Bhakti Shastri (060) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03 Text 03 to 09

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So thank you very much.
We will continue in our next class. Welcome back to our Bhagavad Gita course. We are now in the third chapter and we are discussing the first section of the third chapter.
So let us have a quick overview of the sections so that we will understand what we are doing. Yesterday primarily we discussed the rationale for Arjuna’s question. So we will now be discussing the first section of the third chapter.
Karma Yoga is better for you as you are not qualified for Jnana Yoga. That is the essential message from the first section. So let us look at this message and then we will go to the details of the various verses.
So we discussed in 3.3 Krishna was telling that there are two ways of practising spiritual life. So there are two levels at which one can practise spiritual life, Lokesh means the Vidhanishta, Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Now Prabhupada writes over here that religion without philosophy is sentiment or sometimes fanaticism while philosophy without religion is mental speculation.
So both of them are important and religion enables us to actually do the activities. So chanting Hare Krishna is we can say religion. Studying the Bhagavad Gita is philosophy.
So of course they are not so discreet. Studying the Bhagavad Gita because it is the words of Krishna. You can also say that is religion because it is a devotional activity.
But in general that which involves a intellectual systematic understanding that is the philosophical part and the religion part is that which involves doing something by which we move forward towards gaining that experience. So when there is only philosophy but there is no philosophy then it is sentiment. Why do you worship Krishna? Because it feels good and then what happens somebody says that oh actually I feel that so and so Baba when I worship him that feels very good.
So then I start worshipping that person. So then how do we know what is right and what is wrong? So it can be sentiment and it will be sentimentalism and then it can go into fanaticism. So why fanaticism? Because when we start thinking that I worship this particular, this is my God, this is how I worship.
If you don’t worship this you are going to go to hell. So when there is no philosophical understanding, there is just a belief then it can become fanaticism. On the other hand philosophy without religion is mental speculation because if there is nothing a person is doing, philosophy, maybe it’s like this, maybe it’s like that, maybe it’s like that, then basically there is no transformation that is happening.
And when so maybe there is so much order in the world, maybe God exists. Somebody sits like that on a, sits on an armchair on a Sunday afternoon after a heavy meal and starts thinking maybe God exists. And they pick up the newspaper and say oh 25,000 people killed in an earthquake.
There is so much suffering, where was God at that time? Probably God doesn’t exist. Anyway, picks up a bottle of wine, the pleasure in this wine exists. So let me drink that and enjoy.
So this is when people stay at a mental speculation platform, they are not doing anything to realise the higher realities and that is when it becomes a problem. So if we want to realise something higher, we need to actually practise spiritual life systematically. And for practising spiritual life systematically, we need philosophical understanding.
So religion and philosophy, when both are there, then we move forward steadily in our spiritual life. So I just show a diagram here, which illustrates this point of spiritual and religious. So this is an article which I had written, it’s published in Back to Godhead.
So spirituality, a higher dimensional science. Spirituality has two limbs, there is philosophy and there is religion. So just as science has two aspects, there is theory and there is experiment.
So when there is theory and experiment both, then science becomes a complete body of knowledge. So for example, Newton observed the fruit falling. So maybe thousands of people had observed the fruit falling before.
The only thought that came in their mind is, let me pick it up and eat it. They did not think of anything more than that. But Newton, when he observed it, he thought, why is this happening? Then he postulated the principle of gravity over there.
So theory means we observe something and try to come up, try to find out the explanation for it. Now, after I postulate some explanation for something which I have observed, how do I know whether the expression is correct or not? That is, for that there is experiment. So then, okay, if the fruit falls here, the fruit should fall everywhere in the world.
And if there is a force which is there among all material objects, then even if I throw up a stone, it should come down. And not just anybody throws up a stone, it should come down. And not just throw different objects, whatever object it may be, it should come down.
So they do various experiments by which one confirms the theory or disproves the theory. So similarly, with respect to spirituality, we have philosophy and religion. So in philosophy, what do we observe in philosophy? That, okay, philosophy tells us that I am not the body and the soul.
So I think that, you know, I don’t want to die, yet there is death, and I’m just knocked out. So where does my longing for immortality come from? And how can I, is there some way that I can live forever? Where is the longing for immortality coming from? Because there must be a part of me which is actually immortal. So that way, we can come to know that I’m not the body and the soul.
So of course, we also come to know from scripture about we are not the body and soul. But even from logic, we can point towards that. Now, once we come to know the philosophy, how do I know whether it is right or wrong? Whether I’m not the body and the soul? How do I know that? The way is by practise.
So then, if I am the soul, and the soul has a life of unending supreme happiness at the level of spiritual reality in loving Krishna, then if I try to live spiritually, if I try to practise devotional service, then I will experience happiness. I’ll experience a higher happiness by which my lower drives, lower desires will go down. So that is what religion does for us.
So religion is like the experiment. So the purpose of practising religion is to experience the higher spiritual realities. So when we chant Hare Krishna, what happens when we chant Hare Krishna? We do japa, we do kirtan, we experience some deeper peace, richer happiness.
And then that happiness freezes from our bad habits. Many of the unwanted habits which we wanted, which we may have wanted to give up earlier, but we’re not able to give up. After we start practising spiritual life, we are able to give it up.
So this acts like a confirmation for us. So religion and philosophy, when both are there, then the spirituality becomes a higher dimensional transformational science. Higher dimensional transformational, because it is dealing with dimensions higher than what modern science deals with.
That’s why it’s higher dimensional. And how transformational? Because it involves inner transformation. It involves experience of higher reality.
The difference, of course, between material science and spiritual science is that material science is experimental, whereas spiritual science is experiential. The experiment is to be done on us and we have to experience the difference. So in that sense, it’s experiential, but it is also a science.
Because when we chant Hare Krishna, anybody in any part of the world, that person chants Hare Krishna, that person experiences a higher happiness and becomes gradually freed from the lower drives. So we see that Krishna Prabhupada’s Krishna consciousness, people from America, Africa, Australia, even various parts of the world, Europe, Russia, wherever, all different backgrounds who had never even heard of Krishna any time, when they all became purified, they all became elevated. So this is how there is the universality, just like in science the principles are universal.
Of course, we don’t know whether in science the principles are universal, but as far as our observation goes, gravity seems to apply everywhere. So just by repeatability, that is a characteristic of a good scientific theory. Similarly, there is repeatability that is there in spirituality also.
Anybody who practises, that person experiences transformation. So in the bhakti science, our heart is the laboratory and chanting is the process, procedure. So when we practise the procedure of chanting, in the laboratory of our heart, we see the transformation.
So bhakti is a science and when both are not there, now looking back from this perspective, if there is only philosophy and there is no religion, then that is like there is only theory and there is no experiment. Then anybody can come up with any theory. Anybody can come up with any theory and then what is the validity of that science? Not much validity, because there is not much way of evaluating and confirming which theory is right and which is wrong.
There has to be an experiment. Similarly, there is religion. Religion is what brings about the transformation.
And so the philosophy will remain speculative and unauthoritative if there is no religion, just as a theory will remain speculative and unauthoritative if there is no experiment. On the other hand, if somebody simply does an experiment and not knowing what a theory is, then it will be pointless in many ways. Suppose somebody is doing a theory experiment to find out, okay, this is an acid and alkali, when we mix them together, then we get salt and water.
So now I want to find out what is the strength of the alkali over here. So I put in this much acid, this change happens, this much acid, this change happens, this much acid, this change happens. So I do not, if I am not knowing what is the theory, what is the purpose of the experiment, I just keep doing it, doing it, nothing will happen.
Nothing will happen means no understanding will come to me, because I am just letting things happen, but I do not have any background understanding. Similarly, when people do religion ritualistically, then there is some benefit, but actually people do not have a deeper conviction about what they are doing, why they are doing. So when, for example, a child is throwing a ball at a wall, and he is throwing a ball and catching the ball, or throwing the ball at a wall and catching it when it comes back.
If somebody is, say, a mechanical engineer, a person has scientific knowledge about the strength of materials, and then that person throws a ball at a wall. And then if he finds, okay, the ball you throw over here, then it comes back fast. You throw the ball over here, it comes back slow.
Then because that person has knowledge, and also, okay, that means the wall is thicker, stronger here, it is weaker here. So basically the same activity is being done, but because there is background knowledge, so therefore, there is a clearer understanding of what is happening. And one’s understanding deepens.
So one has some understanding and further observation, the understanding deepens. Similarly, people, there are so many thousands of people, especially in places where the spiritual culture is still there, who go to temples, and they glorify God. And they get something, they feel so peaceful, they feel something good about it.
But if they don’t have philosophical understanding, their inclination to continue that may not last, because they may find that, oh, I can go to a movie theatre, that also makes me feel good. So then, when other alternatives come up, then they feel, okay, this is good, let me do this only. So if it’s entirely based only on feelings, then it cannot last for very long.
Whenever alternatives come up, whenever obstacles come up, one may give it up. But for a devotee, one understands, okay, I feel so good when I chant, why do I feel so good? It’s because I’m connected with Krishna, and Krishna is the source of all happiness, experiencing spiritual happiness. And then sometimes I’m not feeling so good.
So when I throw the ball on the wall over here, it comes back properly. When I throw it here, it doesn’t come back properly. So when I see this difference, I observe, okay, that means the wall must be of good quality.
So sometimes I feel, sometimes I chant, I don’t feel good. Why is that? Oh, it must be because the lower modes are affecting me. So the modes keep going up and down like a sine wave.
They make my consciousness go up and down like a sine wave. So now I must be here. That’s why I’m not feeling any.
But I just tolerate it. So like that, whatever is happening to us, if we have background philosophical understanding, then we learn from it and we grow by it. That’s why we need to have a balance of both philosophy and religion.
And that’s what Srila Prabhupada has given us. We have, for example, the morning programme that we have, we are chanting, we have darshan, twice we have darshan, we have the Mangal Aarati darshan, and then we have the Srimad Aarati darshan, and then we have kirtans. So all this, and of course, we have japa, all this is the religion part.
And then we have the Bhagavatam class, that is the philosophy part. So like that, all of us individually, even if you’re not able to attend the temple morning programme, we create our own situation. We have some philosophy and some religion, and when we combine both of them, then we move forward steadily in our spiritual life.
So that’s how philosophy and religion are integrated together in the standard programmes given by Srila Prabhupada. And we also have to have a balance in our practise of spiritual life. So roughly, Prabhupada is correlating over here, philosophy with Jnana and religion with Karma Yoga or Bhakti Yoga.
That’s a rough correlation, and we’ll discuss about this much later, later in our course. So let’s move to the next verse now. When one does not do karma, arambha is beginning.
So if one does not begin karma, one does not do karma. And Krishna says that just by not doing karma, one does not achieve naishkarma. One does not attain naishkarma just by avoiding karma.
And just by taking sannyas, one does not get siddhi, one does not attain perfection. So why is that? Here the emphasis of Krishna is that more important than the externals is the internals. Now what is the connection between this and the previous verse? In the previous verse, Krishna said there are two levels.
So now in general understanding, Jnana Yoga is higher than Karma Yoga. But Krishna says what makes Jnana Yoga higher than Karma Yoga, or what makes a Jnani higher than a Karma Yogi, is not just the adoption of the external forms. Actually, there has to be an inner purification.
And only when there is inner purification, then adoption of external forms will help. But when there is no inner purification, if one just adopts the external forms, so Krishna is giving these two statements as an indication of the adoption of external forms, that nakarmanam anarambha naishkarman purushasude. One thinks, oh, when I do activity, I get entangled in life and entangled in the world.
Therefore, I’ll give up activity. I have seen renunciates, they give up all activity. So and then I will not only give up activity, I’ll formalise it.
Wedding sannyas. Sannyasana deva. No, just wedding sannyas.
Siddhim samadhi gacchati. That will not happen. No, no, actually, here 3.4a and 3.4c both start with no.
No, no, no, no, this doesn’t happen. So adoption of external forms doesn’t lead to inner transformation in and of itself. And so Krishna is telling over here, don’t do just, don’t just adopt the external form, that will not lead to any change.
So now in bhakti also we have external forms, you could say. We wear dhoti, kurta, we put on tilak. So it is not, Bhakti Sansthankar also says that, it is not just that by adopting the external form, one becomes a devotee.
If somebody is having the external form, but is having a vicious enjoying mentality, that person is not a devotee, that person is actually Kali Irchela. That person is actually agent of Kali. Bhakti Sansthankar says that.
Both Bhakti Sansthankar and Thakur both actually strongly critique ostentatious devotion or hypocritical devotion. Ostentatious means one practises, makes a show of devotion and hypocritical means one has no intention of devotion, one simply has a intention of exploitation, but adopts a devotional garb so that one can do the exploitation better or more easily. So that Krishna will talk about in the next verse.
So here Ropa explains that, without purification of heart, sannyas is simply a disturbance to the social order. Sannyas is simply a disturbance. So the verse we have quoted often also, Shruti Smriti Puranadi, So without scriptural authorisation, if one practises Bhakti, then that simply leads to utpata.
Utpata means disturbance, disruption. So there is a notion among some Mayavadis that if one just takes sannyas, danda grhanam atrena naro narayan bhavet, that if one accepts danda, then by the exception of danda, the nara has become Narayan now. So this doesn’t happen.
First of all, nara never becomes Narayan. Nara is always the servant of Narayan. But even while being a servant of Narayan, one doesn’t become Brahman realised just by adopting sannyas.
These are misconceptions. And there is Prabhupada who says that far better than this is practise of Bhakti yoga. So that he will talk about, that Krishna will talk about in the next verses.
So now Krishna, after stating this, he is pointing that actually it is very difficult to give up activity in principle. nahi kashchit kshanam api, jahatu tishthatya karmakrat, karyate hiyabhashah karma, sarvatrakti jair gunai. So, nahi kashchit kshanam api, that even for a kshana and kashchit, for anyone, jahatu tishthatya karmakrat, to be situated in a karma is no.
Again, you know, obviously, 4A and 4C started with no, and 5A is also starting with no. jahatu tishthatya karmakrat. So, one cannot be situated without doing a karma.
And what is the point? Why? karyate hiyabhashah karma. One is helplessly forced to act. sarvatrakti jair gunai.
sarvatrakti jair. Born of material, the modes of material nature, everyone is forced to act. One cannot refrain from action.
So, here Krishna is taking an important point that action is natural for us. Now, so avasya, we are helplessly forced to act. Now, somebody may argue that actually, yes, because we are under the influence of the modes, that’s why we are forced to act.
But once we become free from the influence of the modes, then we’ll no longer have to act. So, that is the point which Prabhupada counters in the first sentence of the purport itself. What does he say? It is not a question of embodied life, but the nature of the soul to be active.
What does it mean? Actually, if somebody says that actually, because the body is influenced by the modes, so one wants to act. But actually, the body cannot act. It is because of the presence of the soul that the body acts.
Yes, material nature is there, its modes are there. But when we are acting, it’s not because of the modes alone that we are acting. It is because of the presence of the soul.
The soul’s energy may be diverted towards materialistic things because of the influence of the lower modes. But the point is, it is the soul’s energy. The modes are simply directing where that energy will go.
So, energy and action are not produced by the modes. Energy and action are intrinsic to the soul. Their direction is determined by the modes.
So, the soul, when it is embodied, even then it is active, and when it is liberated, then it will be all the more active. In a sense, for the soul, the body is a burden. For the soul, which is transcendental, spiritual, the body is like a burden.
So, if somebody is burdened, suppose somebody is, we see a person carrying a big sack, sometimes we have trekkers, they carry some trekking gear while they are climbing up a and they are running fast. So, now, if with that sack they are running fast, if the sack were removed, what would happen? Would they become inactive? No, they will become capable of running all the more fast, even faster. So, similarly, the soul is burdened by the body right now.
So, when the soul is burdened by the body, the soul is moving so enthusiastically, so active the soul is right now, doing so many different things. Most of the things are materialistic, but the point is the soul is active. So, if the soul is active in the embodied stage, then when it is free from the burden of the body, how much more the soul will be active.
So, the source of the energy and the source of activity is not the modes. The modes are the director of the activities, which way the activities will go. The source of the energy and the activities is the soul itself.
And Prabhupada’s purpose continues the theme that it is better to do devotional activity, and he quotes that while doing devotional activity, even if one falls, still there is no loss. We discussed this with Ekta Vadha Dharmakumar. Now, Krishna contrasts this by after telling this with the point of if somebody does a practise renunciation, then what will happen? karmendriyāṇi saá¹…yamya yāsate manasa smaran indriyārthān vimodhātmā vidhyācāryaÅ›a ucyate So, karmendriyāṇi, karmendri, saá¹…yamya, so one put saá¹…yam, one regulates the senses, and yāsate manasa smaran, one is remembering within the mind.
What is one remembering? Indriyārthān, one is remembering the sense objects. Then what happens? Vimodhātmā, such a person is actually a bewildered person, is a deluded person. Vimodhātmā, and what is the vimodhātmā? What is vimodhātmā about the ātmā? Actually, is thinking I am making advancement, but is not making advancement, and vidhyācāryaśa.
So, person is fooling oneself and is fooling others also. So, vidhyācāryaśa is a hypocrite. What is a hypocrisy? Hypocrisy means to seek the prestige and privilege that comes from opposition without taking up the responsibility and the sacrifice required for that position.
I will repeat this. What is hypocrisy? It means to accept the prestige and the privilege that comes from opposition without discharging the responsibility and the sacrifice that is expected of that position. So, somebody becomes the king, say, of the country.
Somebody becomes a politician. Somebody becomes an politician. Okay, taking taxes and enjoying.
But when citizens come with grievances, no time, get lost. And that is not good. That is unfortunate.
So, in one sense, that is hypocritical. So, if somebody is a renunciate, somebody is a sannyāsī, and that person takes the respects, oh, I am a sannyāsī, you are great, so you renounce the world. People come and offer respects, takes the respects, takes the donations, and then is privately engaging in sinful activities, illicit activities.
So, now if one is taking sannyās, one has to discharge the responsibility, one has to do the sacrifices except in that position. So, if somebody is a sannyāsī, one has to take up the responsibility of sharing spiritual knowledge with others. And one has to do the sacrifice of giving up worldly pleasures, especially the pleasure of sex.
So, every position, it brings some prestige, it brings some privilege with it. But along with that, it requires responsibility and sacrifice. So, the Bhagavatam talks about it that one should not become a guru unless one is capable of delivering one’s disciples.
So, capable of delivering the disciples means one should be able to give the guidance, the training, the education, by which the disciple will be able to remove one’s life and thereby progress towards liberation. If one is not capable of giving that kind of guidance, then one should not become a guru. If one becomes a guru otherwise, then it is hypocrisy because one is taking the respect that is given to the guru but is not doing the responsibilities.
So, that is what Krishna is saying, mithya ācāra. So, ācāra is behaviour, mithya is false. So, the behaviour is false.
That means one is pretending to be a sannyāsī but one is not a sannyāsī. So, karmendriyāni sanyamya. So, one is doing restraint externally but yāsate manasa smaranam.
One is remembering internally. Such a person is mithya ācāra. So, now we may say that we are also trying to follow the four elementary principles but sometimes we may also get some bad thoughts.
So, is this also falling, then do we also become imūḍha-ātmā, do we also become mithya ācāri? No, it depends on what do we do with the bad thoughts. If those bad thoughts come and we start cherishing them, yes, I want to think more, more, more. See, sometimes on a, say if you go to some website where there is darshan, there is a picture gallery.
So, then you can see many pictures over there, many pictures of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, of the various deities. So, like that all of us have a picture gallery in our mind. We have a picture gallery of all the sense pleasures that we have done and if those pleasures are immoral, they are anti-devotional, then sometimes there is a spontaneous, there is spontaneous high resolution flashback that starts in the mind of that mental gallery and we start seeing all those images and start thinking.
So, oh I want to, it was so nice, I would have enjoyed that, I would have enjoyed that. So, when that starts, what do we do at that time? So, actually we switch off the gallery. We start thinking of something else.
We don’t continue pursuing that. Even worse is that we deliberately kindle all those memories. I want to think, what was that, what did I do over there, what was, how was that like, how was that like.
So, here āsate manasa smaran refers to consciously cultivating the memories of those sense objects with the hope of enjoying them again in the future. As sādhakas, we may also be struggling to give up sense gratification and the memories may be coming back. But it is one thing for the memories to come back uninvoked on their own and another for us to dig out those memories, for us to ferret out those memories from within or to try to refresh those memories from without.
The two are different things. So, if we are doing that, second thing, that means trying to dig out the memories from within or refresh the memories from without by further exposure, then that will be in the direction of mithyācārya. So, as sādhakas, we want to give up sense gratification and this is not, and occasional thoughts are not what leads to hypocrisy.
But it is conscious and intentional cultivation of those memories and sense objects that can take us towards hypocrisy. So, Krishna is saying such a person who externally adopts the garb, so now that means there are two different stages here. First is one adopts the external garbs but does not try for purification.
That will not lead to any perfection. But on the other hand, if one tries for external, adopts the external garb, but far from trying for purification, far from trying for purification, one not only doesn’t try for purification, one continues one’s past mode of thinking, then that will be mithyācārya. So, that means best is there is external change and there is internal change.
Second best is there is external change and there is a sincere attempt towards internal change. Third is there is external change but there is no internal change at all. And fourth is there is external change and there is continuation of old ways with the garb of the external change.
The difference between third and fourth is, in third one has just adopted the externals, but in fourth one is using the externals as a means for doing the internals secretly. So, that is very unfortunate. And Prabhupāda writes that, even if a person has knowledge, he must be called a greatest cheater, even though he sometimes speaks of philosophy, greatest cheater, it’s a very strong statement by ÅšrÄ«la Prabhupāda.
Even if somebody speaks philosophy and speaks philosophy nicely, still the person is a cheater. Why? He who makes a show of being a yogi while actually searching for the object of his gratification. That is a person who is a cheater.
It’s a pretender’s mind is always impure and therefore his show of yogic meditation has no value whatsoever. It’s just a show and it will not lead to any spiritual advancement. Now, here we may wonder that is Kṛṣṇa in a blanket way condemning renunciation entirely? We see that ÅšrÄ«la Prabhupāda himself took sannyāsa and we have so many sannyāsÄ«s and brahmachārÄ«s in our movement.
So, how can we relate this with Bhagavad GÄ«tā, what Kṛṣṇa is telling over here? Actually, Kṛṣṇa talks about multiple levels and in this section, Kṛṣṇa is primarily talking about not bhakti yoga, He’s talking about jñāna yoga and karma yoga. So, in jñāna yoga and in karma yoga, jñāna yoga involves inactivity, karma yoga involves activity. So, Kṛṣṇa is saying inactivity and just passive yogic meditation, that will not lead to any purification.
So, here we are not talking about bhakti at all. In Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whether a person is in the renounced order or the household order, the person is actually practising bhakti and that is, Kṛṣṇa will talk about that later on in the Bhagavad Gītā and for devotees, the principle based on which we have sannyāsa is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. That is 18.66, the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gītā.
So, for us, renunciation is not primary. For us, renunciation is not our sādhana. Bhakti is our sādhana and the renounced order is the facility for that sādhana.
So, we adopt renunciation in the path of bhakti so that we can practise bhakti better. It is not that we adopt renunciation because renunciation in and of itself will lead to purification. No.
Renunciation is a tool for us to practise devotional service. That is why Chaitanya Mahāprabhu says that I am not a sannyāsī. There is a famous verse, nāhaṁ vipro nara patir manastho yathirvā.
nāhaṁ vipro nara patir nāpi vaiśyona śūdra nāhaṁ varṇeṇa ca graha patir manastho yathirvā. So, he says, I am not a Brahman, Kṣatriya, Vaishya, Śūdra. I am not a brahmachārī, grahasthas, vanaprastha, sannyāsī.
I am kopi bhartar padakamalayor dāsa dāsa anudāsa. I am a servant of Krishna. So, a devotee, when the devotee adopts renunciation, that is for the sake of practising bhakti and bhakti involves activity.
Bhakti involves activity. So, here Krishna is not talking about bhakti, he is talking about karma yoga and jñāna yoga. And jñāna yoga involves inactivity and that sort of inactive renunciation is what Krishna frowns upon over here.
He recommends active engagement and that active engagement can be through karma yoga or that active engagement can be through bhakti yoga also. And we see in this Kaun, even the brahmachārīs and sannyāsīs, they are not just doing inactive renunciation, they are doing actually active engagement in devotional service. So, now Krishna will talk about how activity is preferable to renunciation.
Yastva indriyāṇi manasa, nīmyārabhate arjuna, karmendriyai karmayogam, asaktaḥ sa viśiṣyate. So, yastva indriyāṇi manasa. Therefore, controlling the senses with the mind, nīmyārabhate, nīmya, nīmya is control, ārabhate, ārabhate means to begin.
So, what does one begin? Karmendriyai karmayogam. One engages the karmendriya and practises karmayoga. How does one practise karmayoga? With detachment, asaktaḥ sa viśiṣyate.
Viśiṣyate means is better, is superior. So, Krishna here recommends engagement as contrasted with renunciation. It is far better to engage oneself positively using the senses.
The significant word here is karmendriyai. So, what are our karmendriyas? Our hands, legs, our speech, all these are karmendriyas. We engage all of them.
We don’t keep them passive. Karmendriyai karmayogam, asaktaḥ sa viÅ›iá¹£yate. Now, even for the yogis or even for those who practise passive meditation, their jñāna indriyas don’t become inactive entirely.
They will still be seeing, they will be smelling. Of course, they cut it down, but the primary action, what causes bondage, is not just what we acquire through the jñāna indriyas. Yes, if we perceive sensory stimulating objects, tempting objects, then that itself causes contamination.
But what causes primary karmic bondage is when we engage the karmendriyas. When I see something, that brings some contamination. But when I act on what I see, then I get caught.
So, I see some delicious food or I smell some delicious food item. So, okay, that information is coming in from the senses. But when karmendriya, when I go there and my legs go there, my hands go there, I want to eat this and then I stuff myself till I feel as if I have put a boulder inside my stomach.
Stomach becomes so full and starts spinning. Then there is problem because of that. So, problem in this life itself from the health point of view.
And thus, if the food is not offered to Krishna, then there is karmic bondage also. So, the point is, Krishna is emphasising karmendriya here, because it is when we act with the karmendriya that primarily the bondage occurs. So, he says that it is far better to regulate the senses and with detachment practise karma yoga.
So, now we may wonder, how can we practise karma yoga if we do not have adequate level of detachment? So, some people feel that actually, it is better to go away from the sense objects, because then at least I will not fall prey to maya. And therefore, I will stay safe. Some people feel that if I am in contact with the world constantly, if I am exposed to the objects, I will fall more prey to maya.
It is more likely that I will fall prey to maya. Therefore, let me stay away from the sense objects and I will stay away from, I will not get entangled in maya. So, now, to some extent, it is true that out of sight is out of mind.
That if you do not pursue the sense objects, they will go out of mind. But some things are so deeply rooted in the mind, that out of sight does not lead out of mind. Actually, when something goes out of sight, it becomes all the more prominent in the mind, and then we return our sight.
Where is it? Where is it? Where can I find it? So, detachment has to be there to some extent. That detachment comes from jnana. Without jnana, we cannot have the practise of devotional service properly.
Jnana does not refer to jnana yoga. Jnana refers to a philosophical understanding. When we have proper philosophical understanding, by that philosophical understanding, we can steadily practise devotional service.
And when we are practising devotional service thus, we make spiritual advancement by that. So, here Krishna is talking about engaging the senses. So, now, whether we should be, certainly as devotees, we do not want to expose ourselves to sense objects that are going to take us away from the bhakti.
But some regulated engagement keeps us steadily practising spiritual life. Because, you say, if some of you have read about no eating, then there will be no practising devotional service only. So, there is eating.
And we can eat also nicely. But it is eating prasad. That is how we become purified.
So, Prabhupada writes, do not become a pseudo-transcendentalist for the sake of wanton living and sense enjoyment. Pseudo-transcendentalist is a person who pretends to be transcendentalist. What does that mean? A wanton living, an all sort of unregulated living is there.
And this is a famous quote. This is based on a quote by Bhaktsanskritakar, which Prabhupada is quoting over here. A sincere sweeper in the street is far better than the charlatan meditator who meditates only for the sake of making a living.
So, for making a living. That means what? A meditator, people, especially where there is a spiritual culture or where there is a culture of respecting piety and spirituality, there if somebody wears saffron robe, somebody is in the renounced order, somebody is doing meditation, somebody is doing chanting, then that person gets respect. And not only the person gets respect, the person gets donations also.
So, then when that happens, the person, some people, there are many people like that who adopt this. They adopt a garb of a renunciate just so they can get all these things. So, renunciation should not be adopted because one does not want to take up responsibility.
Some people think, oh, if I have to go to office and I have to work and then, or I have to take up a job and after that I’ll get some money. Instead, let me just renounce. Let me just wear a saffron robe and then what will happen? People will give me a donation.
They will give me respect also. So, that will be very nice. So, it should not be taken as a escape way from the hard work of material life.
If that is the purpose, then we are cheating ourselves, we are cheating others. The purpose of renunciation except to renounce order is to have a greater focus on Krishna. But it is quite unfortunate that there are many people who adopt a renounced order.
They actually don’t adopt it. They just take the garb externally for the sake of cheap prestige and easy living. And this kind of people have ruined spiritual culture.
These people often they exploit others and when they exploit others, then that often gets widely publicised. And when that gets widely publicised, then people get a general negative perception of everybody who is in the renounced order. So, there has to be a proper understanding from both those who are accepting the renounced order and those who are respecting the renounced order.
Those who are accepting the renounced order have to clearly understand that this is a saffron dress. It is a dress to be, actually it should be worshipped. It represents renunciation.
It represents devotion to Krishna. And one has to live in a way that honours the dress. And one takes it up as a responsibility.
It is a responsibility which we are accepting so that we can serve Krishna more without distractions. And those who are respecting the renounced order also, they have to also be careful. It is not that just because somebody wears a saffron robe, that person suddenly becomes respectable.
Yes, we may respect if somebody is wearing saffron, but we also have to look at the life. And if the person is not living properly, then we cannot associate with this person. So, actually what to speak of somebody wearing saffron, somebody wearing devotional garb also.
Vishwanath Chakraborty says that if a devotee, if a person is a devotee, there is chanting, wearing tilak, having kanthi mala, but if the devotee is not behaving properly, then we can respect the devotee from a distance. We should not associate with devotees. So, same applies with renunciates also.
So, if there is no proper understanding of what renunciation is and how it is to be practised and how it is to be understood, recognised by others, then there can lead to this sort of unfortunate perpetuation, multiplication of pseudo renunciates. This especially happens in dhams. Now, the dhams are the places of devotion and the dhams are the places of deviation.
So, when we go in the association of devotion with dhams, then we actually advance in our devotion. But dhams can also be places where there is a deviation happening. So, people can go there and especially in dhams, there are pilgrims who come with a devotional bent of mind and they want to give donations, they want to do seva in the dham and as a part of that they give donations.
So, many people go to the dhams and start adopting a devotional garb just for getting easy donations from the pilgrims who are coming there. So, we have to be cautious from our side and actually different people come to the renounced order also for different purposes. Because the Prabhupada has provided us a systematic philosophical understanding, we understand what is the purpose of renounced order and also Prabhupada has also instituted this strong standards for the renounced order, strict standards.
So, because of that also, people who are not very serious about spiritual life, they will not come only to the renounced order. They will just, this is too strict, forget it. Actually, waking up early in the morning, chanting 16 rounds, following the four regulative principles, doing the morning programme.
If those in the renounced order start doing that, this is too much of a price to pay for prestige and some donations. Better let me go outside. So, generally Prabhupada has provided us safeguards by which this kind of things can, won’t happen within the Krishna conscious movement, that is pseudo renunciate is happening.
But apart, but still there can always be people who somehow creep in through the safeguards. So, we have to be careful. But beyond that, outside is gone.
There are many people who do like this. So, as devotees, we have to be careful. And overall, devotees, our focus is not on renouncing, our focus is on connecting.
So, we connect everything with Krishna. So, even devotees who are renounced also, if they have certain talents, they may use those talents in Krishna service. They don’t reject those talents as much as we have.
So, the Karmendriya and Karmayog. So, the Mahakrishna Maharaj, when he was building the, helping Prabhupada build the Juhu temple and making the arrangements for that, procuring the land and negotiating with the, with Mr. N who was trying to fleece the devotees. So, the land dealings were becoming so complex and it was causing so much anxiety.
One day he came to Srila Prabhupada and he said, Prabhupada, these land dealings are causing me so much anxiety. I am not able to chant Hare Krishna attentively. It is disturbing my chanting.
So, Prabhupada smiled at the Mahakrishna Maharaj and said, yes, it is disturbing my chanting also. That was the last thing that Mahakrishna Maharaj expected. Prabhupada is a pure devotee, a Mahabhag, how can anything disturb his chanting? Then Prabhupada said, your anxiety for serving Krishna will take you back to Krishna.
Your anxiety for serving Krishna will take you back to Krishna. So, as devotees, we make so much advancement by developing our relationship with Krishna and developing our relationship means taking up responsibility. Krishna wants to spread and we take up responsibility for spreading of Krishna’s mission.
So, taking up responsibility means accepting anxiety. So, when we accept anxiety, we are through that acceptance of anxiety expressing our affection, expressing our devotion to Krishna and that itself will lead to spiritual advancement. So, of course, when we take up anxiety also, we have to take up anxiety that is manageable for us.
We cannot take up unmanageable anxiety. So, sometimes if anxiety becomes unmanageable, then we will have to tell, this is becoming too much. I will do this, this services, but this is, can you hand this over to somebody else? We can tell that to senior devotees like that.
But in general, the principle we have to know that we shouldn’t be running away from anxiety in the name of practising spirituality. By taking up anxiety for Krishna’s sake, we make spiritual advancement. So, now why is Prabhupada comparing a charlatan meditator with a sincere sweeper over here? He is pointing out that the externals don’t matter.
From the Varanasi point of view, a sweeper may be called as a shudra. But if that sweeper is doing the devotional activities responsibly, then the speaker will make spiritual advancement. So, the externals are useful to the extent that they aid in the internals.
But if the internals are there, then whatever the externals, one will keep the spiritual advancement. So, now Krishna will give one more reason why Arjuna should do his duty. So, niyatam is prescribed.
So, do your prescribed duty. So, it is karma jaya is superior, better. Karma is better than akarma.
So, yatra, you know, we go for Vrindavan yatra, we go for Mayapur yatra. So, the soul is on a yatra of the sharir. The soul lives in the body and the soul goes from one place to another.
So, our one lifetime is like a pilgrimage in the body. So, sharir yatra pichate, the journey through the body, means the survival. One will not be able to do that.
One will not be able to survive if one does not do one’s prescribed duty. So, here Krishna is saying, what is the other reason? For bodily maintenance. So, Krishna has till now given three reasons why akarma is inactivity, renunciation, is not to be done by Arjuna.
The first reason was that it is unnatural, it won’t lead to purification, it won’t lead to advancement. Second reason is it will disrupt social order, because people will get misled, it will become hypocritical. So, it won’t benefit oneself, it won’t benefit others.
Now, when we talk about benefiting oneself, it’s about making spiritual advancement. Just by external one doesn’t lead to spiritual advancement. And it will misrepresent and mislead.
And third is one will not be able to maintain one’s body also. So, therefore, we have to do a prescribed duty. What do we mean by maintaining one’s body? Actually, in the Vedic culture, the varna is for the body, the ashram is for the soul, in a broad sense.
So, the varna with Brahman, Ksitriya, Vaishya, Shudra, according to one’s varna, when one does activities, then one is able to make contributions to society according to one’s psychophysical nature, and thereby also earn one’s living. So, the dharma, the karma, the prescribed duty of a person is the swadharma, that is the material dharma and the spiritual dharma. So, the material dharma when one does, then by that one earns one’s living.
So, for a Ksitriya, the swadharma is ruling. So, by ruling, the Ksitriya earns some livelihood. So, of course, Ksitriya doesn’t don’t take salary, Ksitriyas get taxes.
But either way, the important point is that the Ksitriyas, they have their swadharma and similarly every varna has its swadharma. So, by doing that particular karma according to one’s swadharma, one earns one’s living. So, now in today’s society, we do not have the varna ashram system.
So, we may have our different prescribed duties, we may have a job, we may have students, we may be housewives, whatever. So, now we all have to do our worldly duties. And by that, we are able to maintain ourselves.
So, for bodily maintenance, for personal purification, and for the sake of setting a good example, we need to act according to our prescribed duties. So, in this way, Krishna tells Arjuna that do not give up your prescribed duties. Do your prescribed duties and by this, you will make spiritual advancement.
Now, Arjuna must have a question, okay, all that is fine. But my original question was about bondage. You know, I want to give up activity, because inactivity, activity will lead to bondage and inactivity is the way by which I can stay free from bondage.
So, then the next verse tells no, that will not happen. You can still do activity and still stay free from bondage. yajñārthāt karmaṇo anyatra loko yam karma bandhanā yadārthaṁ karma kaunteya mukta-saṅga-samācara So, yajñārthāt, for the purpose of yajñā, karmaṇo, when one does, so one should do work for the purpose of yajñā, anyatra loko.
If anyatra, if for any other purpose one does work, loko yam karma bandhanā, one becomes bound by karma. Therefore, tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya. What is tad-arthaṁ? yajñārthāt, means for the sake of yajñā, karma kaunteya, Arjuna should do.
Then mukta-saṅga-samācara, then you will always stay free from bondage. You will not get associate, you will not get bound. So, what does this verse refer to? Now, this is the first reference in the Bhagavad Gita to the concept of yajñā.
Yajñā will come again, repeatedly in this chapter, and will be referred to a few times in the later chapter also. Now, yajñā also has, there is a form and there is a principle. Just like in yoga, there is a form, most people associate yoga with sitting in yoga asanas, particular asana.
But that is a form, and that is one particular form, and the principle is, yoga means connection, connection of the soul with the Supersoul. Similarly, yajñā has a form, and yajñā is a principle. So, generally, people just focus on the forms.
The form of yajñā is that we have a fire sacrifice, and in the fire sacrifice, ahuti is made. And when the ahuti is made in the fire sacrifice, then the yajñā is said to be performed. So, that is a form.
But what is the principle? The principle is sacrifice, sacrifice. So, in yajñā, some people may say, hey, what is this? You just take ghee, you take grains, put into fire, it goes waste. What is this? It is simply a waste of money.
Why are you wasting money like this? Wasting resources like this. Actually speaking, there are multiple levels at which you can understand this. When the yajñā sacrifices fire, the sacrificial fires are made properly, according to Vedic descriptions, then the yajñā becomes the mouth of Lord Vishnu.
And agni devānāṁ avamo viṣṇu devānāṁ paramo viṣṇu avamo agni tad-antara sarva-devata. So, the Rig Veda says that the mouth of Vishnu is parama, the supreme devata is Vishnu. Paramo is Vishnu, avamo, lowest is agni, tad-antara sarva-devata, in between are the other devatas.
So, lowest doesn’t necessarily mean in terms of power. Agni is not the lowest in terms of power, but lowest in terms of accessibility. So, Vishnu is transcendental.
Whereas, among the devatas, all the other devatas can be accessed through agni. So, when the fire sacrifices are performed, through the fire sacrifices, agni dev is manifesting as the fire and he is accepting, but he is the vahan, he is the means by which the sacrifice goes through all the other devatas also. So, in this way, we’ll discuss about yajna in more detail in the next class.
But here the principle is what? That what is being offered to agni is going through all the devatas. Now, how does this happen? There is a complex, subtle, universal government which does this. Just like when we have a credit card system.
Now, I put some 5000 rupees or 50000 rupees in a bank over here and all that I get is a card. Some person who doesn’t know what credit card system is says, have you lost 50000 rupees? So much money, you just got one piece of paper, what did you get? You lost everything. Now, one who understands the system properly, this is worth the 50000 rupees, I have not lost anything.
So, similarly, actually from the material point of view, it may appear that I am putting these grains and they are just getting lost. But actually, they are being accepted as the offering and that offering is going to the devatas and ultimately going to Vishnu. Vishnu is Yajneshwara, he is the lord of the yajna, Yajnapati.
So, ultimately all yajnas are meant for him. So, there is a subtle system by which this happens. And a person who is uninformed about modern financial systems may think that putting money and getting a credit card is a wastage of money.
Similarly, some people may think that he is putting things into the fire and we are just losing everything. But actually, we are getting pious credits, we are getting punya, we are also getting our material necessities, we will see how that happens. But the important point is not lost, it is just a materialisation, that it is lost.
But Krishna is now in this particular verse, he is talking about the principle, he is not talking about a form of yajna. The principle is sacrifice. So, I could have eaten the ghee, but I offer it to lord Vishnu through Agni.
I could have taken the grains for myself, but I offer it to lord Vishnu. So, what I could have enjoyed, I do it, I give it up for the sake of the lord. That is sacrifice.
So, yajna represents sacrifice. So, Krishna is telling here, when you do your work as a sacrifice, then you will not be bound, you will be liberated. So, therefore, do your work as a sacrifice, then there is no bondage at all.
And that is the principle of Varanashram. So, Varanashram, Prabhupada quotes over here from the Vishnu Purana, The purpose of Varanashram ultimately is to satisfy lord Vishnu. This way, then one is not bound by karma.
So, now Krishna is addressed over here, Arjuna is concerned about bondage by saying, no, if you do work for the purpose of yajna, then you will not become bound. So, in this way, Krishna concludes the section by saying that you should act, do not give up activity, not renounce, but act. And act in such a way that you will not get bound.