How to approach difficult Bhagavatam sections like Virat Rupa

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And they are just tolerating me till that future version comes Hare krishna So today morning We are discussing from the shrimad bhagavatam Canto 10. Sorry canto 2 chapter 10 and I will write and draw certain things to explain some points So generally whenever I give a one-off bhagavatam class So I try to use a three-point framework called chit To understand So c chit means consciousness.
So we want to expand our consciousness studying the bhagavatam. So c is the context We’ll try to understand what is going on in the context Then I is the implication. What does it imply? What does it mean? And then t is the takeaway So what is it that we can learn or apply for our lives? So context implication and takeaway for us so When we Let’s let’s apply this framework to this particular section and I also so now here we are in the second canto of the shrimad bhagavatam The bhagavatam itself has 12 cantos and 335 chapters Now we are in the second canto and second canto has how many chapters? 10 so we are in the 10th chapter now in the 10th chapter We are right now in the 17th text so what is happening over here basically The discussion between parikshit maharaj and shukdev goswami starts from the second canto parikshit maharaj appears At the end of the first canto and the first words he speaks start from the second canto and The bhagavatam itself, you know district discussions can be of the bhagavatam is a discussion it is a mad Now discussions can be structured Or they can be organic or spontaneous Now What is the difference A structured discussion Is like an interview So there’s a there’s a list of questions And sometimes even the the interviewer not sometimes most of the time the interviewer is given the questions in advance And then quite often the interviewer prepares the answers.
So it’s sometimes called like a scripted discussion So Sometimes some politicians when they are doing interviews they may even have Some board where they have actually the answers displayed to them. So they actually reading out the answers So that’s a more of a structured discussion not a bad thing structured discussion now spontaneous discussion Is something what we might call as a podcast? So when we have a podcast it is The some frame might be there but a podcast is not like an interview It is as the discussion moves. It’s like two one person is asking questions The other person getting answer giving answers, but it’s a more natural free flow kind of discussion So if we consider the bhagavatam In which category would it fall? broadly More of a podcast So it is not exactly a podcast it is But it would fall more in that direction in many ways It is not that shukdev goswami comes with a plan that he is going to speak for seven continuous days to parikshit maharaj Parikshit maharaj’s primary question is what should I do at the time of death? And shukdev goswami answers that question Shota vyadi rajendra namasati sahasrasha There are people who discuss hundreds of subjects, but what we should discuss about is krishna so now in many ways Shukdev goswami’s purpose in coming there or at least the initial purpose we can say Is to answer the question Not implement the answer There are two different things like Somebody is sick and a friend comes and says okay.
I think for this this is ayurveda will help Okay Do you know any ayurvedic clinic? Can you take me to that ayurvedic clinic? Can you stay with me while i’m taking the treatment? Hey, I didn’t think I would have to do all that Isn’t it? So it’s one thing is So when we consider shukdev goswami One is giving the answer So giving the answer happens very briefly In The first chapter of the second canto itself in 2.1 itself. The answer is given more or less But then second is implementing the answer So the answer is that a person at the time of death should focus on hearing about krishna So implementing the answer means that you help me to hear about krishna how you speak about krishna and i’ll hear So now it is not a plan that shukdev goswami Is going to be there with parishad maharaj? for seven full days And in fact if we go towards the end of the bhagavatam It is interesting that the we have bhishma pitamaha Surrounded with with his loud ones and the sages and the lord when He departs Now it is so it’s that is there but when parishad maharaj departs shukdev goswami is not there with him In the 11th canto in the 12th canto if you read shukdev goswami departs And then he finishes the discussion shukdev goswami leaves And then the snake bird comes and bites So is it that shukdev goswami doesn’t want to be there with parishad maharaj at the last moment? The point is that shukdev goswami and parishad maharaj both are confident that Parishad maharaj consciousness is absorbed in krishna He has spoken the message of krishna and he’s absorbed in krishna so So as the discussion of the bhagavatam moves forward it moves forward primarily based on the questions of parishad maharaj So in around the sixth chapter of the second canto It is more or less like the discussion is over and parishad maharaj asks further questions And when further questions are asked that is when the actual discussion takes off Or that not the actual discussion. I would say that’s how the discussion keeps continuing so it is more like a You could say the bhagavatam Is more like a question led discussion So it’s not so much a speaker has come with a class A speaker has come with a class prepared So like some speakers may speak for one and a half hours and then after that there’s not much time for question answers Some speakers may speak only 10 minutes And then if there’s no question the class ends in 10 minutes So so parishad maharaj shukdev goswami is like that.
He gives a very brief talk, but parishad maharaj keeps asking questions And when the questions are being asked Accordingly the discussion moves forward so Generally speaking the bhagavatam is known for its past times, especially the 10th canto Is considered the heart of the bhagavatam and that’s what most bhagavata kathas focus on and there are some other leelas also So there are some other sections in the bhagavatam where also The The Bhagavatam seems to take a very different approach So broadly speaking we’ll say the bhagavatam is meant to cultivate krishna consciousness to help parishad maharaj remember krishna Now krishna consciousness can be cultivated in two distinct ways One is that we bring krishna Into our consciousness So this is standard for example We come to the temple and we look at the deities. We chant the holy names. We hear about krishna We bring krishna into our consciousness That and this is largely done through the leela in the bhagavatam So how krishna consciousness is cultivated in the bhagavatam? Hmm, but there is another equally important approach that is bring What is in our consciousness to krishna Bring what is in our consciousness to krishna So what does this mean that there are many things which we already know which are already present in our consciousness and then If we can connect them with krishna so For example in india cricket is very popular So if we want to talk some spiritual concepts if you give cricket examples Then cricket is already in the mind of people and what happens is okay.
You can connect it easily or we can give examples of Of what is called as loka pramana IIT here or itihas So each place has its local stories local culture So for example, if we speak in india, we may talk about the indian independence struggle If somebody is going to america and they may talk about american political leaders There’s one devotee who in africa who is writing a book on uh of african proverbs and explained explained or commented on from a vedic perspective So the african proverbs are very common in the minds of africans And then we give okay. How do we make sense from a vedic perspective? so prabhupada So prabhupada would view explanations using say stories of gopal bhan now That was something it is It is there in the bengali culture and prabhupada is using that or sometimes we may tell akbar birbal stories So what is in our mind we bring it to krishna So the bhagavatam uses this approach Primarily in the second canto third canto and fifth canto In the second canto it uses it through the concept of the virat rupa The third canto it uses it through the concept of sankhya in the fifth canto it uses it to the concept of the brahmanda The cosmology the cosmology and the cosmography Hmm so Now in this case what is happening is especially let’s take the fifth canto example then the second canto will become easier Parikshit maharaj has lived in a time Where he already has some knowledge of the cosmos And does when he’s asking questions also his questions also have some information some background over there And based on that He is saying okay. How do you understand this? How do I understand that? Now, you know if you see parikshit maharaj knows that he’s going to die in 70s And with only few days probably two or three days are over by the time the fifth canto is coming He is not interested in getting a phd in cosmology Is it? So his interest is in remembering krishna So when he’s asking questions about cosmology The questions are not so much about cosmology It is more about how to see krishna through cosmology And that’s why even when the cosmos is described the focus Is more on how dharma and devotion pervade the cosmos? So for example jambudi will be described and The cosmographical aspect graffi’s measurement cosmographical aspects is that okay? How long is this? How far is this from here? How far is it? What are the physical topographical features? All that is described in a five six verses And the major 30 40 verses of the chapter are the prayers offered by the residents of jambudweep So the focus is not so much on That okay, what is there in jambudweep or where is jambudweep the focus is what are people doing in jambudweep So this focus so through the cosmos we see krishna so like say if a devotee preacher goes to Goes on a world speaking tour goes to america goes to europe australia Then the focus of that devotee If the devotee or the devotee comes and describes how was the tour? The focus is not going to be oh when I saw the eiffel tower.
We saw the statue of liberty The focus will be Okay How all over the world there are temples how all over the world there are devotees? How bhakti is being practised all over the world? So that bring what is in our consciousness to krishna, so what does it mean? So broadly if we consider let’s understand this once again That this if this is the spiritual world And the material world below We are in the material world So krishna consciousness can be cultivated one way is we turn away from the world toward krishna And the other is we go through the world toward krishna That means what is in the world we don’t turn away from it, but we see through it or beyond it to krishna So in a practical sense we may say that When we are practising bhakti that there’s a time when we are doing a sadhana You know we turn away from everything else Even if we have we have family we turn away from the family in the sense that we focus on krishna at that But for the rest of the day, okay. I have my family the family members are also krishna’s family members They are all krishna’s parts So by I should interact them with them seeing them as krishna’s parts and seeing how I can serve krishna by serving them So we turn away from the world To absorb ourselves in krishna and even when we turn toward the world we turn to the world in a mood of connecting with krishna through the world so the This particular chapter the virat rupa several of the chapters in this canto they are taking which of the two approaches The second approach turn through the world to krishna So with this context in mind now What is the so the context is that krishna consciousness is being encouraged or fostered Through a concept that was already known To parikshit maharaj. The concept is the virat rupa And so the virat rupa is not something which is unknown At those times like the virat rupa is one of the apart from the concept of apart from krishna as the supreme lord The concept of virat rupa is one of is the most repeated one of the most repeated concepts in the bhagavatam In that means almost every major prayer Not all prayers, but almost major prayers major means those prayers more than 20 30 verses We will see that there is some reference to the virat rupa in that So With this is this is the context of what was already known to parikshit maharaj The virat rupa now, how does that concept of virat rupa connect us with krishna? We say it is krishna’s virat rupa Okay, that is true.
But exactly how is the virat rupa connected with krishna? So that is what is being further established explained over here Hmm, so let’s look at the implication of this now So the implication there is a fundamental Fundamentally there are two approaches to knowledge What are the two whenever we want to gain knowledge Knowledge is combination of two things what is And What it means Whenever we want to get understanding We need to have these two things What is happening? And what it means? So for example If we hear oh, there’s a bomb blast in another part of the city Okay, that is news That may be important news now, what does it mean or there is not a bomb there’s a there’s some explosion So the explosion is there that’s a fact But from the fact what is the meaning? Now the meaning could mean is there a terrorist attack? Is that attack targeting religious places? Does that mean we are in danger? Does that mean we have to shut down? Or it could be okay. That was due to some chemical explosion So Now what is refers to facts? And what it means refers to the meaning the significance In general, for example, if somebody’s angry And somebody’s yelling at us Now the fact is that person is angry But the meaning often is you see what is the meaning is angry No Why is the person angry? Is it because of something I did is it because the person is short-tempered? Is it because something else happened to the person the person is taking it out on me So in general if you want to get any understanding Any kind a deeper understanding requires understand the facts and understand the significance of those facts So what is and what it means? Now traditionally in philosophy there have been two approaches that A one is you start with facts and move towards their significance So facts are specific So basically we start with the specifics and then move towards the universals So Start with specifics move towards universal means That Say if some person speaks very loudly Like say if you travel across the world Then last 10 12 years. I have been almost eight nine months a year.
I’m outside india. So I Have experienced different cultures. So for example in different cultures when two people talk with each other There is what is considered to be like the polite distance between two people Hmm some people keep a significant distance and talk with each other and say don’t don’t intrude into somebody else’s personal space So in some cultures the polite distance the personal space is considered to be quite large The two people may talking but they are a significant distance away in some cultures The personal space is not that way.
So people come very close to each other and talk Now what happens if imagine if one person is from a culture where the personal space is a lot And the other person is from a culture where the personal space is very less So if you look at the discussion that is happening It seems that you know that the two people are talking but one person is moving forward. The other person is moving backward One person is moving forward. The other person is moving backward So what is happening over here is that the specifics may be different? The specifics is okay.
How much distance between two people the universal is that there is some personal space And so some so in some ways we may start with facts and then move toward the significance of the facts That is one approach to philosophy the other approach is we start with universals And from there we move towards specifics We start with universals and move towards specifics So for example, let’s start with say we meet a person from a completely new community We don’t know about that community. Maybe somebody is there’s a faith called bahai faith It’s one of the major religions of the world, but not a not a big religion Actually one of the religions of the world. So if we meet someone from the bahai faith And we don’t know anything about the bahai faith.
So we will look at the specifics And we’ll try to understand the specifics and then we will try to make sense Okay, is this personal is this impersonal? Where does this fall? What kind of faith is this? on the other hand Sometimes if we already know we may think okay a particular group of people are very fanatical So we may start with the universals now the universals may or may not be correct But then okay, these people are a bit. Uh, they’re a bit narrow-minded But if we start with the universals and then come to the specifics, but within that not everybody may be narrow-minded like that so broadly speaking say if we meet someone and From the way they are dressed or from their overall appearance. We think that this person may not know english And so we may start speaking with them in the local language So based on dress appearance conduct overall, we might think that this person belongs to a particular category Now it may turn out that person who seems to be dressed very simply might have a phd in english And their english might be better than ours Isn’t it? But the point is we need to categorise to make sense We need to categorise to make sense of things So categories are more about universals Okay, this person is a south indian.
This person is a north indian This person is english speaking. This person is hindi speaking or telugu speaking So there are specifics and there are categories So now this might seem a detour but i’ll come to the point i’m making that in general within the bhagavatam When when We are thinking about remembering krishna So we can move towards from the specifics to the universals or universals to the specifics Specifics So, what does it mean specifics towards the universals say if we already know krishna leela We are hearing some story and that same story which you have heard many times is being narrated again Then the focus is on the specifics Okay, how the story is narrated are any new details being told? Is this the narration having some specific mood ambience tone And from that the universal is the remembrance of krishna comes And now if we If we go to say a place like america where people have not heard about krishna at all Then we may have to start with universal before we get to specifics I was giving a talk in america on It’s not australia. Damodar month was going on So there were some western audiences also over there So that I could see that there was a middle-aged western mataji and she seemed to be very uncomfortable while I was giving the talk And as I was speaking, she seemed to become more and more uncomfortable so Because there are not many non-indians.
So then I just wanted to make her a little more confidence. I asked is there any problem? She said any problem everything is a problem. He said What do you mean See this whole story you people are enjoying This whole story is a story of child abuse The idea that a child is being tired and you are all enjoying it what kind of perverse people are you Now Mother is no mother can have as much love for a child as yashoda has for her son And what she is doing is the farthest away from child abuse But what happens is if there is no framework in which to understand it Then the specifics can be very confusing So sometimes we may have to start from the universals before we get to the specifics So when the virat rupa discussion is going on Parikshit maharaj already knows much of the specifics And The focus is on the universals What does all this mean? So now the problem for us When we are trying to understand it is we don’t know the specifics We don’t know the specifics and from there we are trying to understand the universals So Say if somebody uses cricket metaphors To explain some spiritual concepts And say somebody has come from america when I first went to america in 2014 The one of the local programme organisers told me don’t use any cricket examples I said why is that? I said for americans cricket is an insect.
It is not a game Here there’s an insect which makes sound it’s called cricket, but they don’t know about the game called cricket at all So if some cricket examples are used they’re not going to understand anything If say if somebody in india somebody uses baseball examples, you may not know in what is baseball So the thing is that the if the specifics are not known Then when we go from the specifics to the universals it becomes very difficult to understand So that’s why some sections of the bhagavatam Can be quite difficult to understand again the second canto the third canto and the fifth canto The sankhya philosophical section is difficult to understand The brahmanda darshan is probably most difficult to under brahmanda Analysis the cosmography section is probably the most difficult to understand and this viratrupa section is also difficult to understand So having said this Now the question comes up Do we need to understand the specifics to understand the universals The universal is to remember krishna the specific is okay, what is the What is the cultural context through which the remembrance of krishna is happening so Let me give another example to illustrate this point that That Whenever any kind of understanding is to happen There is Something called a Ladder of abstraction I may use a lot of terms, but these are very simple concepts So this is a ladder Of abstraction so that means You see at the bottom of this are specifics At the top of it are universals So again at the bottom of this are specifics So last year when I had gone to america this was just after the ayodhya temple had been inaugurated And so many times Especially from americans I got this question that You know, what is happening in india? He said that there was a mosque that was destroyed And a temple is built after destroying the mosque And the whole country is celebrating that Even the prime minister is going to celebrate that he says this is a celebration of intolerance And now Now we tell them that actually the mosque was built by destroying the temple And I say, you know that happened in mediaeval times The past times were quite barbaric And you know if we start correcting all the wrongs that were done in the past How far when are we going to stop with all this So now in america, there’s a lot of accusation of racial injustice in the past blacks were enslaved So I said write them in the politics. Aren’t you considering? That should there be some kind of they don’t have reservations they have diversity quota affirmative action Some of the reparations also he says shouldn’t we correct the past historical wrongs? Isn’t that what you are doing also with respect to racial injustice? But one point that came up over there is there You know hindus and muslims are constantly fighting with each other in india And their idea this is the the mainstream Uh press coverage in the west is quite uh leftist biassed against india, so they say okay muslims have the quran And based on that there is the concept of jihad and hindus have the bhagavad-gita and that is a book Which is actually meant to incite people to fight But the Arjuna There’s this one american person. He told me, you know, I read the bhagavad-gita He said I like arjuna.
I don’t like krishna Hahaha So why he said arjuna’s arguments make sense don’t fight a war and krishna is telling him to fight a war So the idea over there is that krishna is instigating people to fight So now is the bhagavad-gita a violence or a war inducing book? No, why because it’s our book and we don’t want it to induce war No See in the bhagavad-gita, yes specifics is fight That is there at that particular point but the core message of the bhagavad-gita is not fight the core message of the bhagavad-gita is harmonise with krishna Align the human will with the divine will Hmm Now how that human will is aligned with the divine will That depends on context and in that particular context It is fight So if you consider at the end of the bhagavad-gita when arjuna say speaks He doesn’t say I will fight. He will say I will do your will I will do your will so Most of our acharyas not most almost all of our acharyas Have emphasised this universal message Vishwanath chakravarti thakur wrote his gita commentary When he was in vrindavan, and he had come to vrindavan Soon after aurangzeb had devastated And vrindavan and most of the work that the goswamis had done was Was undone by aurangzeb the goswamis lived more at the time of more or less at the time of akbar And then aurangzeb came and destroyed much of vrindavan chakravarti path came and tried to restore it So he has seen the devastation caused by religious intolerance And yet in his gita commentary Nowhere does he say that all of you should rise and destroy the muslims just as krishna told arjuna to fight against the kauravas He doesn’t go in that direction But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t fight against intolerance, but the gita is not being weaponised for that purpose His focus is on what? The universal message of the gita that we should develop love for krishna so for us the specifics Today what the gita’s uni gita specifics at that particular time. So this is say 5000 years ago So 5000 years ago The specific was fight now for us today the specific would mean chant And there’s a yoga dharma chant and inspire others to chant remember krishna and help others to remember krishna So see why am I giving this example? This is a provocative example that sometimes the specifics are not as important as the universals So prabhupada in his commentary does not go too much into the specifics of the kurukshetra war That is there in the first chapter second chapter, but afterwards you focus on the philosophy the universals So therefore the specifics Of a particular time may be important to understand what is being taught and how it is to be applied at that time But the specifics may not be important at in general Hmm.
So similarly if we go to here apply this the virat rupa The virat rupa the details They are the specifics They make sense to parikshit maharaj at that particular point Now, what is the universal principle? The universal principle is through matter to krishna Krishna That we live in the material world And from the material world We don’t have to turn away from matter to go towards krishna Through matter we can go towards krishna Now, how might that approach apply in today’s world? So That’s something which we have to consider contextually so i’ll give a couple of examples of this so for example today We might use the concept of science modern science Now even in modern science as science has studied and explored the universe around us It has found so much harmony symmetry intricacy that It is actually For any thoughtful person there is some indication That there must be some higher order There must be some bigger reality in the world so I think it is Kelvin who said that a little of science takes a person away from god, but immersion in science brings people back to god So the idea is today in the world We might find three things which point us to his glory We look at the universe. We find harmony in the universe. We find intricacy in the universe And we find symmetry in the universe So This points to his glory now i’m going to not going to go into each of these but i’m giving this as an example that We may study how Today when we look at the universe We may think about how Okay, the carbon the carbon dioxide is increasing in the planet.
So how the carbon dioxide oxygen balance is managed Naturally, it’s such a remarkable balance. How is this balance being done? There has to be some higher arrangement over there and from there we can remember krishna So from which specifics we go toward the universals That depends now if somebody has a lot of interest Like somebody has an interest in bhagavatam cosmology specifically Then they can try to understand the specifics at that time And they can remember krishna through those specifics also But everybody does not have to go into the elaborate details Of the specifics of a particular time and particular conception that was prominent at that time If you look at the fifth canto purports of shrimad bhagavatam given by shila prabhupada Prabhupada is not elaborately explaining the specifics Prabhupada is focussing on the universal principles of bhakti And in this particular purport also shila prabhupada is doing the same thing So let’s Now we move towards the takeaway So i’ll give a couple of examples of How we can make sense of some of the specifics so till now what I said is that the universal is remember krishna The specific is at that time some specific knowledge was there through that knowledge. We can remember krishna Now today some specific knowledge might be there and through it we can remember krishna So to give another example for of this Say right now our class is happening in english Now The bhagavatam is in sanskrit So does so sanskrit is a specific language english is a specific language The message of krishna consciousness is a universal message Now does everyone who study bhagavatam does everyone have to understand sanskrit? No, not necessary So if we understand english through the specific medium of english language We can understand the universal message of the bhagavatam if somebody doesn’t understand english Then we may have telugu translation.
We may have hindi translation So the specifics can be many From whichever specific we can approach krishna So now of course if somebody has the interest Can they study the sanskrit Of course they can Can study somebody study bengali? Of course they can so the the specifics that are there at the point of origin or a point of significance for a tradition Understanding those specifics can be helpful It can be helpful, but it is not necessary Necessary I hope this difference is clear So now with this understanding the takeaway will be we’ll give a couple of examples of how this universal Universal is remember krishna This universal can be approached from the bhagavatam specific Specific And how this universal can be approached from today’s specifics So specific refers to that that which is a particular detail something which is known at that particular point So, let’s look at the verse that is that is under discussion right now and So the verse said that That when The Sense of thirst and hunger Was created that became activated within the living being by the activation of the universal force or the universal form Then the mouth the sensory organ opened Let’s look at the verse once again and let’s look at some of the points in the purport So Hunger and thirst So when the agitation happened then So the first line is the last line is So the idea is That There is A need felt inside the need is what oh I have I am hungry. I am thirsty And the need has to be fulfilled So, how is the need fulfilled then? Okay, the mouth is opened so that some food some drink can be taken Now, what does prabhupada say in the purport? Prabhupada is not going too much into the specifics Prabhupada of the specifics of those times Prabhupada is giving some specifics of our times He is talking about one is say developmental psychology and developmental biology So he says that the process by which all living beings in the womb of the mother develop their sense organs and sense perceptions Appears to follow the same principle in the case of the virat purusha the sum total of all living entities So the idea is that even a small big proper talks about the uvirat rupa has a mouth and we all have mouths So when we feel hungry What do we do? If a small baby feels hungry the baby first opens his mouth to cry When the baby opens his mouth to cry the mother will bring some Food maybe the bottle or the mother if the still baby in the breastfeeding stage And the mother will offer something in the mouth so that the food can be taken So now we may say where is krishna over here Is this simply a mundane activity? Well, yes and no Yes, it is mundane in the sense that a person might do it with completely mundane consciousness Oh, my baby is crying. Let me give the baby some food That’s true but if we consider If nature has come about simply by unguided random forces Then it is remarkable that As many living beings are there with the kind of food that they need that kind of food is already there in nature See when a baby comes out from the mother’s womb Then the mother offers her breast milk That’s one of the most intimate acts of love at the same time Did the mother do anything special to produce milk in her breasts at that time No, the same god who sent the Child into the world through the mother’s womb Also sent god To also send milk in her breast so that that child could be nourished So while there is a specific the baby is crying and the baby is being breastfed But from the specific we can see the universal That there is a higher arrangement.
There is the higher hand of god So the specifics Can be seen and they need to be seen I said start with knowledge begins with what is But from what is we need to also look at what it means So the specifics are important but from there the universal is important Now prabhupada goes further and says that That The desires for all kinds of sense perceptions and organs exist in the supreme And thus they take place in the individual person also so now let’s try to Understand a little bit more of what is the virat rupa Okay, can I go for 10 minutes more? Okay. Thank you. So Now In many ways the term virat rupa and the term vishwa rupa they are sometimes used interchangeably However, while the terms may be interchangeable They are not exactly the same the same term can refer to two distinct things So there’s a virat rupa in the gita Where it is primarily often main word uses the vishwa rupa over there And there’s a virat rupa in the bhagavatam where more often the Term which virat rupa is used much more than the vishwa rupa Now while The term may sometimes be the same Actually the concept is very different So If you consider There’s a suitcase now the suitcase has a handle And the suitcase has a body So now I was once in florida and I was travelling with a suitcase in the suitcase.
I was about to go to the airport My suitcase broke or the the suitcase somehow cracked and it broke So we didn’t have time to buy another suitcase so So the host gave me another suitcase over there and then I went normally when I travel Because of my physical limitations. I don’t carry my suitcase. Somebody else is either The host or the wheelchair assistant they carry the suitcase so now when we and I landed from there, I was going to atlanta and I landed in atlanta I had forgotten what my suitcase looks like So I only remembered the handle I remembered that the handle was Was blue in colour So at that time with the wheelchair assistant We I was taking out all the suitcases with blue handles and then checking whether this is my suitcase or this is not my suitcase So what i’m telling over here is that the handle and the suitcase Hmm the same handle might be there for many suitcases, isn’t it? So the handle is like the term The suitcase itself is the concept So the same term might be used for many concepts Like in english the same word can have many different meanings like the word run English has 540 plus meanings Hmm I am going for a run I am running because my car has stopped running I am running away from this country because this person is running for president So the same word can have many different meanings So it’s important to understand what meaning is being considered at a particular time Now I was in uk and there was a youth session a lot of animated question answers were there And the youth were asking me challenging questions.
I tried to answer as well as I could And after that the organiser came and he had a big smile on his face. He says prabhu you killed it I said what did I kill? And if I kill something, why are you happy about? So Now you killed it the word kill There it does not refer to physically killing someone It means you did something wonderful It comes actually from a hunting metaphor in the past people hunting would be a sport And if somebody will shoot and kill hey, you killed it. That means well done.
So now it has become well done So words have different meanings So the word virat rupa in the bhagavad gita and in the bhagavatam have different meanings In the bhagavad gita It is a revelation Revelation means That krishna reveals So revelation means it is top down It is coming from krishna to us In the bhagavatam the virat rupa is not a revelation it is a conceptualisation Conceptualisation Conceptualisation means it is bottom up In the bhagavatam the word is used kalpita Now kalpita is a variant of the word kalpana kalpana means imagination visualisation conceptualisation So the virat rupa in the bhagavatam is a conceptualisation So conceptualisation means for example if somebody sees A huge mountain range we say this mountain range is like the bones of krishna Or we might say that if there’s a large water body That is like the water in the navel of the supreme Now there is if you look at the universe itself There are there’s atal vital. There are all these 14 planetary systems. There are ananda brahma ananda brahmandas But there is no description of a Virat rupa loka There is no particular planetary system where the virat rupa exists now, of course There is you can say there’s ananta and he has thousands of mouths that is true, but that is not exactly the virat rupa so the virat rupa as described in the bhagavatam is a conceptualisation That means the spiritual seeker Who is Looking at the world And by looking at the various things in the world is trying to see how I can remember god So that’s why if you look at the specifics of the virat rupa In different places in the bhagavatam some of the specifics are different Hmm In some places the sun and the moon are said to be like the eyes of the virat rupa But in some places It is that the whole head of the virat rupa is considered to be the topmost planetary system the satya loka Then sun and moon do not exist in satya loka So this is a correlation between things in the world and the lord And that correlation is a conceptualisation So it is not that literally physically these things are happening It is a way of remembering the lord And so in this particular verse the idea is that Every time when we feel hunger or thirst Now one way is that we can remember krishna is krishna is the taste of water That is one way.
We can remember krishna when we feel thirsty, but another way Is that the very fact that this our body is designed in such a way? that when there is Some need for the body we feel a sensation in the body And then outside there are resources to satisfy that sensation That is actually pointing to an arrangement of the divine That is the few verses before the adi bhuta adi daiva and uh adi yagya they are talking about over here Adhyatma adi bhuta adi daiva adi adhyatma they are talking about over here. So the idea is that the soul exists in three distinct circles If this is the soul the soul The soul Exists in the circle of the body mind that is the adhyatma The soul exists in a social circle. That is the adi bhuta and the soul exists in a environmental circle so these three The Adhyatma Adhyatma Adi bhuta and adi daiva So now each of these circles Is essential for our existence If our body doesn’t function properly Then we feel pain we feel sick and we can’t function Now if in the society around us, there is a lot of unrest there’s political Turbulence there is communal violence.
There is war Then we can’t function If there’s an earthquake if there’s a cyclone, we can’t function So each of these is required for our existence And each of these has to exist in a proper way And that’s why in many traditional vedic prayers at the end of it is said om shanti shanti Shanti So that shanti three times is said because It is supposed to invoke shanti at these three levels So a shanti can come distress and agitation can come from all these three From the body from society from the environment and all of these are to be pacified So when it is said in a previous verse that the universe that that the universal form Expands to create all these three sustaining circles Now, what does it mean? It doesn’t mean that literally that adi bhuta is like one thing that is existing Adhyatma is one thing that is existing. It’s a principle and the principle has originated from the lord So there is a reference for example in a few earlier verses to the to the To the virya of the lord the virya can refer to potency the virya can also refer to the seminal substance so now Now if you see the description over there It is it is that the lord is lying down at the bottom of the ocean And from there the virya rises and from there the universe manifests and the living beings manifest from there Now clearly if we look at the The way creation occurs in the bhagavatam This is not the way the creation literally occurs The the sequence there are different sequences described In the bhagavatam and in different scriptures, but generally this is not the sequence that is described so this is it is meant to be more of a Symbolic reminder for us that all life Is coming from the lord All life is sustained by the lord that without him nothing can exist So You see So this is the universal principle 2 10 12 One should definitely know that all material ingredients activities times and modes time and modes And the living entities who are meant to enjoy them all Exist by his mercy alone and as soon as he does not care for them Everything becomes non-existent so that is the universal principle Now some specific visualisation some specific tool for remembrance can might be there The next that’s the next verse the lord while lying on his bed of mystic slumber generated the seminal symbol golden in hue Through external energy out of his desire to manifest varieties of living entities from himself alone So this is describing the origin the the very nature of existence in somewhat symbolic substance in symbolic ways that we exist because the lord has Desire the lord has free will and the lord has given us desire and free will And he wants us to exist ultimately in loving harmony with him But while we don’t want to be in loving harmony with him He gives us space to exist in this world and he has created that space so So this is the specifics from that perspective now from our perspective What does it all mean for us? That when things are happening in our life Now we need to look at the specifics to be attentive What is happening, okay, you know this thing happened, uh, this devotee spoke like this to me This devotee is upset with me Or you know, I was doing this programme and people have stopped coming for this programme So as devotees we need to be aware of the specifics But while being aware of the specifics We should not get completely caught in the specifics Beyond the specifics is the universal So what is krishna? Teaching me through this You know, how can I serve krishna in this situation? So when prabhupada was trying to Share krishna bhakti in india and nothing was working Prabhupada was writing back to golden magazine and trying to distribute it At that time one postman told him swamiji You are spending so much effort in writing magazines People will read and throw magazines If you write books That will last for a much longer time Now If prabhupada only focus on the specifics Now you could say who are you? You’re just an ordinary person. What do you know? Now prabhupada could have gone on the ego trip and he said I I am a sanyasi I am a Mahabhagwat who think you can give a suggestion to me.
Who do you think you are? No Prabhupada did not get caught in the specifics Prabhupada looked at the specifics And then the universal he said This is krishna speaking through him. He is my spiritual master speaking through him So does that mean that anybody gave any suggestion to prabhupada? Prabhupada started saying that this is krishna speaking No We also have to use our intelligence. What is krishna’s message? When prabhupada got the dream that he should take sannyas I’ll conclude with this example and prabhupada got the dream that from his guru came and said take sannyas He wrote to one of his god brothers And his god brother said sannyas He says you have never you have been a grasta throughout your life.
You have never been in an ashram And first come and stay in our ashram the ashram leaders will observe your conduct And after a few years of observation, then we can consider sannyas Now we can say that’s reasonable at one level, isn’t it if today if some Some some temple president gets a letter from someone, you know, can you give me sannyas? That would be a reasonable response But then did prabhupada think that oh, this is krishna speaking. I do not take sannyas No, he didn’t think like that. He said he wrote to another god brother And his god brother knew him from a good amount of time And he said yes swamiji.
You should immediately take sannyas If you want to preach you should take sannyas and i’ll give you sannyas So now which specific points to what universal? That is something we require buddhi So so unless we are ourselves first hearing the hearing about krishna If we are not adequately hearing about krishna, we won’t be able to see krishna in the specifics of the world But When our consciousness is infused with krishna with the desire to serve krishna Then when certain specifics come upon us, we will be able to decide which specific is anukul and which specific is pratikul Which specific I should listen to? And we should actually we can do more service over there And which specific we should not listen to? And we should not do some we should not do some service over there in that direction so That’s something which we can learn if we have heard about krishna adequately So when the devotees were in san in new york Some devotees told prabhupada prabhupada just said there are there are all these hippies and counterculture here in san francisco also He said if you come there you can do you can expand your preaching So prabhupada told his disciples. Okay. That sounds interesting.
You go there you arrange some programmes for me and i’ll come there And then prabhupada went there afterwards Now at one time one devotee came and told prabhupada prabhupada at that time the devotees would do kirtan various places. They’re exploring so They went to some nightclubs And there they were doing kirtans And some devotees told that there were Some inappropriate approaches and some inappropriate advances towards them So then prabhupada heard that and prabhupada said So when we are going To a particular place we should think What is the potential that some people will become devotees over here? So yes, we can go out for kirtan, but go to a place where people will be spiritually receptive. He said don’t go to such places So which specifics can point us toward krishna which specific point may not point us toward krishna That is something which we all have to learn ourselves And That is how we can also be krishna conscious through the things of the world.
So i’ll summarise What we discussed today? The broad thing we discussed is how the virat rupa Can enhance our krishna consciousness How we can use How the virat rupa can help us to remember krishna? And I discuss three points. What is the acronym? chit c was Context So context is that in in the bhagavatam helps us cultivate krishna consciousness broadly in two ways that is Bring krishna into our consciousness And bring our consciousness to krishna So the 10th canto leela for example Is bring krishna into our consciousness the Second canto third canto and fifth canto that is bring what is in our consciousness to krishna So the idea is that Whenever we seek knowledge Knowledge is a combination of specifics And universals What is and what it means? So both when they’re combined in a healthy way That’s when we get proper understanding So the implication which we discussed over here Was that When we are trying to remember krishna through the world Through the world means we discuss this ladder of abstraction that There are specifics in the world So there are ancient specifics And There are current or modern specifics And there are universals in between So if we consider If we do not understand the difference So for example, if you consider the gita In the gita the ancient specific is fight But from the specific what we have at the top is universal The universal is surrender to krishna is harmonised with krishna Now Gita’s message is not fight a war The message is do god’s will And that could today the current specific could mean chant and that’s the yuga dharma so The idea over here is that we need to understand this Specific what is the universal principle and how it applies in today’s world? So for example the in the bhagavatam the virat rupa concept Is already known to parikshit maharaj Now it is not known to us So we may not go so the principle is in this case so if we consider this is the first Hmm The second is virat rupa is known to krishna the second in the second the principle over here is through matter to krishna That is the principle so now today we might apply that through science we may look at How science has revealed the harmony intricacy symmetry in the universe The various details they point to some higher organising principle some something bigger so We could use it from that perspective And then we talk about what are the takeaway for us? Take away is that we we know to know from when to go from specifics to universals And When to go from universals to specifics So when to do what? That is important. So I gave the example of bhagavatam The bhagavatam teaches krishna consciousness now we can go through the specific of sanskrit That was spoken at that time.
We can go through the specific of english The important thing is that we go toward krishna Hmm so now most of us Will go from here itself now some of us may even learn sanskrit And go from there also So like that for most of us in our life if we consider the virat rupa I discussed the virat rupa is both in the gita. It’s a revelation In the bhagavatam it is a conceptualisation Conceptualisation So conceptualisation means it’s a bottom-up approach It’s a way By which we can connect the universe and what we observe in the universe with krishna so the specifics at that time there is talking about for example, the The the concept of prana or the concept of the the adhibhuta adhyatma daiva so now for those Whom those concepts are familiar they can very easily use that to remember krishna Now for those of us for those concepts are not familiar. We can try to get some understanding of those concepts But if we even if we can’t understand those concepts we discuss about how shila prabhupada your two examples of a postman Who told him write books but took that specific to move towards? Uh the writing of books and we also talked about prabhupada’s taking sannyas So one specific he excepted other specific he did not accept So we have to have the universal understanding of krishna consciousness To be able to know which specifics are anukul and which specifics are pratikul in this way Through our life and through what we encounter in the world.
Also we can remember krishna And we can move closer to krishna Thank you very much. Hare krishna So Do we have time for questions one any one or one or two questions anyone has? Other country has a question Hare krishna Brother when you say the 5000 Years ago krishna used the fight specific To connect to the universal and currently it is harinam sankirtan specific to connect to the universal In between gandhi mahatma gandhi used Non-violence as a specific to bring harmony in the society. How do you look at that specific which gandhi used? I don’t know if he used non-violence to bring harmony For him non-violence was more of a principle so See from a non-violence is fine as an individual virtue We all can learn to be more non-violent in our individual communication both in terms of speech in terms of action But the problem is non-violence Is non-violence is not a policy for society It’s a non-violence means forgiveness justice understanding Okay, so now That say if some relative has come to our home and while they were in our home, they stole something from our home Now we will be upset but if you come to know about it and they say okay, you know Actually, I had this crisis and I needed the money.
So I took it. I’ll give it back to you Now we may decide we’ll forgive But if the police Makes a policy or the government makes a policy Anybody can go to any shop and steal anything and we’ll forgive everyone That will lead to total chaos You know in during the pandemic it happened in california that they said people are poor So if anybody goes to any supermarket and if they steal anything below 750 Now the police will not even apprehend them You know But people were not going and stealing bread and food from food from there people were just you know louis vuitton purses and second-hand iPhones Just below 750 dollars And then they would take it and they will sell it on craigslist or somewhere like that so the point is Non-violence The two different things over here non-violence it is good as an individual virtue Yes But it is not a social or a national policy Hmm It’ll be very bad Now prabhupada says non-violence for a kshatriya See if you see krishna talks about opposite virtues in I think 1841 and 1842 For brahmanas he says Shanti is peacefulness of forgiveness. So that is what he talks about as for a brahmana Hmm So for brahmana he says it’s a virtue but then for a kshatriya what he says That don’t flinch from a conflict don’t flee from a conflict though if a conflict is required fight So for brahmana, it is good for a kshatriya.
It is not A Kshatriya should be ready to fight Now for kshatriyas prabhupada says that non-violence can be a strategy It is not a principle Strategy means sometimes you may decide that You can I don’t want to fight a war over here. Maybe there the opposite side is stronger There will be too much damage over here we’ll try to avoid it but it is not a non-inviolable or non-negotiable principle Kshatriya means sometimes you have to fight Sometimes wars have to be fought Yes war is hell but sometimes War is the hell that we have to go through to prevent a far worse hell Hmm so war should never be entered into casually violence should not be just a nonchalantly done Violence is never for entertainment But Sometimes it is necessary So we could say from a from a socio-political perspective Non-violence was a good strategy Because it’s the british were very very careful about Not letting indians get their hands on gunpowder Or on guns And the way the Jallianwala Bagh massacre happened You know a thousand people coming against ten people Ten people with guns can kill thousand people so one reason why Britain lost the american war of independence was that there was a place called luxemboro where the British had kept their gunpowder And both the american Revolutionaries and the british soldiers both were trying to reach that place And the americans reached first And that’s what completely tilted the war In favour of the americans and that’s why from the america from that time because that Gaining that gun gunpowder became so decisive for them in maintaining victory. That is america in their constitution They had the idea that every citizen Should have the right to have guns And their idea is it’s not that citizens need guns to protect themselves from thieves They say the citizens should have guns to protect themselves from the government Because their experiences the government became tyrannical So the idea is tomorrow the police becomes corrupt The citizens should have as good weapons as are required for the police to kill the police if required So now of course that’s a like an extreme thing but america grew on that principle of autonomy So but the thing is the britain learned that lesson from america And that’s why they were very careful that the indians would not get their hands on weapons And that’s why non-violence as a strategy was sound How much non-violence contributed to independence? That’s open to question.
It was subhash chandra boss allied with the axis powers And then the indian national army was formed Which rebelled? So according to the uk president actually he said that the main reason Why the britain british left india was because the army rebelled against them They don’t they said that the quit india movement really didn’t pay a significant role That’s what he said. He says in his memoirs, but anyway, that is a matter of historical debate But the point is see is non-violence non-violence as a socio-political principle at that particular time What made sense but is non-violence the teaching of the gita well It is one virtue mentioned in a few verses in the gita But it is not definitely the core teaching of the gita at all. So that’s why there is When we quote from scripture, so there is When there is we quote in context Hmm we quote beyond context Beyond context means That scripture has universal message Which can be applied even when we don’t know the context But there is quoting in context is good quoting beyond context is also good but quoting against context This is sometimes called as out of context But out of is more against context.
So what happened for gandhi? Was that His idea that non-violence Is the most important principle that led him to say that actually if The kind of war that is described in the mahabharata actually happened Then he said I will be forever ashamed to be a hindu And I would immediately resign from hinduism and the way he He I had read gandhi’s Book on the gita before I came to bhakti So he says that With all humility I submit that vyasdev is using the war as a metaphor That the body represents kurukshetra And the kauravas are referred to the bad desires inside us. Pandavas refer to good desires inside us, but he goes further He says if the kurukshetra is a metaphor But I would like to submit That it is a terrible metaphor So the author has made a terrible mistake by using this metaphor Because this metaphor will be taken literally by people and people will people will fight war based on that and so What has happened is he say there’s humility, but the audacity is First of all, he’s saying it’s only a metaphor. Secondly.
It’s a bad metaphor That means basically the author is a bad author So the author is a bad author. Okay, the message is good, but the metaphor is bad So it is what is it it is it is like Violating the text hugely so There is this term called torture in translation or torture in interpretation Like sometimes some victim somebody is arrested and the police want to frame that person Frame means, you know, you committed the crime. They say no.
I didn’t commit the crime Beat the person beat the person beat the person Till finally did you come in? Yeah. Yeah, I committed them. Stop beating me now So sometimes some people they screw out meanings from the gita, which is like torture by translation You know beat the gita from here beat the gita from there somehow get the big gita to say what you wanted to say So prabhupada said that this is not bhagavad-gita as it is.
This is bhagavad-gita as you are Okay So, thank you very much Thank you so much for wonderful class we have been struggling to present this 10th chapter of second canto Of course our devotees have given nice classes, but your class really wonderful and you have given very good picture of the picture how to understand Entire bhagavatam and the concept you have really given very good concept of understanding such a complicated subject and We can clearly see when You started the class you have complete picture in your in front of your eyes and you have gradually brought Point by point and explained as probably thank you so much uh And let us chant hare krishna maha mantra In gratitude of prabhuji’s class Hare krishna Thank you all very much and our prasadam will be served in 304 for all congregation and brahmacharis in their respective places uh now So I have written a couple of books if you mind. So this is gita for the ceo So Basically nowadays in the corporate world. There’s a lot of interest in learning some life lessons or leadership lessons from Ancient texts from japan ikigai is quite popular from Greek there’s something called stoicism which is quite popular So harper collins is one of the biggest publishers in the world And they wanted me to present the bhagavad gita from that perspective.
So like I was having some simple diagrams There are many simple conceptual concept graphics and I presented the whole gita as uh As a conversation between two people the gita itself is a conversation There’s a conversation between two people one Both in the corporate world one who knows the gita and one wants to know the gita So I talked about How we can make our speech more effective to inspire others How we can be resilient and face life’s reversals with greater confidence How we can understand our own nature and find our calling in life So this is not just for ceos. Ultimately. Every one of us is meant to be a ceo of our own life at the same time if some of your friends colleagues relatives May not be ready to uh to understand the gita directly this book can trigger their interest and start their spiritual journey This is gita for the ceo And this is prayers inspired by bhagavad gita So here I have taken the gita’s verses And rendered them in english poetry so that we can get a devotional feel of the more of an emotional connect with the gita and then based on the verse I there’s a prayer So there’s a 300 word prayer which can be read very easily one page and like that There are different deities of krishna and there’s also a one sentence summary which is like a spiritual affirmation So there are 122 prayers like that And many devotees have told me that During the daily chanting reading one prayer before chanting helps them to calm and centre their mind It’s like we hear japa talks.
This is like a prayerful reflection And there is a very accessible table of contents There are prayers for various occasions Say when we are feeling Lost or directionless in our life Or when we are feeling lonely and misunderstood When our desires are becoming wild and Uncontrollable When we are feeling spiritually dry and we are feeling krishna is far away from us So there are prayers for various occasions. So you can even look at the table of contents and whichever Prayer resonates with your mood. You can read that So both these books are available behind and i’ll be here To sign the books if you want Or if you have any further questions, thank you very much.
Hare krishna