are doing, see that you are acting out of love for the ultimate reality.
And if you act in this way, then that ultimate reality will guide you from within and will take you closer to that reality. So the Gita’s message is that act out of love, seeing the ultimate reality as a reservoir of love. So this is the essential message of the Gita and that is condensed in these four verses.
Now after that 12 to 18 is a section where Arjuna speaks. In one sense, Arjuna has accepted and this says Krishna you are the ultimate reality, even the great sages have said this and I accept it fully. Now after accepting it, at one level you could say the Bhagavad Gita is over.
Because Arjuna has understood now that Krishna is the ultimate reality and we should devote ourselves to him. But then Arjuna asks questions. In fact the whole remaining section of the Bhagavad Gita is, you could say if Krishna is giving a class, say if a session class is going on, then maybe the class is for 45 minutes and then after that there might be questions for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes.
But if the audience is very interested, sometimes the class might be 45 minutes and the question answer might go for 2 hours. So similarly, if you want to envision that way, although the Bhagavad Gita is a conversation, Krishna’s speech is more or less over by the 10th chapter. And from here onwards, from this 12th verse onwards, everything is driven by Arjuna’s questions.
Of course Krishna is such an expert teacher that even by answering Arjuna’s questions, Krishna develops the subject further and further. So he doesn’t just answer the question, but he also takes the subject forward. But here then Arjuna, as we know, he has to decide whether I should fight or not.
And then he’s thinking that if you have to always think about God, then how does one think about God while functioning in the world? And that is the question of Arjuna, that how do we remember you while they’re functioning in the world? One way to remember is we withdraw from the world, we go to a temple, we sit in spiritual talks like this, or we worship the Lord, we chant his name. So that is more or less, we are withdrawing from the world to focus on God. But while we are engaged in the world, how do we focus on it? And that Krishna describes by the concept of Vibhuti.
Vibhuti means that any special manifestation, anything that is especially powerful. So he says that there is the ultimate reality. So the simple way of explaining Vibhuti is the one above the many manifests as the one among the many.
God is the one above the many. God transcends all of existence and he exists in the ultimate reality. But the one above the many manifests as the one among the many.
That means the ultimate reality manifests through the attractive objects of this world. So if you consider a flower, some flowers are very attractive, some birds are very attractive, some animals are very attractive, some natural sceneries are very attractive, some people are very attractive, some people have some, not just physical attractiveness, some people may be intellectually brilliant, some people might be having some special skills that make them brilliant. So now Krishna says that whatever attracts us in this world, that is actually a manifestation of his supreme attractiveness.
It comes from him. Everybody’s capacity to attract, everybody’s capacity to do anything attractive, that comes from him. So while we are functioning in the world, say we are working in professional setting and we might see some colleague, some boss or some other professional who is just brilliant.
We might become envious or we might become insecure. This person is so good, what good am I in front of that? Now of course at a functional level we have to do what we have to do. But instead of just seeing, oh this person is so brilliant and I am inadequate, we see that actually this person’s brilliance is a gift of God.
And then what happens is, it’s not just that person is brilliant, but that person we see the brilliance is. If this person is brilliant, then how brilliant must God be? If some people are just so attractive that wherever they go, they just captivate everyone. That might be physical attractiveness, it might be intellectual attractiveness, it might just be behavioural attractiveness, whatever it is, they just captivate everyone.
So then what the Bhagavad Gita says is, everybody’s attractiveness is a spark of the divine’s attractiveness. You can use two metaphors for this. One is the sun and the spark.
A sun can give infinite light. If it’s completely dark, in a spark, the light it gives is significant. Although it may not be adequate, but still in darkness a spark stands out like nothing else.
So the attractive manifestations around us, they are like sparks. And Krishna says, I am the sun. So if the sparks remind us of the sun, and when we interact with the sparks, rather than getting captivated by them, we appreciate their warmth or their light, but we try to move toward the sun.
That is the balance we are functioning. The other example could be an ocean and water drops. Suppose somebody is in a desert and say they are over here, say where the middle finger is, and then there’s some water over here, some water here, and some water here.
And say the ocean is further here, which means in a particular direction. Now if there has been a storm or whatever, some water drops may be sprinkled here, some here, and some here. So some water drops may be sprinkled in the direction that takes them toward the ocean, and some water drops may be sprinkled in the direction that takes them away from the ocean.
So now it is for the person to understand where the ocean is. Now for a person who is thirsty, the sight of water, even water drops, is a sight of great relief and joy. But they need to look at those water drops which are taking them toward the ocean, and not those water drops that are taking them away from the ocean.
So similarly, everybody’s attractiveness comes from Krishna. But as I mentioned earlier also, everything attractive comes from Krishna, but everything attractive doesn’t take us to Krishna. So in the case of opulences, we could say that all opulences come from God, but not all opulences are manifested in people who are godly.
Say if somebody sings very beautifully, and if they sing spiritual uplifting songs, then they raise our consciousness toward God. But if somebody sings songs about sensuality, about violence, they bring out the darker desires in us. Then both of them might sing with the same sweetness.
Their musical ability might be equal or at least equivalent, but the effect on us won’t be equivalent. So here Krishna says that, see everything attractive is coming from me, and instead of getting captivated by that alone, you focus on those attractive manifestations which are taking me toward you. So there may be many speakers who speak brilliantly, but if the speakers are not speaking about anything related to the ultimate reality, some politicians can become speakers, and if somebody wants to learn about politics, it’s fine to hear from a good speaker.
But politics can’t take us to ultimate reality. Politics is all about the world. So if somebody is very captivated by a political speaker, or a motivational speaker, or some other kind of speaker, somebody might be just a comedian, and they might speak, they might just be hilarious.
But is that taking us to an ultimate reality? If not, then we have to be cautious that we appreciate the capacity for comedy, and we appreciate that they are getting it by the grace of God, but that may not take us toward God. So Krishna tells Arjuna that now in this battlefield, you will see great warriors who are on the side of virtue, and great warriors on the side of vice. So don’t just be carried away by their greatness, or they are so great, how can I fight against them? But see whether they are on the side of virtue or on the side of vice? Or is offering your reverence to them, or offering your submission to them, is it going to take you toward virtue and towards divinity? Or is it going to take you away from virtue and divinity? When you analyse in this way, then we can appreciate the attractiveness of everything, but we won’t get captivated by everything.
We will select where to focus on, and that way advance towards spiritual elevation, towards the ultimate reality. So this is the overall theme of the 10th chapter. Now in this specific 10th chapter, there will be many specifics about manifestation of the divine that are to some extent culturally contextual.
So Krishna says among mountains I am Meru, among immovable objects I am the Himalayas, among rivers I am the Ganga, among animals I am the Lion, among aquatics I am the Shark. So some specific examples Krishna gives. This list Krishna himself says at the start as well as at the end, in text 20 as well as in text 39-40, that this list is indicative, it is not descriptive.
So in Arjuna’s context, these are the extraordinary manifestations that are known within that culture. Now of course, some of those manifestations transcend that culture, but the point here is that even if all the names they seem to overwhelm us, we don’t have to get caught in the specifics of the names. We understand the principle, what Krishna is saying is, whatever is attractive in this world, its attractiveness is a spark of Krishna’s attractiveness.
And rather than getting attracted to it in isolation, we see its attractiveness in connection with the source of the Supreme’s attractiveness. And thus, we can progress towards the Supreme by functioning in the world, we look at the attractive objects of the world, but don’t get captivated by them. That’s how Krishna answers Arjuna’s question, how to remember him in this world.
So I’ll focus on one theme from this chapter. This is 10-10 from the Chatur Shloki Bhagavad Gita. This Krishna says, If those who are devoted to me, I give them the intelligence by which they come to me.
The theme that I have taken over here based on the Gita Nilayar article is, choosing Krishna is the one choice that empowers us to make better choices. What that means is that we often face many choices in life. Should I do this? Should I do that? Should I do that or this? And it’s sometimes very difficult to choose among them.
And especially in today’s world, choices before us have multiplied enormously. If I just want to buy a laptop, there could be hundreds and hundreds of brands. How do I choose one? If I want to buy a phone, there are hundreds of phones.
If I just want to watch some entertainment, I can choose between a thousand movies and maybe a thousand websites or a hundred channels. So even for something which is, you could say, not very consequential, like say watching a movie, there are so many choices. Something which is a little more consequential, say a phone or a laptop which I’m going to use, that’s more consequential.
There are so many choices. So we are confronted with choices constantly. And how do we choose among them? The idea is that generally when there will be sailors, they would be on a boat or a ship and then they wanted to navigate.
The first thing they would do is not look immediately ahead. They first look at the sky, look at the pole star and align yourself according to the pole star. And once you’re aligned with the stars, then you move your ship or you move your oars accordingly.
If you just look at the ocean around us, if you’re close to land, that’s fine. But if you’re in the big vast ocean, the sea around us, the infinity of the water around us will just bewilder us. So they look first at the sky, look at the stars and align themselves accordingly and then take the steps.
Similarly for us, while we function in the world, first align with the star, align with the supreme star, align with the ultimate reality. Just like the pole star is a fixed north. So similarly for us, God is the ultimate reality.
So orient yourself around God. That is everything that we have to do. Is this going to take me closer to Krishna or is it going to take me away from Krishna? Now some things we may say that they’re not very consequential.
Whether I wear this dress or that dress, that maybe doesn’t make much difference. Of course, we dress appropriately according to occasion, but there are some choices in our age which are very important. So the kind of people we associate with, the kind of profession that we have, how much of our time and our energy and our consciousness our profession consumes and how much of it is available for us and what kind of food we eat.
All these are important, but the idea is first choose Krishna. So in our day, we begin with our spiritual disciplines. We begin with maybe some meditation, doing some prayer, doing some spiritual reading.
So choose Krishna and then that will align with the stars. Then that is a choice that empowers us to make all our other choices better. That gives us inner clarity, that gives us inner perspective and not only from our own side, we get clarity and perspective.
With respect to the pole star, the pole star is just there at one place and we align ourselves. But Krishna says he does something much more. What he does is, he is not just a distinct fixed object of contemplation.
He’s also a person who gives reciprocation, who offers reciprocation and gives guidance. So Krishna, if we choose him, and if we show him that we want to choose him, then he will guide us to make other choices. He will illuminate us from within.
It might be an idea, an inspiration, a sudden insight, or it might be through some of his, we get signs from the way things are happening in our world or some people, we meet the right kind of people who give us the right insights, whatever. How Krishna will guide us, that will vary from situation to situation. But choosing Krishna is the one choice that empowers us to make better choices.
And the idea over here is, again, whenever we see any attraction in the world, we are going to be captivated by that. Of course, if there is any attraction in this, we will take it, choose that and then make all of the choices thereafter. So that was the 10th chapter.
Any questions till now? Hare Krishna Prabhuji, I have one question. So this is regarding one thing that you mentioned, that God does not look at externals and he focusses more on our heart. So I just wanted to understand that, if someone is more focused on the rituals, does it have any benefit? Or could you explain that, how it’s balanced out with the intention and the action? Okay.
So if somebody is focused on the rituals, does it have any benefit? I did not say that God does not look at the externals. What I said is, God sees inside out. God sees what is inside first and then he sees what is outside.
So the word ritual often in today’s world has got a negative connotation. Don’t do something ritualistically. All these people are too ritualistic.
That means something is just done perpetually without any understanding, without any… just for the sake of doing it is done. But the word ritual doesn’t need to have that kind of negative connotation. Rituals are there everywhere in life.
Then we meet people, we shake hands. That’s a ritual. In some other traditions, people might salute each other, people might go from the waist, some people might rub their noses against each other.
These are all rituals. Just because some rituals are so familiar, that doesn’t mean they stop being rituals. And what does a ritual essentially do? It gives structure to an interaction.
If we didn’t have a ritual of shaking hands or maybe folding hands or going from the waist or whatever, then when we meet a new person, how do we express our respect or our warmth? We wouldn’t have that. So rituals give structure to our interactions. And that’s since rituals are important.
And it’s not that rituals are unimportant. But suppose somebody is shaking somebody else’s hand, but while shaking hands inside they’re conspiring, I want to kill this person. That is not ritualistic, that is hypocritical.
It’s terrible. So here we can talk about something inside and something outside. So what a ritual does, ideal situation is, there is something inside and the ritual gives a structure by which it is expressed outside.
So we want to cordially greet someone whom we have met. So that warmth and cordiality is there and we express it through the ritual of shaking hands. So if the inside is not there at all, and sometimes we may not be very happy to meet someone, but then we still go through the ritual of shaking hands.
So even when the inside is not there, just maintaining the outside is culture. So sometimes we may not feel any respect for someone, but we may feel like yelling at them. But we don’t.
Especially if somebody’s older to us. And it’s not just because they’re more powerful, but it’s just out of culture. We don’t yell at our neighbours.
So that is, the inside may not be there, but we try to maintain the outside. That’s some extent culture. But when the inside is not there, and when the inside one doesn’t even desire to be there, when the inside one is planning something exactly the opposite of what one is doing outside, then that is not at all good.
That is deceptive. So based on these three things, the external expresses the internal, or the external expresses our desire for the internal. I’m feeling angry with you, but I’ll be cordial with you.
Or the external conceals the internal and conceals the other person. So these could be three broad ways in which the external and internal may relate. So same principle applies to approaching God.
The externals, the rituals, whatever they are, they are ways in which we express our devotion. So now in the Indian traditions, we may hold our hands and offer our respects to God. In the Muslim tradition, they may raise their hands in front of them in a mass.
The Christians may offer mass. Now these are all, these are all rituals through which we are expressing our respect for God. The rituals themselves are at one level meets and every tradition has its, what can be called the exoteric aspect and the esoteric aspect.
The exoteric is the external, the esoteric is the internal. So the exoterics can vary. Now some people, when they do rituals, the rituals give structure to their inner devotion.
So when we go to a temple, we offer our respects to God, we offer our obeisances. That’s a ritual, but it gives structure to our devotion, structure to the expression of our devotion. Sometimes some rituals may really have nothing to do with the internal.
But that means, now does shaking hands itself, it’s just one way of interacting with people. But within the spiritual tradition, often the rituals are designed in a way that they actually engender that emotion. So if I just lean back like this, and then I put my leg on the desk where I’m sitting, and then I say, I put my hand behind my, and then I say, I’m feeling very humble now.
Now, obviously this is a bossy posture. It’s very difficult to feel humility. But similarly, there are certain externals which are conducive for developing the internals.
So basically, as I said, the rituals can be means by which we express our internal devotion, or the rituals can be means by which we gradually kindle that internal devotion. And both ways are good. But in the third case, where there is no desire for any inner emotion of devotion, one just makes a show.
So that people will think, Oh, I’m such a good person. So there are sometimes some celebrities, if they live in a pious culture, they may go to a temple. So in India, we have a temple in Juhu, which is the place where many of the Bollywood stars stay.
So sometimes on Janmashtami, or some big Krishna festival, they go to a temple. And after that, many of them will have photos clicked, and then they will put them on their Facebook and Instagram. Oh, I went to his conduct on Janmashtami.
Now, some of them may be genuinely devoted. But sometimes the way they do it is, they are not going to take darshan, they are going to give darshan. They are going there not to see God, but to be seen by the world for having gone to see God.
So that may not be at all spiritual. Again, I’m not judging anyone particularly, but I’m just giving an example of when somebody does an external without any desire for the internal, just to make a show, that is hypocritical. And many ritualistic people can go in that third direction, where only the external is there, and not only the internal not there, but even the desire for the internal is not there.
Then that is quite alienating. Now, we could go to the other extreme and say, then why do you need rituals at all? But then how will you express your emotion? Everything that is internal has to be expressed in some way. And we need some structure for that expression.
So if you meet people, we need to greet them in some way, some warmth, some gesture of warmth and cordiality has to be there. Similarly, some people nowadays say that, I want to be spiritual, but not religious. And in one sense, what they’re trying to say is, they equate being spiritual with being open-minded, and they equate being religious with being narrow-minded or bigoted or fanatical.
And they say, I want to be spiritual, but not religious. That intent is fine. It should be appreciated.
Nobody should be close-minded and bigoted. But the point is, we can also be spiritual and religious. Not religious and narrow-minded, say, narrow-minded sense, but that if we want to be spiritual, how will we express our spirituality? Whatever it is that we do to express our spirituality, that is our religion.
The word religion has a negative connotation today. Rituals have a negative connotation. But the idea is, religions and rituals themselves are not bad.
They are just pathways. So rituals are also important. But the problem is that sometimes people just focus on the externals and they insist that these externals have to be done this way only.
And if you’re doing it in any other way, that means you’re wrong. So the external is not unimportant, but the external should express the internal. And we should also recognise that there can be different externals in different contexts.
But if we do only the rituals without being concerned about the internals, or we make the externals as the only possible, only right externals, then it is undesirable. Does that answer your question? Yes, thank you so much, Babuji. Thank you.
Any other question? Okay. So we’ll go to the 11th chapter now. And this chapter is a long chapter.
Again, it’s 55 verses. The longest chapter in the Bhagavad Gita is the last chapter, which has 78 verses, 18 chapters. The second longest chapter is the second chapter, which has 72 verses.
And this is the third longest chapter, which has 55 verses. And this is also one of the most visually dramatic chapters in the Bhagavad Gita. Visually dramatic means that actually there’s some action over here.
It’s like, say, suppose a class is going on. And right in the middle of the class, maybe the speaker is describing some story of this happened, and this demon came, and then this celestial person, this divine personality came, and then there was this battle. And then while this is going on, suddenly you hear a big roar from the back side.
And all the audience turns and says, what’s going on? And then on the back, there’s a stage and the same story that the speaker was narrating is depicted over it. So some of the audience might have lost interest in just the verbal description going on, but suddenly there’s a visual depiction of it. Everybody perks up.
Everybody gets captivated. So like that, whatever Krishna has described till now, especially in the last couple of chapters, that will be visually depicted in the 11th chapter. This is called the Vishvarupa Darshan, or the exhibition of the universal form.
So it begins with Arjuna asking a question. Like I said, after the 10th chapter, it’s almost like the Bhagavad Gita’s question-answer session has begun. So almost every chapter begins with a question.
So here Arjuna says, Krishna, you told me that actually everything, that you are the source of everything, you’re the sustainer of everything, that the whole universe has come from you, that everything attractive in the universe gets its attractiveness from you. So this relationship with the universe, that you are the source of the universe, that you contain the universe, can you demonstrate this? And then this description is so amazing that actually Krishna doesn’t, this revelation rather, the revelation of the universal form is so amazing that Krishna has to give some context to it. Suppose say we go to a planetarium and the planetarium is describing something, some remote part of some remote galaxy where we might have all kinds of strange objects.
And before starting the exhibit, the guide may first describe, this is what you’re going to see. There’s this, you’re going to see this, this, this, this. So we see things not just with our eyes, we see them with our intelligence, which helps us to make sense of what we see.
Suppose somebody’s in the stock market and somebody comes from a rural area where they know nothing about the stock market. Then there’s a big screen in the stock market and everybody’s glued to it. And there’s a graph and the graph just crashes.
And everybody just catches their head and everybody’s hyperventilating, some people might just get a heart attack. And this person who’s come from a rural background, why are you so overreacting? What happened? Just one line went down on one screen. But it’s not just one line going down on the screen.
It’s everybody else, they’re seeing that, but they are also, they are seeing with their intelligence. What does this line mean? If I mean all my savings, the value has crashed down. So we don’t just see with our eyes, we see with our intelligence.
So similarly here, because Krishna is going to show Arjuna something so extraordinary here. So first he says that, I will show you, I will tell you what I’m going to show you. So 1 to 4 is Arjuna’s question, 5 to 8 is Krishna’s description of what he’s going to see.
Now, once we get into the Bhagavad Gita, it’s quite easy to forget that actually it is a, it is a nested conversation. The Bhagavad Gita begins with, there is Dhritarashtra who is asking questions about what is happening on the war field to Sanjay, who is seeing what is happening on the battlefield. Dhritarashtra is blind.
So then Sanjay is seeing what is happening on the battlefield and Sanjay describes. So the universal form is described in three ways. First Krishna describes what I’m going to show you.
Then Sanjay describes what is being shown by Krishna. And then Arjuna describes what he is seeing. So that is 5 to 8, 9 to 14.
And then the most detailed description is from Arjuna. Because Arjuna had asked, I want to see this form. And Krishna said, yes, I’ll show it to you.
So Arjuna’s description of the universal form, what does he see? Now, what is he asked? Krishna, please show me how the universe is contained within you. And then Krishna shows and Arjuna sees that everything in the expanse of the universe, from the highest level to the lowest level, it’s all present within that manifestation. And he says, I can’t even figure out, I can’t understand where is the beginning, where is the middle and where is the end.
It’s just so vast. And he is astounded and thrilled. And he identifies the universal form.
But then after that, Arjuna’s thrill changes to almost terror. He becomes apprehensive, becomes fearful. Why is that? When we talk about the universe, we often talk in terms of space.
The universe is so big. We talk about it in terms of spatial terms. But there is not special, spatial, S-P-A-T-I-L.
And you can also talk about the universe in terms of time. Now, in Einstein’s space-time continuum, he talks about time also as another dimension. Still, but he also admitted that time, although he integrated it as a fourth dimension in space-time, he also recognised that time is not like the other dimensions.
It is length, breadth, width. We can go forward, we can go backward. We can go upward, we can go downward.
But in time, we can go only forward. So time is something special. We have not found any means to go backward.
And even whether we can actually go backward in time, and especially when we go backward, can we change things in time? That’s a complex philosophical question. Because say, the famous grandfather paradox, say, if person A goes into the past to the time when his grandfather is young and not yet married, and descends into that time and kills that person, kills the grandfather over there. Then the grandfather doesn’t get married, the grandfather doesn’t have any children.
Then there’s no father, and there’s no father, there’s no person. So this person goes and kills the one who is the source of himself. So then would he himself exist? So time travel in science fiction movies is often shown as just a thrilling concept and the plot twist.
But how it will work practically is very complicated. So the Bhagavad Gita, why I’m talking about time over here is that when Krishna shows the universal form, he doesn’t just show the spatial aspect of it. He shows the time aspect of it also.
And time aspect means that he shows how in the future, what is going to happen. That the warriors on this battlefield who have assembled, they’re all going to be destroyed. And at one level, this 11 chapters description can seem quite ghastly.
It’s described that this universal form has its mouth wide open. And with the mouth wide open, all the warriors are entering that mouth. And there’s a fire coming out and they all get destroyed.
They’re all devoured. Now, what is going on over here? What kind of, is this divinity or what is it? The universal form is a revelation. Revelation for a particular purpose.
That is that to first of all depict the nature of the reality of the world and to show the nature of the reality of the world as connected to the nature of ultimate reality. So destruction is an inevitable intrinsic part of this world. Even though we may want to deny it, we don’t focus on it, but destruction is very much a part of the world.
Now, a theology that is unable to incorporate this destructive aspect of nature is a very incomplete theology. A theology that says, say that God is just all love. And fine, but I don’t find the world very loving.
And how exactly is God all love? So what’s going on? So what the Bhagavad Gita says is that the destruction is an intrinsic part of the world, but the destruction of the temporary can increase one’s redirection towards the eternal. Sometimes they’re attracted to temporary things. And that’s why we don’t focus on the eternal things.
Just like a child who’s just playing with toys, toys, toys. The child has to study, but the child is not ready to study. Then the parents just take away the toys.
The parents say, now, if you don’t study, no more video games for you, no more this, no more iPad, no more this. And then when that object is taken away, the child cries, the child will say, the parents are so cruel. But actually the parents are not being cruel.
They are actually being kind because the child needs to do bigger things in life. Before that the child has to study. So the point, if we just see it out of context and see there’s all these warriors going into the mouth of Krishna, not Krishna, the universal form, see what kind of vision of divinity is this? But if you understand the context that the destruction of the temporary is essential for redirection of the heart towards the eternal, then it’s like children, we are all souls and sometimes we just become like children who are captivated with toys.
And then sometimes the toys have to be taken away from us. And that’s what, okay, what is there in life which lasts? What is it that really counts? That is what we think about these higher realities. So the Bhagavad Gita describes this universal form in a way that is inclusive of the destructiveness that is there in each.
And then along with that, Krishna also has a specific purpose over here. Arjuna is thinking, oh, I should not fight. I should not cause such violence.
I shouldn’t cause such destruction and death. So Krishna tells Arjuna that actually it’s not you who are causing their death. They, the warriors who are going to die, they’ve already done such karma by which they have to die.
Suppose somebody has done some terrible crimes, a serial killer, a serial murderer, a terrorist, has killed many, many people and they have been duly judged and they have been given capital punishment. And suppose the executor who is to do that, the executor says, no, I can’t kill. Well, even if the executor says I won’t kill, first of all, just the executor is not killing, is not going to save the person because the executor is not killing.
The executor is only executing an order which has been given because of those people’s misdeeds only. So Krishna is telling Arjuna that actually you are simply an instrument over here. They are going to die because of their own misdeeds.
And Krishna says that I have already ordained their death. That means based on their karma, that if we consider Krishna to be the ultimate judge, I have already ordained their death. And you cannot, even if you don’t, then I will arrange this in some other way.
But if you do your duty, then you get the credit. You come emerge as a hero. But this 11th chapter at one level, the magnificent description of the universal form is attractive, is captivating, but then the destructive aspect is sobering.
And after seeing this, then Arjuna offers prayers to Krishna. And Arjuna, this is the prayer that is 35 to 46. And so Arjuna and Krishna have a friendly relationship.
And then Arjuna becomes a student of Krishna. And here now, Arjuna becomes almost like a worshipper. He says, Krishna, you are so great.
I want to offer my obeisance to you. But how do I offer? Because you are everywhere. If you go to a temple or a sacred place, you may go down in a particular direction.
But if there are divine images all around, you may wonder where do we go down to? So he says, I go in the front, I go in the back, I go in the left, I go in the right, I go hundreds and thousands of times to you. And then he says that, my dear Lord, you are manifesting this magnificent form, but this is scary. Please show me your attractive two handed form.
And then Krishna reveals that form. Initially, Krishna plays a little bit with Arjuna and he says that, actually, this universal form, which you’re seeing, this is so grand, this is so magnificent, so rare. You’re getting this vision.
Just enjoy this vision. He says, it’s rare. Arjuna says, it’s rare, but I’ve had enough of this.
This is scary. And Arjuna wants to relate with God as a person who is his friend and whom he can serve. Then the Bhagavad Gita concludes with a description that, yes, this universal form is rare, but the rarer still is the personal form of God.
Rarer still is the form in which God relates with his devotees in a personal form where both of them can treat each other as persons. If there’s a cosmic form, how will you relate with them as a person? So that personal manifestation of God is the supreme manifestation. Krishna concludes by saying that it is by bhakti that this, it is by devotion that this form can be manifested, that this form can be appreciated, this form can be loved.
And it is devotion that will grant us all visions. So Arjuna cultivated devotion. That is the message of the 11th chapter.
And this is one theme for the 11th chapter, overall theme. Bhakti renders the metaphysical physical and the physical metaphysical. The metaphysical refers to that is philosophical.
Now philosophy is called metaphysics, but metaphysics is basically a branch of philosophy. The idea is there’s physical reality. And is there some reality beyond this? And if it is there, what is the nature of that reality? So that is what is studied by metaphysics.
So what bhakti does is, we started by discussing about in the second chapter that there’s the body and then the soul, there’s matter and there’s spirit. And there’s this dichotomy between matter and spirit. The differentiation needs to be understood that the real person is not the physical body.
The real person is the spiritual spark. So there’s differentiation is there. But there is also integration.
The way to the spiritual is through the physical. Like we talked earlier about the rituals. In bhakti, we do certain physical actions.
And through those physical actions, we actually approach the divine. So the physical actions, we connect with the divine. So bhakti renders the metaphysical physical and the physical metaphysical.
How the metaphysical physical? Just like in this 11th chapter, that transcendental divinity of the absolute is manifested in a visible form, an extraordinary form. So that which is a higher spiritual reality is manifested at the physical level. We go to the temple and there are sacred images over there.
Somebody might say these images are just stone. Then they are stone, but they’re not just stone. Why? Because a devotee desires to worship the Lord, then the Lord makes himself accessible to the images.
It’s like we may have an ordinary piece of paper and you might have a $500 bill. Now both of them are just paper, but they’re not just paper. The $500 bill has far greater value because the government has authorised that particular piece of paper.
This is just a simple example, but the point is that what something is made of alone doesn’t determine its value. Yes, the temple, the sacred images, which we call them as deities, they’re never made of stone or marble or wood or whatever, but they’re not just that. The metaphysical, the spiritual is manifesting at the material, physical level through that channel.
So bhakti renders the metaphysical physical and the physical metaphysical. What that means is that the physical actions that we do, they get imbued with metaphysical significance. They enable us to connect with the ultimate higher, with ultimate reality.
So the mantras that we chant, at one level, when I throw this chant in the mantras, it is more or less the same as when we speak some other sounds. These physical sounds we are uttering, but they’re not just physical sounds because these are sounds about the divine, the sound which are invoked with a desire for expressing our devotion to the divine and thus the physical sound is infused with metaphysical potency. This is a complex theological concept, but this is one broad theme that at first we understand the difference between the physical, the material, the spiritual, the physical, the metaphysical, but afterward we understand that they’re connected and that connection is both ways.
Spiritual can manifest at the material level and the material can be used to access the spiritual level and that is the dynamism of bhakti. So I’ll summarise what I spoke today. I spoke on the theme of how these 9th, 10th and 11th chapters, they take the flow of the Gita ahead.
They take it ahead by first, they help us understand that bhakti is the supreme reality. So the Bhagavad Gita’s flow is talking about helping Arjuna understand what is the ultimate destination and what is the process to that destination. So it says that Krishna is the ultimate destination, bhakti is the means to that destination.
And then further it says that actually we talked about the Bhagavad Gita’s flow. To know what is the right thing to do, understand who you are, understand what is the ultimate reality and understand what is the nature of the reality around you. So in the middle 6 chapters focus on the nature of the ultimate reality.
So the nature of the discussion of how the ultimate reality relates with the world, how people conceive their ultimate reality in different ways and how the personal divinity is the most appealing and accessible form of divinity. Like an elevator can take us from the bottom to the highest level. That we discussed in the 9th chapter.
The 10th chapter was that how the ultimate reality is the source of everything and life is a reciprocation of love between us and the ultimate reality. And that’s the Chaturthi Gita. And especially while functioning in the world, how do we think of the divine? That is by seeing that everything attractive in the world is a manifestation of the divine.
And thus we can focus on those manifestations that take us to the ultimate reality and not the other manifestations. And the 11th chapter was a visual demonstration of how God sources and sustains the universe. And within that not only the spatial dimension but the time dimension is also there.
The Bhakti theology incorporates the destructiveness of the world within its conception of divinity. In fact I think that sometimes destruction of the temporary is necessary for redirection towards the eternal. And ultimately it is devotion that gives us higher visions.
Whether it is of a cosmic manifestation or the universal form or the transcendental two-handed form of the Lord. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
So I have to rush for a programme today. I won’t be, if you have further questions you could send them on our WhatsApp group and I’ll answer them in due course. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.