Bhakti Shastri (065) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03 Text 33 to 36

Thank you very much welcome back to our bhakti shastri course bhagavad gita we are doing the third chapter we have completed till verse 32 so we have discussed let’s look at the chapter overview before we move forward so this chapter starts basically chapter titled karma yoga and that is the focus, so now Krishna is explaining, we are in the fourth section now fourth section we completed difference between karma yoga and karma kanda and now how karma yoga elevates, that’s what Krishna is talking about in the fifth section 30 to 35 so mayi sarvani karmani 30th verse which says that actually offer the fruits of your work to me, so earlier karma yoga was just be detached from the work but now it is not only to be detached from the work but also to focus oneself on the supreme lord and when one focusses oneself on the supreme lord, offering the fruits of the work to the supreme lord then by that one is able to become liberated and then Krishna says have faith so when he says have faith at that time he gives two verses if you have faith then you will be liberated if a person does not have faith all the efforts will be lost so sarva-jnana-vimodhaamsthaam viddhi-nashtana-cetasah now Krishna will continue the theme of talking about dovetailing one’s nature and doing one’s prescribed duty let’s look at the verse sadrishim cheshtate swasyah prakritir jnana vanapi prakritir jnanti bhutani nigrah kim karishyati sadrishim cheshtate swasyah so here we see sadrishim sadrishim means cheshtate swasyah swasyah is one’s own sadrishim is accordingly cheshtate means to act, to try, to act so everybody will act according to their nature, prakritir who are even jnana vanapi so prakritir jnanti bhutani nigrah kim karishyati so prakritir jnanti bhutani means all living beings will act according to their nature nigrah is repression kim karishyati, what will repression accomplish what will repression accomplish so this seems to be somewhat confusing words in the Bhagavad Gita because generally we all say that we have wrong desires and we have to suppress those wrong desires and we have to get rid of those wrong desires so Krishna is telling what will repression accomplish nigrah kim karishyati and he says everybody will act according to their nature sadrishim cheshtate swasyah swasyah and he is saying even jnana will not help one to curb one’s nature one will act according to one’s nature so now what does Krishna mean here by prakritir understanding that is very important prakriti here doesn’t refer to kama, krodha, loga, mohammad, this is not what he is referring to but prakriti he is referring actually to our propensity within the four varnas so brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya, shudra, that cannot be repressed see the vedic philosophy, there are two kinds of urges that come from the contact of the soul with the body so some urges are to be rejected and some urges are to be obtained, so understanding the difference is very important if one is to practise spiritual life properly so there is prakriti and there is vasana vasana is a immoral desire prakriti is material nature so material nature and material desire so material nature is innate to our psychophysical nature and it is harmonisable with dharma, whereas vasana is material desire and superficial to our psychophysical nature and it is not harmonisable with dharma what does this mean actually what does it actually mean when we say harmonisable, not harmonisable for a brahmana say a person who is intellectually orientated for that person to act intellectually is innate, is natural it is not innate to the soul but it is innate to the soul when that soul is embodied in a particular body which has a particular way of functioning so that is not in any way sinful in itself on the other hand, vasana are the desires which are generated by kama, krodha, lobo, mohammad, matsarya so the brahminical tendency or the kshatriya tendency that is not generated by kama, krodha, lobo, mohammad, matsarya that is generated by the contact of the soul with the body and that is something which is meant to be dovetailed it is not meant to be suppressed or rejected now of course anybody from a brahmana to a shudra or even an outcast all these people they can get infected by kama, krodha, lobo, mohammad, matsarya and when they get infected by these anarthas then they may also develop vasanas and those vasanas they will have to decide how to deal with them so different varnas they all have to regulate but the regulation level and the regulation method may be different generally speaking, a shudra is considered lower because a shudra is not so much capable of regulation of sense control so it is not that a person is condemned if a shudra had to live like a brahmana it may seem, oh brahmanas are respected so much and they would practically just live a very comfortable life others will do charity and they will just teach and they don’t have to do any hard work but along with that, brahmanas have to live a life of cleanliness and purity and if a shudra had to live like that, shudra would be miserable why? because that psychophysical nature is just not suited so here we are not talking about brahmana shudra by birth we are talking about by qualities so therefore, the important point is that it is not that the shudra cannot become elevated shudra can also become elevated gradually by practising the advanced duty in varna ashram and beyond that shudra can also be elevated by the practise of the devotional service, there is a rapid elevation the shudras can also do Chaitanya Mahaprabhu describes in Chaitanya Jatamudra describes that actually speaking, if a shudra understands Krishna consciousness the shudra can even become a guru if he understands Krishna tattva it is worthy of being called a guru there are two significant points here first is the inner understanding and the second is the outer position so what this verse says is both are possible for a shudra just because a person is born a shudra doesn’t mean that the shudra cannot get spiritual understanding of Krishna tattva he can, and if he gets that then that person should be considered to be as respectable as a guru so the point here is that the varnashram system is based on gradual progression, and if somebody practises devotion, then that’s entirely different and the person can make rapid elevation so now, when a shudra becomes say, a devotee will that person necessarily give up shudra activities? yeah, as far as sometimes shudras engage in some illicit activities shudras pander to their last anger greed, they will not do that but beyond that they will practise whatever observational duties they have, they won’t necessarily give them up, just because they are devotees then they continue those duties so what Krishna is telling over here is that even if a person becomes jnanavan, when a person gets knowledge still that person will act according to nature, so nature here is not referring to what is impelled by last anger greed it is referring to the varnashram nature the varna nature basically so one will act according to that and Prabhupada further talks about in the purport of how the vedic scriptures offer a programme for regulating ourselves so Prabhupada says that there are many so called spiritualists who outwardly pose an advance in the science but inwardly or privately are completely under particular modes of nature which they are unable to suppress so inwardly or privately, what is the difference between the two? Inwardly means that they don’t express it to anyone and privately means that they express it but in private that means they all have sinful desires which they try to suppress in their hearts or they try to keep it hidden from public view and under particular modes of nature which they are unable to suppress and then Prabhupada says that no one should suddenly give up prescribed duties and become a so called yogi or transcendent artificially so actually speaking it is better to practise karma yoga that is what Krishna is telling over here and ultimately Krishna will say that karma yoga will need to culminate in bhakti yoga so Prabhupada is talking about bhakti yoga over here so it is better to be situated in one’s position and act according to one’s nature but offer the fruits of one’s work to Krishna and practise devotional service so the whole thrust of the verse is that one should act according to one’s nature because one should not try to suppress one’s nature that will not lead to any good now there are some organisations which actually distort this verse and they say that they make like the essence of the Bhagavad Gita so the essence of Bhagavad Gita is sarva dharman praktajya manmana bhav, those other verses are chatushloka bhagavad gita 10.8 to 11 ramamicharya sarva dharman praktajya is its janam shloka summit verse of the Gita these are the verses that the acharyas have described as the most important in the Gita but there are these pseudo-spiritualists they are materialists in spiritual garb and they say that the essence of the Bhagavad Gita the most important is nigraha kim karishati therefore there is no need to repress whatever be your desire indulge in that desire and by indulging in that desire you will enjoy and there is nigraha kim karishati so these people are completely misleading everyone because we will see just a few, now we can refute this understanding of the Bhagavad Gita in several ways first and foremost is if we go into the context immediately after this just two verses later in the 36th verse Arjuna will ask what, by what is one impelled to sin and implied in that is the further question, how can one control that sinful tendency and then Krishna from 37 to 43 gives an elaborate answer where he describes how one can control that propensity and essentially what he says there is one controls by the practise of intelligence and sense control so sense control internally and intelligence to steer oneself on the spiritual platform but the whole point is that Krishna says one has to control that sensual propensity so if this verse were a licence or a mandate for unrestricted enjoyment then why would Arjuna ask a question by what is one impelled towards sin because this verse would then become thus as a mandate for all kinds of enjoyment, even sinful enjoyment, so why would Arjuna have any apprehension of what causes one sin and why would Krishna clearly say that lust is our eternal enemy and Krishna says that control it, kill this lust Krishna says lust is your enemy and conquer over it Arjuna he says in 3.43 so if you look at the context, this interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, Nigraha as a licence for unrestricted enjoyment it is a completely unwarranted statement, it doesn’t at all support that interpretation further as I said if you look at the context it’s more talking about the prakriti it’s talking more about according to our nature we should act so Arjuna you have a Kshatriya nature and trying to act artificially like a sanyasi is not going to work for you what will depression accomplish Arjuna, therefore act according to your nature and even the learned will act according to their nature so now we wonder is it possible to transcend our nature entirely for us do we need to transcend our nature also and is it possible to do it the important point is that we stay engaged in a way that is productive for our devotional service productive means productive in the sense that we are internally satisfied we feel comfortable doing the services that we are doing and externally we are competent, that we are good at doing a particular service, so if we are doing it that way then we don’t have to bother whether I have to transcend my varna or not occasionally by the course of events in life itself we will sometimes be thrust into services which we are not comfortable doing but we are thrust into those services at that time we have to fight and we have to control ourselves so we may have to do those services temporarily but in general we search for and find the engagement that we are comfortable with internally and we are competent externally sometimes devotees have the idea that doing the thing that I don’t like to do, that is surrender I don’t like to do something so when I do that then therefore I am proving my surrender to Krishna now it’s a generally speaking it’s a mistaken sentiment it’s not that we have to prove our surrender to Krishna by making ourselves miserable Krishna doesn’t want us to make us miserable Krishna actually wants us to be happy the important point is that we shouldn’t identify ourselves with our nature so completely that we think our current material nature is our eternal nature that shouldn’t happen therefore we have our sadhana and sadhana is standard whatever the service person is doing but the person continues doing sadhana and that is standard universal for everyone but beyond that we have our specific individual services and we do those services and by that we slowly steadily advance in spiritual life now beyond this if we look at the overall picture of today’s world, none of us know what is our varna some of us may, most of us generally we can’t determine our varna by the particular family in which we are born and even if we are born in that particular family, we don’t really have always engagement that are according to our varnashram propensities according to our traditional varnas that means sometimes a person may be born in a brahminical family but that person may choose by the peer pressure, by one’s own individual ambition, by the social trends or by financial needs to become an engineer or a doctor, that person may not be engaged in a brahminical way sometimes a person may be born in a business family but that person may choose not to do business but to do something else so that will vary, so we don’t have to assume that this particular thing is my varna we will have to often go through a process of individual self-discovery individual self-discovery means that we talk of self-discovery at one level that we discover our self as the soul, that is important, no doubt but there is second self-discovery that is also required, that is our self-discovery, who am I in terms of what is my psychophysical nature yes I am a soul but I am a soul in a particular kind of body and in the body that I am how can I best serve Krishna so this is something which each of us has to discover of course in today’s society most people work in such a way that I just want some job I have to earn a living and I need to have some job so if I am in dire financial straits or in some situation where one requires to do some particular job and that is okay but overall the Vedic culture is that people are engaged according to their propensities so we may have to individually find out what are our propensities and even material life sometimes people feel that they are having job, they don’t have job satisfaction that’s because they feel that actually my job is not according to my nature it may be also that they are not getting sufficiently paid or they have a hostile work environment or whatever other factors can be there but one factor for absence of job satisfaction can also be that their job is not compatible with their nature so that depends on the individual whether one is having a reasonably good career, whether one will try to change that to work according to one’s nature or whether one will continue according to that and just focus on practising spiritual life and transcending whatever one’s varna is so today how things will work out each of us will have to decide individually in general it is not necessary for devotees to focus on trying to discover their varna too much, that will be revealed on its own as I said earlier we have to embark on a journey of individual self discovery but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to make that our priority and postpone our Krishna Consciousness we focus on practising Krishna Consciousness and while doing that we also observe ourselves and as we keep observing ourselves by that we learn how can I best be engaged so Krishna is saying that we will all have a particular nature and we act according to that nature so nigraha kim karishati, what will repression accomplish now I will discuss more about this in the next verse also indriyasya indriyasya arthe ragadvesho vyavasthita tayor navasya magadshet tauyasya paripanthinao so indriyasya indriyasya arthe so indriyasya and indriyasya arthe so indriyasya arthe refers to sense objects ragadvesho vyavasthitao vyavasthitao means situated inside, what is situated in between interactions and sense objects raga and dvesha, attachment and aversion are situated inside that tayor navasya magadshet don’t come under their control arjuna, why tauyasya paripanthinao these are enemies raga and dvesha are enemies they don’t come under their control paripanthinao so pantha is path, pari is thieves, paripanthinao is they are thieves on the path, they are robbers who will steal away our spiritual our spiritual inclinations, our prospects for spiritual advancement and our capacity to live according to dharma, so krishna if we see, immediately after the previous verse, previous verse is nigrah kinkarashyati but then immediately in this verse he is saying tayor don’t go completely under, don’t go under their control, so is this a contrast contradiction, previous verse is saying, oh you cannot repress the nature but then here he is saying but don’t succumb to the nature also, don’t go under its control tayor navasya magadshet but here he is not using the word prakriti he is using the word, what should we not go under the control of, raga and dvesha, where is the raga and dvesha situated, it is in senses and the sense objects, so here krishna is talking not about prakriti, he is talking about vasana, so male in the male body and mind, there is situated attraction for the female form and in the female body and mind there is attraction to the male form males in general, so this attraction is there in the senses and the sense objects devasthitau, it is situated so what does one have to do so one has to regulate it, one should not go under the control of it so there is the arrangement of marriage by which this can be regulated, it can be expressed but it has to be expressed in regulation, there has to be expression with regulation, if there is no expression, there is repression, then that will not work, that is what previous verse is saying and this verse is saying but there cannot be unregulated expression so raga and dvesha, so what is the dvesha so chakravarti padbaldevidyabhushan the acharyas in their commentary explain that the conditioned soul wants to enjoy sense gratification therefore if the male is attracted to the females, but if the people find some sadhus who tell them don’t engage in sense gratification, then they feel dvesha for them why are these people interfering with the sense enjoyment and they say i want to go away from them i want them to get out of my life, i want to go away from them so what happens like this both this raga and this dvesha they are paripanthi now, so if we succumb to the raga the attachment and get carried away by it or we succumb to the dvesha and go away from devotee association and what will happen, paripanthi now they will steal away our opportunity for spiritual advancement now Shri Prabhupada explains in the purport that Shri Prabhupada starts by speaking about Krishna consciousness, those who are in Krishna consciousness are naturally reluctant to engage in sense gratification, profound statement they are naturally reluctant actually most of us we are naturally eager to engage in sense gratification as soon as we get an opportunity we want to engage in sense gratification so for us in the conditioned stage hearing and chanting are our prescribed duties and eating, sleeping mating, defending, these are our favourite pastimes, we look forward to them, when can I do this so but one who is in Krishna consciousness Shri Prabhupada says they are naturally reluctant, why? because they have experienced a higher happiness and as compared to their higher happiness, this happiness seems so insignificant, why should I lose the opportunity for higher happiness by getting entangled in these lower pleasures, so they are naturally reluctant but those who are not in such consciousness, Prabhupada writes should follow the rules and regulations of the revealed scriptures and when Prabhupada talks about how sex relations should be regulated to the marriage itself and then he makes another point as long as the mental body is there, the necessities of the mental body are allowed but under rules and regulations and yet we should not rely upon the control of such allowances so now, what does it mean should not rely upon the control of such allowances that means if there is a control ok, that means there is the scripture for example there is dharma and there is marriage so one relies on the control of marriage now that I am married, now I won’t fall prey to sinful activities yes, marriage creates a sort of protection for ourselves but at the same time, if one doesn’t understand that the purpose of marriage is not just sense gratification the purpose of marriage is for both the people, the male and the female to come together and serve Krishna, so if that purpose is forgotten, then that marriage itself can become just a fuel an arrangement that fuels one’s sense gratificatory desires and then, what may happen is that the desires may become so great that they may burn away one’s intelligence and one may no longer follow the dharmic restriction also so, Prabhupada says in the purport that, just as there can be accidents even on a royal road so he has referred to royal road as the arrangement provided by Shastra for gradual purification, and even if there is a royal road, there is always a possibility of accident, similarly even when one is following the regulative principles, one should not assume that the regulative principles themselves will protect me yes, they will offer us a safeguard but at the same time we have to recognise what is the what is it that we have to guard against what is it that we need safety from so, if we start indulging in that unlimitedly, unrestrictedly then, as these desires start blazing more and more, then the safeguard will no longer guard us because it is not the safeguard that is capable of guarding us, but we will no longer want that guard we will knock it out, the desires will blaze up so much that they will knock out all the safeguards, and then one may have an accident on the royal road also that means one may be intending to practise dharma, but one may not be able to practise it so, now here Prabhupada makes an interesting point that sex enjoyment is a necessity for the conditioned soul, and sex enjoyment is allowed under the licence of marriage ties so now the wording is very significant is a necessity for whom? it is not a necessity for the soul itself it is not a necessity for the related soul it is a necessity for the conditioned soul now, what do we mean here by necessity? so is it an absolute universal necessity for everyone? actually the word necessity here, refers not to a physical necessity it refers to a psychological necessity it’s not that if a person doesn’t engage in sex, the person will die sex is not a necessity on the level of food or sleep food, clothing, shelter we say these are the necessities, so food, sleep these are absolute necessities, water is a necessity without water, without food, we can’t live we will die, so it is not that a person will die without sex but for most people it is a necessity in the sense that what is actually a psychological necessity is so irresistible that it is essential so in that, that’s why generally the renounced order and the people are few in a society, not everybody can be renounced and not everybody needs to be renounced there is a few people who will renounce the world and they will practise spiritual life focussing entirely on their vertical relationship with Krishna and for them, is it not a necessity? well, if they are purifying themselves, if they are getting satisfaction at the spiritual level, then it is no longer a necessity, because ultimately what is a necessity is happiness so if one gets happiness at the spiritual level, one will not need happiness at the material level, but for most people, to experience happiness at the spiritual level in a steady and fulfilling way requires substantial purification which may not be possible in the initial stages of one’s spiritual life that’s why dharmic marriage is what is prescribed for most people and the renounced order is there for those people who want to focus primarily or exclusively on their relationship with Krishna now tayor na vashimagacchet Prabhupada writes that it concludes nicely the purport is that no one should try to be detached from Krishna consciousness at any stage of life the whole purpose of detachment from all kinds of sense attachment is ultimately to become situated on the platform of Krishna consciousness so detachment people feel, oh all my suffering is because of my attachment no actually our suffering is not because of our attachment our suffering is because of our detachment how is that possible? actually we are all detached from Krishna we are all parts of Krishna but we have become detached from Krishna we are all parts of Krishna but we have become detached we have become separated from Krishna and because we have become separated from Krishna that’s why we are suffering now so we all want to become connected with Krishna, the purpose of bhakti is not primarily to develop detachment, it is to rectify our attachment from Krishna by reviving our attachment to him so when we develop attachment to Krishna then that attachment to Krishna gives so much satisfaction that our material attachments fall away so we should not be too much conscious or troubled by our material attachments even if we have material attachments now our focus should be on developing our devotional attachment to Krishna that is the essential process of bhakti however much we struggle in our sadhana, in our standards sometimes we may struggle, we may fall and we have to understand that even if we fall, still we have to go on in devotional service sometimes after we fall, we may feel guilty and when we feel guilty we think, oh I am good for nothing, I am so fallen, I can’t practise spiritual life, and that guilt may eat us up internally so actually, if we are chanting Hare Krishna we say, oh I am so fallen I can’t get purified, I have been chanting for so long nothing is happening, what is the use so we start thinking like this even guilt could well be a temptation how can guilt be a temptation actually temptation is not only that which promises material pleasure temptation in a broad sense is anything that takes us away from Krishna so if we say lust or greed, it takes us away from Krishna by promising pleasure oh you will enjoy guilt keeps us away from Krishna by creating a wall between us oh I am so fallen I can never become purified, what can I do what is the use, so ultimately when we feel guilty we are becoming self centred and if we are becoming self centred then we are not Krishna centred we are not Krishna conscious so just as lust makes us self centred, when we become lusty when we feel lusty then what happens is we can think only, oh I am enjoying so same happens when we feel guilty so guilt how should we feel guilt that means guilt should be used to act as an impetus for moving towards Krishna guilt is like a internal immune system that means whenever we get some infection then there is fever that comes so when the fever comes then we understand that oh there is some sickness in the body, now I have to take some medicine but if I find that when I feel guilty at that time I become so disturbed that I think oh I am so sick that the medicine itself is of no use the feeling of sickness should make us feel the need for the medicine the feeling of sickness makes us feel oh the medicine is useless then that feeling of sickness is not actually guilt, it is pseudo guilt it is pseudo guilt so I have written an article in my website about guilt and pseudo guilt elaborately the essence is that anything that discourages us in the practise of devotional service, that is pratikool to bhakti that is unfavourable to bhakti and that should be rejected so even if it feels like guilt, oh I am so fallen I can’t practise strictly, what should I do just put it aside, don’t bother about it, let me practise devotional service we see bhaktivinoda thakur talks so many songs about he says oh my heart is filled with so many sinful desires I am so sinful but what is the conclusion of all his songs Krishna I take shelter of you you must deliver me, apart from you who can deliver me, you are my only shelter, so all his feelings of being very fallen conclude in a fervent call for Krishna’s mercy, he doesn’t conclude by saying oh I am so hopeless that now I will stop chanting Hare Krishna, now I will give up bhakti and I will continue in sense gratification why I am so fallen, there is never this conclusion so ultimately we have to always keep this governing principle for our bhakti anukullese sankalpa patikullese varjanam that which is favourable accepted, that which is unfavourable rejected so guilt should act like the way the feelings of sickness which are created by the immune system act, impel us towards the medicine, it should not discourage us from taking the medicines so as sadhakas now we talked earlier about Prabhupada saying that we should not let ourselves become affected by feelings of helplessness or defeat, that’s what it means, that guilt should not overwhelm us so much that we don’t know what to do how should I practise my spiritual life how do I practise, with determination with conviction that if I keep practising I will become purified so that’s why we shouldn’t be too attachment conscious, because then we think oh I succeeded in resisting the temptation I failed in resisting the temptation, will I succeed next time, will I fail next time our focus should be on how can I practise my spiritual life, how can I serve Krishna how can I remember Krishna more if that is our focus then our attachments with themselves automatically get subsided so we focus not on removing darkness we focus on turning on the light Krishna Surya Sama Maya Hai Andhakar Yaha Krishna Tahar Nahi Maya Radhikar so we focus not on bothering will there be darkness, will I fall in the darkness will the darkness pervade everywhere will it make me blind where is the light focus on turning on the light if our focus is always on being Krishna conscious then we will be able to stay free from Maya even if we fall down into Maya, we will come out of it so we should never let anything make us detached from Krishna conscious, so guilt can make us detached from Krishna consciousness because how, oh I am so fallen that I can’t practise bhakti, so we become indifferent we become detached, that shouldn’t happen so always focus on practising devotion service sincerely and enthusiastically so now here Krishna is telling, I said regulated expression is the middle way, it’s Karma Yoga so in Karma Yoga, Krishna is telling that we should act according to our nature but at the same time as sadhakas, we will occasionally have to do things which are not according to our nature so if we only do the things which we like to do, then we will get a strong sense of doership and we will never learn to discipline our mind and so we won’t develop taste for the core devotional activities what do you mean by core devotional activities? hearing and chanting, these are core devotional activities and to develop taste in them we have to discipline ourselves how do we discipline ourselves? we will learn to discipline ourselves by doing our services, so we do services which are according to our nature, we do some services that are not according to our nature whenever it’s required, it’s not that we have to go and hunt out of our way for services which are not according to our nature but the point is, we do whatever is required when the situation demands and by that we express our surrender, that doesn’t mean that we have to make ourselves miserable in devotional service and beyond that yes so let’s move forward, now Krishna again comes back to the point that act according to your Dharma shreyan svadharmo vighunaha paradharmat svanushthitat svadharmenidhanam shreya paradharmo bhayavaha so shreyan svadharmo vighunaha, shreya is better svadharma is better so what is better? your svadharma is better and vighunaha vighunaha means even if it’s faulty even if it has, it doesn’t have guna in it, vighuna is vruddha roopena guna, it has faults in it then what is it better than paradharmat somebody else’s dharma, svanushthitat svanushthitat means perfectly done, that means you do somebody else’s dharma perfectly svadharmenidhanam shreya nidhanam means destruction even destruction in one’s own dharma is preferable to paradharmo bhayavaha that doing another’s duty is bhayavaha, it’s fearful it’s dangerous one should not do like this it’s interesting many sections of the bhagavad gita have been misappropriated by people who have their own interests and agendas, for example I said that there is this organisation which recommends unrestricted sanskrit, their favourite was nigraha kimgarish 3.33 here 3.35 Krishna will talk about exactly similar words in the 18th chapter also but here paradharmo bhayavaha so there is LIC they have taken yogakshemam vahamyam so yogakshemam vahamyam now LIC cannot do yogakshemam vahamyam, they cannot provide and protect but they have taken these verses for their own purposes, so different people take different verses for their own purposes like that this was paradharmo bhayavaha so these are taken by some hindu organisations which try to work to get people who are converted especially in south india, north east india huge amount of conversion that are happening so christian missionaries are getting people to convert to christianity so there are hindu organisations which are very agitated hindus are getting converted and they try to get the converted hindus back into hinduism and their initiatives they call them homecoming come back to your original religion and their slogan is paradharmo bhayavaha others dharma is very dangerous, don’t follow that so now that is complete complete complete decontextualised application of this verse when krishna is using the word dharma he is not referring to christianity or hinduism or islam or anything like that at all in fact none of these religions were there at the time of the vedic culture when krishna spoke the bhagavad gita jesus had not come, mohammed had not come and even the word hindu was not there in the vocabulary the word hindu came only maybe a few hundred years ago so therefore that is a decontextualised use of the verse now of course we can say that people who are converted out of the vedic fold if they come back to the vedic fold that is good, yes that is good in the sense that people will at least have appreciation for vedic culture generally speaking most of the people from religions like christianity and islam these religions are exclusivist exclusivist means that they believe that their way is the only way now is that based on their scriptures not exactly fully based on their scriptures these exclusivist sort of statements are there in all religions but they have to be understood in the proper context so for example if some people say jesus said this is the only way and no one shall go to the father except through me, there is one verse which says that if you go back to the original hebrew of the verse we find that the word is hekel and that means now, presently jesus is not talking about all time of eternity he is talking presently, i am the way and none shall go to the father except through me but beyond that, in principle if you look at it, this sort of statements are exclusivist, they are primarily meant to create a sense of focus focus means that if a patient is going to a doctor and doctor says ok so you have my diagnosis, this is very simple but the patients are saying doctor no but i went to that doctor and that doctor said that is the problem and i said that is the medicine i went to that doctor and the doctor said like this and then that doctor said like that and that doctor said like that and doctor will say forget whatever doctor told you what just do what i am telling you and you will get cured so this sort of statement is primarily meant to create focus it is not an absolute truth it is not that this doctor thinks that i am the only doctor right and all other doctors are wrong no the patient is not at a stage where the patient can systematically get a comparison of all the doctors and what they are saying that can also be done if required but the statement is this particular point is a focus, just do this and you will get cured so these kind of statements are there in the various religious scriptures sometimes, they are meant to create a sense of focus but unfortunately when they are taken as absolute truths and they are imposed on others then what happens is many of these exclusivist religions they consider their religion to be the true religion and all other religions to be not just wrong but also false as things which are taking people away from God and when they have that idea that other religions so now we understand that Christ and Krishna are the same God but many of the Christians they don’t think like that, they think Christ is the true God and Krishna is a false God and they say that actually when people have to come to the true God they have to reject the false God so reject the false God means if we look at the historical tradition of the Biblical religions or the Islamic religions one of the things that they do whenever they conquer a particular land is they go and destroy the places of worship over there because their idea is oh these false Gods have to be rejected and then the worship of the true God will be established and that’s what they often do so because of that when people get converted then they fall prey to this narrow minded mentality and they start rejecting whatever they have worshipped in the past and people when they get converted they may be told to throw away the images that they have, burn the pictures that they have and they are told to in this way reject the forms of worship that they have they don’t only give it up but they develop antipathy they develop a negative feeling towards that hatred towards that and that is quite unfortunate, that is very undesirable so in that sense if people are within the Vedic fold then they at least have a sympathetic attitude towards spiritual life that’s why eventually Prabhupada was asked that who is better a Christian following Christianity, Jesus or even somebody worshipping a Devi or a Devata within the Vedic fold so Prabhupada said that the person worshipping the Devi or Devata is better, why is that better? because that person will have lesser cultural and conceptual barriers in coming to Krishna consciousness lesser cultural and conceptual barriers, why cultural? because if you look at the culture of the western religions, it’s quite opposite, for example in the Vedic culture the deities are worshipped in the Abrahamic religion the deities are desecrated in the Vedic culture the understanding that God can manifest through matter is implicit so cultural point of view is just one example of deity worship, very prominent example very important example and conceptually the idea that God can manifest through matter and God can make himself accessible that is a bit alien to their tradition, there are within Christianity also there are certain traditions which do accept this point but they are far and few so because there are more cultural and conceptual barriers so for people who are within the Christian tradition to take up Krishna consciousness so that’s why somebody who is in the Vedic tradition that person’s prospect of coming to Krishna consciousness are greater so therefore proposity is better but ultimately it depends on one’s attitude towards the Supreme Lord and one’s intention for pure devotion, this should not be taken as a blanket statement that somebody who is a materialistic demigod worshipper is better than somebody who is a very sincere person, sincere Christian saint or a sincere Christian practitioner who is trying and aspiring for practising sincere devotion so there can be, so the ultimate criteria is not whether the person is within the Vedic fold or outside the Vedic fold the ultimate criteria is whether the person is aspiring for developing love for God and is advancing on the path of developing love for God, so here what we are talking about is Paradharma so what is Krishna talking about over here it has got nothing to do with these religions yes, even we could say that it is true that Paradharma, if somebody is in the Vedic fold the Hindu gets converted to Christianity that person becomes inimical to Vedic culture, that would be undesirable so in that sense we could say it is Paradharma but it is in this contextual sense, but if you look at the Bhagavad Gita’s flow, Bhagavad Gita is not referring to any of these dharmas, Krishna is saying that if a person is a Brahmana it is better for the person to act as a Brahmana a person trying to act as a Kshatriya and even if the person says I can act as a Kshatriya very well, that is temporary a person is going against one’s nature one will not be able to continue that for a long time so interestingly Prabhupada quotes in the purport the exceptions, and then he says the exceptions are temporary our exceptions are far and few and the exceptions occur when somebody becomes transcendental so he gives the example of Parashurama Brahmana acting as a Kshatriya, and Vishwamitra Kshatriya acting as a Brahmana but these are few examples, in general should act according to our nature so a Brahmana acting according to Brahmanical nature will become purified a Kshatriya acting according to Kshatriya nature will become purified so Arjuna, please act according to Kshatriya nature that is what Krishna is talking about over here so now Prabhupada Krishna is here talking about primarily about one’s material duties he is not talking about one’s spiritual duties so at this point Arjuna gets a question the question that Arjuna gets is how does one get overcome by these sinful desires and how can one become free from those sinful desires so where does the question of sinful desires come in over here Krishna is telling Arjuna to practise Karma Yoga now Karma Yoga means one has to be able to regulate one’s karma otherwise there will not be much yoga there will be karma kanda or there can be karma also so what enables one to practise Karma Yoga to do yoga part along with the karma part is one’s being significantly nishkama so in the previous verse Krishna has said that these are enemies indriyasya indriyasya arthe 3.34 he says that there is situated attraction and aversion and one should regulate that otherwise one will succumb so where is he talking about all this where is all this leading to it is leading all this to question Arjuna’s mind actually yes we all know that we should do our duties but there is some passion which prevents us from doing our duties so Krishna has said that there is attachment and aversion that is situated in the senses and sense objects so where does it come from that is the question so let us look at it now by what Krishna by what is one engaged one is engaged in so charati means to charati means to move it can mean to graze calves graze charati and charati means to move around so one dwells on sin and one moves around one is moved towards sin and then he adds something interesting one does not want to do it one does not desire to do it and still one feels as if by force one is attracted towards the sinful activities so what is it Krishna that makes one act in such a way what is it that makes one act like this this is Arjuna’s question so now actually speaking is it truly an action is it that without our desire we are engaged in sinful activities against our desire we are engaged not exactly actually when the desire comes we accept that desire but other times we do not have that desire at that time we accept that desire and that is how we act but overall we may not have a desire to act sinfully but certain temptations come and that time when the desire comes the desire just overpowers us but when the desire overpowers us at that time we say yes to the desire without we saying yes to the desire we will not engage in sin so so anicchan is one’s feeling overall I don’t want to do this like an addict may say that I don’t want to drink alcohol now it is not but still the addict may find that oh I drank alcohol I couldn’t resist, I was forced now when you say I was forced it is not that the alcohol bottle developed legs and came out of the alcohol bar and came to the home and opened itself and plopped itself into the mouth, no what that means is that time that person developed a desire which became irresistible and then the person engaged so anicchan means it’s like say if this is a normal state of consciousness, in a normal state of consciousness we don’t want to do it and that’s why it’s anicchan but at that particular time that icchan comes up so how does that anicchan become icchan how does what is undesirable become suddenly desirable, that is bala divanyojita, it is as if a force I don’t want to do it but at that time some force comes and drags me down, bala divanyojita so how does this happen this actually is one of the most relevant sections of the bhagavad gita in today’s times now people may not believe in the soul people may say, people may not care about the soul, people may say that we don’t believe in god or we don’t care about god that’s up to them, in many ways that’s their choice but what people can’t say say say, let’s say that we can’t care about is how we ourselves are you know all of us feel that there is something within us that sabotages us you know there are big big sports stars or sometimes they have so much potential to perform but then they come under the urge of some passion and they do something stupid and then they become disgraced by that, they regret that and we see addiction is such a huge problem all over the world and there are all kinds of addictions generally when we think of addiction we may think of alcohol addiction drug addiction or cigarette addiction but there are lesser forms of addiction which are also which are also addictive also, means there can be TV addiction there can be internet addiction there can be eating addiction there can be different kinds of addictions and all these addictions they take away so much of one’s time, one’s mental energy and one is forced to do that activity, one just can’t live without it one becomes so restless so so incapable of doing anything because of those addictions so what is this force that engages us that forces us to act in particular ways, now we may say that watching TV is not sinful, somebody says over eating that’s not sinful, the point is Krishna is asking specifically about lust over, Arjuna is specifically asking about lust but the point is that all of us find that there is some kind of enemy within me, some kind of inimical force which impels me to act against my best interests and I don’t want to act in that way but at that particular point something comes and it makes me act in the wrong way so what is that force where does it originate from and how is it to be controlled, so this section 3.37-43 is Krishna’s answer and it’s one of the most important sections especially for sadhakas, it’s like 2.54-72 which is also talking about siddha parakya and that is also important, so like that this is also important and we will discuss that in our next class, thank you very much Shreemad Bhagavad Gita ki Jai, Vishwaprabhupada ki Jai.