Bhakti Shastri (068) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 04 Text 01 to 06

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kurvan geetam ritam dadam, lokatrayopakaraya, tasme krishnatmane namaha, Hare Krishna.
Welcome back to the Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course. We completed the third chapter in the previous class. Now we are moving on to the fourth chapter.
The fourth chapter deals with the concept of spiritual knowledge, transcendental knowledge, Bhagavad calls it. The standard Gita press, Gita calls this chapter as a jnana karma sannyasa yoga. So third chapter is karma yoga, fifth chapter is karma sannyasa yoga.
And the chapter in between is titled as jnana karma sannyasa yoga. So Prabhupada titles it as transcendental knowledge. As you discussed, different Acharyas title it in different ways.
So if we look at the theme, the theme is centred on knowledge. We will see later on. nahi jnane na sadrisham, pavitram ya vidyate.
And the most important verses in this chapter is 3.38, 4.38. He says nothing as pure as transcendental knowledge. And that is the means to supreme happiness. That’s why in Yoga Sankhya, kaalena atmani vindati, you will be delighted by that.
So let’s start with the overview of this chapter. So the overview is based on the five sections in the chapter. So verses 1 to 10, talk about how Krishna teaches and establishes dharma.
So Krishna teaches and establishes dharma. So what has this got to do with the previous chapter? Previous chapter ended, we’ll discuss when we come to the verses. But the essential point is that dharma is the means by which one is protected from karma and becomes elevated.
So Krishna teaches that path. Now dharma involves many paths. So 11 to 15 makes the point that Krishna is the goal and the creator of all paths.
Whatever paths are there, it is Krishna who has made those paths and it is to Krishna that all paths are meant to go. And then what is the dharma that Krishna is recommending for Arjuna? There are many dharmas. So Karma Yoga is the dharma which Krishna is recommending to Arjuna.
And how does Karma Yoga bring about liberation? Because Karma Yoga involves jnana also. One has knowledge and by acting in knowledge one attains liberation. So the next chapter, next section of this chapter, 25 to 33, talks about achieving jnana through sacrifices.
So by doing various kinds of sacrifices, not just fire sacrifices, one can eventually come to jnana. And then what is the glory of that jnana is talked about in the last section on 34 to 42. So there are 42 verses in this chapter.
The third chapter had 43 verses. So let’s look at the verses beginning with the first verse. So imam, this, this refers to what? This knowledge, yogam as I said.
This knowledge of yoga, knowledge of one’s relationship with the Supreme Lord. I spoke to Vivasvan and then Praukthavana, I spoke it long ago, Praukthavana. Auvvaya refers to imperishable.
This knowledge, it’s imperishable, it’s very important knowledge, it lasts forever. And Vivasvan, Manave, Praha. Vivasvan spoke it to Manu.
And Manu spoke it to Ikshvaku. Abravit, Praha and Abravit are synonyms of Praukthavana. It all means spoke.
So now, here the question may suddenly come up. In the previous chapter, Vishnu was talking about how lust is situated in the intelligence, the senses, in the mind, and how lust has to be conquered by regulating the senses and situated in the spiritual platform. And suddenly where does Sun God come into the picture? Sun God is there and Ikshvaku is there and all the descendants are there.
Where does all this come from suddenly? So the point is that the knowledge which Krishna has told Arjuna in the third chapter, that knowledge is not something which Krishna has just spun out of his magic hat at that particular time. When magicians have a magic hat and when they want they just pop out a rabbit. So of course, there’s some sleeve of hand over there and actually the rabbit is there but they make it as if suddenly it’s coming out of nowhere.
So Krishna has not just concocted this knowledge right now for the sake of Arjuna. Actually, this knowledge is eternal. And Krishna has mentioned also in 3.31, ye me matamidam nityam.
These words are eternal words. So Krishna is now explaining how these words are eternal. He is saying that actually since from the beginning of creation this knowledge has been there.
So the knowledge of conquering lust is required for all living beings because lust is always there among all living beings right from the beginning. So everybody has to fight and conquer lust. And how do they fight and conquer? By the power of bhakti.
By the power of gyan as it is described in this chapter and that gyan will ultimately fructify at its highest level in bhakti. So Krishna is telling how this knowledge has been coming down since time immemorial and that is so there is nityam, here it is avyayam. So similar 3.31 and 4.1. So it’s coming down and Krishna is giving a language by which it is coming down.
Actually Prabhupada’s purport is a little technical. So we will focus on some other aspects of it first. So now Prabhupada gives a very interesting point.
What is the duty of the king? The kings of all planets are meant for the protection of inhabitants. Now we normally think of protection means okay there are terrorists, there are thieves, we protect from them. But Prabhupada immediately clarifies and therefore the royal order should understand the science of Bhagavad Gita in order to be able to rule the citizens and protect them from material bondage to lust.
So that is the point. Connection between this and the last chapter is that they are meant to protect their citizens from bondage to lust. Now how does this bondage to lust happen? That has been described in the previous chapter.
And the liberation from that bondage is not just the responsibility of the individual citizens. No doubt it is a responsibility of citizens but along with that it is also the responsibility of the kings. So kings have to create a socio-cultural environment by which people don’t become bound to lust.
That’s why Krishna is saying I give this knowledge to the kings. And Prabhupada further makes the point that the executive heads of all states are intended to spread the science of Krishna consciousness so that the people may take advantage of this great science and pursue a successful path utilising the opportunity of the human form of life. So in general for any system of spiritual advancement to be socially effective there has to be the union, the joining of the brahmanas and the kshatriyas.
If we look at Buddhism, Buddhism was the religion of renunciates. Buddha himself renounced the world and those who followed him also renounced the world. And Buddhism did not have much influence socially till it was adopted by a king.
That was Ashoka. And once Ashoka adopted it and after that he, his whole family adopted it, his whole kingdom adopted it and he practically became a missionary of Buddhism. He sent his son to Sri Lanka and he sent his other family members different places and that way they all joined in spreading Buddhism.
So that’s how Buddhism spread. Similarly if we see Christianity for the first 3-4 centuries, it was the prosecuted, persecuted religion by the, persecuted by the Romans and then after that it took off and it took off, it took off very fast, very powerfully once the Roman Emperor accepted Christianity. So like that if we look at even the Vedic culture, we see the point that the brahmanas and kshatriyas will be united and when they will be united the spiritual culture will go on very well.
So we see in recent times Jyotana Mahaprabhu, he went to Puri and he was the person who transformed the heart of Prataparudra. Prataparudra already had an appreciation for Vaishno culture but the way he got captivated by Jyotana Mahaprabhu’s sweetness and love and mercy, then he offered all the state resources for the protection and the propagation of Jyotana Mahaprabhu’s mission. So like that in general for any system of thought to become socially or culturally influential, there has to be the joining of the brahmana and the kshatriya.
In modern times we see that there were Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, they wrote their book Das Kapital, that was the communist manifesto. Now they were in their own ways intellectuals, when they wrote their book that have influenced some people but eventually communism came, communism came very influential through Lenin and Stalin, when there was the revolution 1917 when the Russian czar was overthrown and communists came to power. So after that communism had a hold from 1917 to almost the end of 1980s in Russia for 70 years.
So in general any system of thought for it to be socially influential, whether it is a spiritual system of thought or whether it is an atheistic system of thought, that requires the joining of the intellectual and the administrator. So Krishna is saying over here that I give this knowledge to the kings. So why he is saying he gives to the kings? Because the kings will influence society.
The kings will influence society. If the kings are materialistic then people in general will be influenced materialistically. If the kings are spiritually minded then that will influence general public in a spiritual way.
So Krishna doesn’t give knowledge to anyone and everyone. Of course spiritual knowledge is available for anyone and everyone if they seek it. But Krishna will focus primarily on giving knowledge to the kings.
So similarly in our outreach we would like to give spiritual knowledge to everyone. At the same time if we have to concentrate our efforts, we will concentrate our efforts on people who are socially influential. We see Shri Prabhupada would be very pleased when his disciples would bring leaders of society to meet him.
So there are many conversations of Prabhupada with various prominent thinkers wherever he visited. So the purpose of this is Shri Prabhupada wanted to influence those who are influencing society and if that could happen that would influence a lot of people in a mass way. This is not discrimination.
This is simply precision. What is the difference between discrimination and precision? Discrimination means we reject certain people. No, you are not allowed.
That is not the point. Prabhupada even went to the hippies and he invited the hippies to start practising Krishna consciousness. This was so extraordinary.
Prabhupada was from the extreme point of view a conservative Swami who would not eat meat or even smoke and he was wearing a traditional Indian attire and he was saying whatever you are, where you are doing, just chant Hare Krishna. So at that time when Shri Prabhupada came to San Francisco, the local San Francisco newspaper put a headline, Swami invites the happy hippies. So it is quite radical for such a conservative swimming Swami to invite people who were considered degraded even by Western standards or to speak of Vedic standards.
So Prabhupada in that sense was ready to invite everyone to practise Krishna consciousness. At the same time Prabhupada was intending to focus on certain people. So in the first edition of the Bhagavad Gita that was printed by Macmillan, Allen Ginsberg’s foreword was there.
Foreword is what comes at the beginning of a book to introduce that book to its potential readers. But then when Shri Prabhupada wanted to print the book again, at that time when BBT, at that time it was Con Press, then it became Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. So when they published the book, Prabhupada decided there is no need for Allen Ginsberg’s foreword.
Because Allen Ginsberg, although he was famous, he was also controversial, you could say even a scandalous person because he openly advocated drugs and he also advocated free sex in many ways. So he was not a respectable, he was a famous person, but in the social, in the mainstream media and mainstream culture, he was not considered a very respectable person. So initially when nobody was coming, whoever was coming Shri Prabhupada was happy and whoever was helping Prabhupada was happy with that.
But later on Shri Prabhupada wanted to distance himself from the hippies. This is the movement for everyone including the hippies. But this is not a movement only for the hippies.
So there are letters which Prabhupada wrote to Hayagriva Prabhu and other devotees. He said very clearly, if any of you still have any affections for the hippie culture, my request is that you should give that up. The point of Shri Prabhupada was that he wanted Krishna consciousness to be open to everyone including the hippies.
But if people thought that we are only a movement for hippies, then other people will not be able to come to Krishna consciousness. So therefore other people will feel, oh this is for people who take drugs, low-class people, we don’t want to go there. So Prabhupada did not want that kind of labelling for his movement.
He wanted influential people also to come. So that’s why Prabhupada was very shrewd in presenting Krishna consciousness in a way which will attract people in a positive light towards Krishna consciousness. So when he was doing this, what is he discriminating? It’s not discrimination, it’s precision.
Precision means understanding what we are representing and how we are representing it. So this is, Shri Prabhupada would give the example that when the Red Cross soldiers, when the Red Cross volunteers are there in a war field, at that time there will be hundreds of soldiers who are wounded and they all need medical attention. So the Red Cross medical staff is limited in number.
So if they want to pay attention, how will they prioritise? So in different times, different prioritise. But in general, if there are people who are very injured and there’s practically very little hope of their surviving, then in many cases the Red Cross officers will actually, Red Cross staff will focus on saving those who are likely to be saved, those who have greater potential to be saved. Because once they are saved, then there is a greater chance that they will be saved and then they can even help in saving others.
If those who are very wounded are focused on, then they may also die and in that process the others who are wounded, their wounds may also become worse. So therefore, what is important is that there has to be precision based on prioritisation. So the focus is not discrimination but prioritisation.
So we would like to give Krishna Consciousness to everyone, but because the number of devotees right now is limited, we would like to focus on those who can influence a large number of people. Some people have the perception that ISKCON is for rich people or ISKCON is for educated people. Actually, that is not true.
We have projects like Padyatra where devotees go from village to village to village and they propagate Krishna Consciousness to villagers, to the rural community also. They may not be educated, they may not be wealthy also. But the point is we want to also attract people who are influenced.
Knowledge is one kind of influence. So people who are educated, they influence society by their words and their example. Similarly, wealth is another kind of influence.
People who are wealthy, they also influence society. So the point is, you will not find at the door of an ISKCON temple, there is a guard asking, what is your certificate? What is your qualification? If you are not a graduate, you are not allowed inside. Show your income certificate.
If you are below the poverty line, you are not allowed inside. There is nothing like that. Anybody is welcome to the temple.
The doors of the temple are open for everyone to come. So that way, and if somebody asks questions, somebody wants to know about how to practise spiritual life, the devotees will be there to help them. So that way, there is no discrimination.
But with respect to focussing on whom to give, there is prioritisation. That prioritisation ensures that there is a ripple effect by which maximum number of people get Krishna Consciousness. So Prabhupada explains in the Parpur, that now why is the Sun being given knowledge? Because at one level, Sun is the eye of the Lord.
Sun is the eye of the Lord and just the Sun gives light to everyone. Similarly, Krishna gives light to one who gives light to everyone. Krishna gives the light of knowledge to the Sun God and the Sun God gives light to everyone.
Sun God is a very important deity in the world. And Prabhupada writes that actually, now but then after that Prabhupada goes into the technical history of this knowledge. So here, so here actually Prabhupada goes into technical calculations of how, when was this knowledge given.
So, that means when we start the creation, at that time, we start by focussing first on the beginning. So at that time Sun God is there and Krishna gives that knowledge. And from Sun God, the dynasty comes down and like that when it comes down, it comes to all of us.
So the technical calculations here. Let us look at these calculations. So Prabhupada is explaining.
Prabhupada quotes from Mahabharata also over here. At the present moment, we have just passed through 5000 years of Kalyuga, which lasts 4,32,000 years. So before this, there was the Uparayuga.
Now Prabhupada prongs it out, instead of 8,64,000 years, he makes it 800,000 years. Instead of 8,64,000, he makes it 8,00,000. And instead of 1,2,9,6,000, he makes it 1,2,0,0.
Then there is some 2,0,5,0,0. Now why is it 2,0,5,0,0 years ago? Manu spoke the Bhagavad Gita to his disciple and son, Ikshvaku, Maharaj Ikshvaku, the king of the planet Earth. So why? Why at that particular time? Because Ikshvaku is ruling the Earth from the start of this particular Uparayuga, Trita Yuga.
So that way, then Prabhupada gives the age of Manu. And he says out of that how much life has passed. In our Isopit, we discussed about Vedic time.
So I won’t go into the technicalities of that. And Prabhupada says that it was spoken at least 1,2,0,0,4,0,0 years. So how is this? This is referring to when it came to Ikshvaku.
So and then it has been spoken to Sun God at that time. And it has been existent in the Earth for 2 million years. This 2 million years refers to this figure 2,0,0,5,0,0 years ago.
That means now Prabhupada has given two figures over here. One is when it was spoken first in the history of the Universe in this particular cycle. And then he is talking about when it was spoken on the Earth.
And then he says this is repeated 5,000 years ago. So now after describing this, then Krishna will describe how does this knowledge, if this knowledge has been described earlier, what is the need for Arjuna to, what is the need for Krishna to describe it once again. So Krishna says that there is a dynasty by which the knowledge comes.
Evam parampara praptam. Evam rajya rishayo viduhu, sakalene hamahata, yogo nashtah parantapa. So evam parampara praptam.
In this way, through parampara the knowledge has come down. Evam rajya rishayo viduhu. And the Rajya Rishis, the great saintly people, knew it in this way.
Sakalene hamahata. Sakalene, by kalene is time. Mahata, by the great power of time.
Yogo nashtah parantapa. Yogo nashtah, that knowledge became lost. It became covered, nashtah.
Nashtah means almost, Prabhupada did not have destroyed, but scattered. Parantapa, Arjuna. It became scattered.
Evam parampara praptam. So it is coming down in parampara. Now there are many significant words here.
Let’s look at them one by one. So parampara, what does it refer to? It refers to succession. So Krishna is telling the standard way in which this knowledge is to be received.
This is how he has been giving this knowledge. And he says this is how the knowledge has been going on. Evam parampara praptam.
The knowledge has been going on. Evam rajya rishayo viduhu. Rajya rishaya, this is an interesting word.
Raja is king. Rishi is a sage. So normally we will think that these two are contrary people.
How can the two be together? There is a king and there is a sage. So the king is one who is a renouncer. He is not involved much in the world.
So the Raja and the Rishi, they seem to be two opposite persons. What is the difference? In general, the Raja is the outer ruler, is the ruler of the outer world, has power, has control, has servants, has subjects. So Raja is the outer ruler.
And the Rishi is the inner ruler. Rishi is a person who controls the inner world, who renounces the external world and focusses on sense control, focusses on inner growth by which the Rishi learns to control the inner world. So Raja controls the outer world, Rishi controls the inner world.
And these two attributes of controlling the outer world and controlling the inner world, when both of them are integrated into one person, that person is the Raja Rishi. That person is the Raja Rishi. So now Raja Rishi, Prabhupada translates this as saintly king.
Interestingly, if you say Raja Rishi, it would mean as Raja is king and Rishi is sage. So it would be royal sage. So there are some commentators who translate this Raja Rishi as royal sage.
So the way Prabhupada translates it as saintly king, that would actually, you could say it refers Rishi Raj, saintly king, Rishi Raj. So anyway, both in combination mean the same thing. But Prabhupada’s translation helps us understand what his emphasis is.
The point is that they are kings. They are kings, but they are not normal kings who are power hungry, who are out to stand their authority on everyone else. They are there to actually serve others.
They are there to understand what is the real purpose of life and share that purpose with others. So they are saintly kings. Saintliness is one of their important characteristics.
And that is what Srila Prabhupada emphasises, Raja Rishi. So Imam Raja Rishayo Vidhu, that this knowledge came down through the Raja Rishis. And so, but by the great power of time, that knowledge has become lost.
So now it’s very significant what Krishna is telling over here. That means, sometimes we may read the Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad Gita is a part, and we may see certain things in the Mahabharata. We think, why is it like this? You know, why are the Kshatriyas gambling at that time? Why are they doing this? Why are they doing that? We may get so many questions at that time.
So now what Krishna is telling is that he is saying that the culture that is present now, that means at his time, at the time of the Mahabharata, that is not a standard culture. That itself is a deviated culture. Why deviated? Because Krishna is saying, he is talking about his time, 5000 years ago, that that knowledge is lost.
So when Krishna says that the knowledge is lost at his time, that means the way people are living at that time, that indicates that they are not aware of that knowledge. So of course, Vedic culture was not entirely lost. In many ways it was there, and it was there much, much more than what it is there now.
In Kali Yuga it is lost far greater now. But still, the point is, even at his time, it was not as if the thing was right. And Krishna says, why have things gone wrong? He does not say here, because Duryodhana did, because of Duryodhana’s demoniac activities, or because of Kamsa’s demoniac activities, because of Shishupala and then Tavakra has gone down.
Yes, they were adharmic rulers, they were disrupting dharma, that is true. But Krishna is pointing to a more generic factor. What is the generic factor? That is Kaal.
By the power of time, things have gone down. So that’s how things happen, actually. If we just keep milk and leave it, it becomes curd, and if we leave curd, it gets spoiled.
So by the power of time, there is transformation always, but the transformation is degradation. Whereas, if we want it to become butter, then there is not automatic transformation, there has to be conscious effort at bringing out positive transformation. Then that curd will become, can be made into butter, and eventually we can make ghee out of it.
It’s a positive transformation that has to take place. So Krishna is saying, yogo nishtha parantapa. Now in this and several next purports, Srila Prabhupada makes the point about how that knowledge is lost even today.
So what happened at Srila Prabhupada’s time is happening now also. So there are many people who have written commentaries in the Bhagavad Gita, and they have all written commentaries which are quite strange, quite deviant, and actually speaking, those people who have written the commentaries, they may in their own right be respectable people, but their interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita are often way off track from what the actual message of the Gita is. So for example, one famous thinker has said that the whole purpose of Bhagavad Gita is to teach non-violence.
Now Krishna does talk about ahimsa in a few verses, but very few verses as compared to the number of times when he talks about bhakti, as compared to the number of times when he talks about yoga, as compared to the number of times when he talks about himself, Krishna, and as compared to the number of times when he talks about yudha. So these are the first three which I said, yoga, bhakti, and bhagavan, these three are actually not related to ahimsa. And yudhasva Krishna says that is directly opposite to ahimsa.
So therefore, that is really not the message of the Gita. Ahimsa is a good quality, it’s recommended especially for brahmanas, but that is not the message of the Gita. So like that, there are other commentators who say that, alas, India, the greatest misfortune of India is that India did not follow the Bhagavad Gita.
Because if India had followed the Bhagavad Gita, within 24 hours of Pakistan created, India would have wiped Pakistan off the planet. Why? Yudhasva, Krishna would fight. No, this kind of fighting is not what the Bhagavad Gita recommends.
The point is, the Bhagavad Gita’s message has been utilised, exploited, misappropriated for their own purposes by many thinkers. So interestingly, many of the significant commentaries in the Bhagavad Gita, which were written by the leaders of the Indian political struggle for independence against the Britishers, they wrote those commentaries when they were imprisoned by the British government. So when they are in jail and they have nothing to do, they read the Bhagavad Gita and write a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.
And many of them, actually they write also in the introductions that we have not referred to any other traditional sources of Gita commentary, traditional Gita commentaries. And then where did you get your, how did you write your book? That was from their own brains. Now, Prabhupada’s point was that if somebody wants to write a book, that person has to write the book.
Nobody can stop them from writing. But if they are commenting on the Bhagavad Gita, they cannot misrepresent the Bhagavad Gita. If they want to write their own book, write it.
But if you are writing the Bhagavad Gita, then present it properly. So Prabhupada often uses strong words to condemn because the misinterpretation is a serious offence. Why? Suppose, you can try to understand this with an example.
Suppose there is a speaker who is giving a class. Say there is a vernacular audience and there is an international speaker. So this happens many times in India.
There is a speaker who is speaking English. And then there is the audience who is, who does not know English at all. When the speaker is speaking English, the audience is all Hindi speaking.
So there is one translator who is translating from English, who is translating the English into Hindi and speaking to the audience. Now the audience is hearing faithfully. Now actually the link between the audience and the speaker is through the translator.
The speaker does not understand Hindi, the audience does not understand English. Now imagine if this translator, instead of translating, starts giving his own class. And Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
And the translator says, Brahman is the Absolute Truth. If the speaker is translating something, the translator is translating something else. Now, imagine if there is one person in the audience who knows English and who knows Hindi also.
He says, hey, what are you translating? You are mistranslating. And then all the audience says, it is a spiritual gathering. You should not criticise.
Peaceful, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Why are you so intolerant? Do not criticise. What criticise? Do not criticise my foot.
This is nonsense going on. So, you know, for people who are ignorant, they do not understand how serious misrepresentation is happening over here. But for one who is actually understanding, who has knowledge, this is a colossal misrepresentation.
If the translator wants to give his own class, he has full right to give his own class. But call your own programme, tell that I want to give a class and see how many people come. Let those people come speak to whatever that person wants.
But when the translator is sitting to play the role not of a speaker, but of a translator, that at that time the translator has to act as a translator, not as a speaker, independent speaker. Similarly, if people want to write their own books, they have full right to write their books. But if they say that they are writing on the Bhagavad Gita, then they have to present the message of the Bhagavad Gita.
So if they are not presenting the message of the Bhagavad Gita, then that is misrepresentation. So at the time of independent struggle, there was one commentator who wrote that, actually just as Krishna came to destroy adharma and re-establish dharma, so they said, what is adharma now? The British colonial rule is adharma. And Krishna has now incarnated as what? This is actually, this is what he wrote in the Gita commentary, Krishna has incarnated as the Indian National Congress.
And Indian National Congress will, paritranaya sadhuna minashaya yudhishthira, we will destroy adharma. And the whole commentary runs like that. So now this is a travesty of justice.
So there was a European scholar who took almost like 100 commentaries, 100 modern commentaries in the Gita. And he studied all of them and he tried to give, okay, this person says this, this person says this, this person says this, this person says this. And then at the end, what is his conclusion? Gita is a book of such profound wisdom that it is incomprehensible.
That its conclusion is inconclusive. Nobody can know what its conclusion is. So now if you read the Bhagavad Gita fairly, open-mindedly, there may be some spots where, some places where things are ambiguous, but the overall message is very clear.
So that’s why Sri Aurobindo Prabhupada is very heavy over here. He says that the spirit of taking the Lord’s property and enjoying it for oneself is demoniac. So here he says this, there are innumerable interpretations rendered by different mundane scholars, but almost all of them do not accept the Supreme Personality of Krishna, although they make a good business on the words of Krishna.
This spirit is demonic, because demons do not believe in God, but simply enjoy the property of the Supreme. And Prabhupada says, because a proper commentary is needed, that’s why I am writing it. This is how Prabhupada explains how the Bhagavad Gita, this commentary, he himself wrote it.
Now he will describe how Krishna arranges to revive that knowledge. So he refers to that, that knowledge, which he said in 4.1. I am giving this to you. That was spoken a long time ago.
Why am I giving it to you? Because you are my devotee and you are my friend. That this knowledge, I am giving to you, secret knowledge, uttamam. So it’s a rahasya, it is secret and it is uttama.
It is transcendental. It will take one out of tama, uttama. Tama is darkness, uttama is that which takes one out of darkness.
So Krishna says, this knowledge will take you out of darkness. Now Prabhupada uses this verse to explain how actually this knowledge is to be received by somebody who is in a position similar to Arjuna. What is Arjuna’s qualification? He is a bhakta.
So without being a bhakta, one cannot understand the Bhagavad Gita. Why is it that one cannot understand the Bhagavad Gita without being a bhakta? See every field requires a certain qualification. Suppose a person is going by train and the TC comes along, ticket collector comes along to say, Sir, where is the ticket? Don’t you know who I am? He says, I have got a degree from MIT, not the Pune MIT, the American MIT.
Yes, that’s good, but where is your ticket? Don’t you know that I was a university topper in MIT? I got a gold medal. Yes, sir, that’s good, but where is your ticket? Don’t you know that in the whole campus, I got the number one paying job? And the dean of the institute personally came to congratulate me. Yes, sir, that’s good, but where is your ticket? Why are you asking me about the ticket? Don’t you know my qualification? He says, sir, those qualifications are good, but when you are travelling in a train, you need a ticket.
Similarly, in every field, if you are doing a particular activity, a particular thing is expected. Somebody may say, don’t you know that I am a pandit of Sanskrit? Yes, that’s fine, but being a pandit of Sanskrit is not the qualification for understanding Bhagavad Gita or understanding Krishna. It’s actually a complete misunderstanding to say, if somebody says that I am a professor of English, so therefore I can understand quantum physics.
Will they do a different? A professor of English cannot understand quantum physics just because I am a professor of English. Yes, one has to know some English, but just knowledge of English doesn’t lead to knowledge of quantum physics. There are so many different subjects written in English.
So like that, there can be so much written in Sanskrit. Just because I have knowledge of Sanskrit doesn’t make me qualified to understand Bhagavad Gita. Somebody may say, you know, I have done tapasya.
Every ekadashi I have asked nirja. Yes, that is good, but that doesn’t make you qualified to understand Bhagavad Gita. That is a good qualification.
Actually, Bhagavad Gita means that it is the world of Krishna. These are the words of Krishna and Krishna is infinite. So the infinite can be understood by the finite in only one way.
What is that way? The finite is finite, tiny. Infinite is infinite. The finite, by one’s own effort, can never understand the infinite because the finite is finite.
But the only way the finite can understand the infinite is when the infinite reveals himself. And the infinite tells when I reveal myself. That is through bhakti.
So when the finite offers himself, when the finite living being offers oneself to the Supreme Lord with bhakti, then the infinite reveals oneself. So that is the only way. We may have other qualifications.
We may have even what some people would consider spiritual qualifications. Actually, they’re not spiritual qualifications, say the capacity for austerity or the capacity for scholarship of Sanskrit. But even if somebody has that, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that person becomes qualified to understand spiritual knowledge.
And now Bhagavad Gita especially. So bhakto sineh sakha jeti. Only one who is a devotee can understand.
And Prabhupada continues the theme that people misinterpret. Now at this point, Arjuna asks the question. So Arjuna’s question is quite logical.
Apara means junior. Para is superior, transcendental, higher. So your janma is lower.
You are recently born. Your son-in-law is far, far older. He was born lower.
How am I to understand that you spoke this knowledge earlier to the Sun God? In the beginning, you spoke it to the Sun God. How am I to understand this? So here, the point that Krishna is making, Arjuna is making is interesting. So let’s look at the content of the question and then let’s look at the mood of the question.
The content of the question is that Krishna has spoken, I spoke this knowledge to the Sun God. The Sun has been existing for a long, long time. And the Sun’s predominating deity, Sun God, has also been existing.
Now Krishna and Arjuna are almost of the same age. Prabhupada says that both of them were around 100, 125 years old at that time. So if they are at that age, as compared to the Sun, is far, far older.
It’s a logical question. How could you have spoken to the Sun God? Some child comes and says, you know, I taught this to my grandfather. When did you teach this to your grandfather? It doesn’t make sense.
So like that, this question is a valid question. So Arjuna is asking this question. At the same time, the question can seem to challenge.
How could you have spoken this? So now we say that this question comes at a very significant juncture. In the previous chapter, in verses 31 and 32, Krishna has said one should have faith. In the 31st verse, he says, those who have faith will be liberated, and those who don’t have faith, they’ll be bound.
So Krishna is telling clearly, have faith and don’t have doubts. And the same thing, Krishna will repeat at the end of the fourth chapter also. In 4.39 and 4.40, he says, so for 3.30, first he says have faith, and he says don’t have doubts.
And similarly, in 4.39 and 4.40, he says, So the faithful will acquire knowledge, and if they are attached to transcendental knowledge, they’re controlling their senses, then they will attain the supreme peace. And contrast in 4.40, he says, that the doubtful will perish. They will have happiness either in this life or the next life.
So right in the middle of two strong, instructing by contrasting statements of faith and faithlessness, here Arjuna is expressing a doubt. And we’ll see Krishna will provide a logical answer to that doubt. Krishna doesn’t say, I just told you have faith, why are you having doubts? But there’s a logical question, there has to be an intelligible answer to that.
When people ask questions, we cannot stamp out their inquisitive spirit by saying, don’t have doubts. It’s not a matter of having or not having. If I have doubts, I have to deal with it.
So I have to find appropriate authority who will deal with the doubt for me. So if we find that sometimes we ask some question to some devotees, and they don’t give us the answer, then if we feel that it is a major doubt which is troubling us, then we have to find out some other devotee who has enough knowledge, who will answer that question. And we can keep that question in the car park, pending.
Later on, I’ll find out the answer for this. We don’t let the doubt nag us and eat us up. Because we have a Krishna consciousness to practise, and a purification also, we’ll keep making advancement.
And we’ll get deeper understanding, we’ll become qualified to get deeper understanding also. So we don’t have to stop our practise of Krishna Consciousness just because we have some doubts. At the same time, if we are having doubts, it’s not that we have to shut aside those doubts.
We should find the appropriate forum where the doubts will be answered. Now Arjuna, so this is the content of Arjuna’s question. And let’s look at the mood of the question.
The mood is, How am I to understand that you spoke this? So he’s not saying you are lying. You are just making up stories. No, I can’t understand this.
I accept that what you’re saying is true. But I can’t understand it. So can you please help me to understand it? In the beginning, you spoke this to Sun God.
So now let’s move forward and look at the next verse. janmāṇi tava cārjuna tānyam veda sarvāṇi naktvāṁ veda parantapa So bahÅ«mi me viti tāni viti means past. Both of us have passed.
janmāṇi tava cārjuna me and tava So me and you, both of us have passed many lifetimes. tānyam veda sarvāṇi So all those, I am Veda. Veda means to know or to remember.
naktvāṁ veda Veda means to remember. No, you don’t remember them. You don’t know them.
So Krishna explains this by saying, so somebody may ask, okay, how can some small baby say, I don’t give this to grandfather. How could you give it to the grandfather? So there, the answer is to be given, the scope of the discussion, that framework for consideration needs to be expanded. So Krishna says to Arjuna, that you are thinking only from one lifetime point of view, that I was born recently and you were born, but both of us have been through many lifetimes.
So once you bring reincarnation to the picture, of course, for Krishna, it’s not reincarnation in our terms. He doesn’t change his body. But Krishna is talking here about multiple incarnations.
In the past, I gave this knowledge to the sun god. In a previous life, Krishna says, I remember the previous life, but you do not. So Prabhupada takes this point, and takes this point of contrast to emphasise that actually the two are not on the same level.
Although they may be on the same chariot, there is a world of difference between the Jiva and the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord never forgets anything. Krishna will make this even more clear in the seventh chapter when he will tell, वेदा हम् समती तानी वर्तमा नामिचा आर्जुना। वविष्णा जबूतानी माम् तमेदाने कृष्छा। That I know everything.
So he says this 25 and 26, this verse, नाहं प्रकाशि सवसे, those verses, two verses, explain this point. Krishna never forgets, Krishna knows everything. So here Krishna is making a more specific statement that I remember but you don’t remember.
So now why is it that we forget our past lives? There are many reasons. The most important reason is that actually our memories are connected with our bodies to a large extent. So when the body is lost, many of the memories, the reference point for those memories are lost.
So our memories are not necessarily stored in the body. The brain is one place where the memories are stored. The memories are also stored in the mind.
But the reference point for recovering those memories, just like if there’s some data in the hard disc, but we have not only forgotten the data, but we have forgotten not only where the file is, but we have forgotten the file name also. And there is no reference point left for searching it. It is there but it’s almost like irrecoverably lost.
So like that, whatever past lives we have gone through, some impressions of that are there. But they’re so deep back in the mind that if there is no stimulus to recollect, there will be no recollection only. It’s like the file location is forgotten, file name is also forgotten.
So like that all stimuli are wiped out. Because when the body is lost, a new body is coming, and a whole new reference system comes up for the soul. So that’s how we forget most of the time.
We forget means things get buried so deep that we don’t remember. And beyond that, death and rebirth are quite traumatic experiences. So the human body has an innate psychological defence mechanism by which it forgets painful stimuli.
That’s how one can survive. And if I had to remember all the miserable situations that we went through in many lifetimes, then it would be horrendous. You will not be able to move forward in life.
And also beyond that, you also forget because actually the whole process of human memory is based on its fallibility, its volatility. Volatility means it doesn’t last for long. Fallibility means it errs, it blurs.
So what to speak of a previous life, even this life also, if we were asked, last week exactly at this time on this day, what did you do? Very difficult for us to remember. Most of us will not be able to remember. So we tend to forget.
So as it is, we tend to forget quickly. And further, death and rebirth, they act as sort of memory wipers. And beyond that, the change of body also causes further wiping away of the memory and the references themselves are lost.
That’s why we forget. But the Lord doesn’t change his body and the Lord doesn’t lose his memory. In fact, because the Lord’s body, mind and soul are the same.
So here the transcendental position of the Lord is pointed out. And Krishna says that, I have not forgotten. So in a sense, so Prabhupada explains that they are non-different.
And that’s how the Lord and his body are non-different. And that’s how they continue to live on. So now Krishna uses Arjuna’s question as a starting point for talking about his own position briefly.
So he will make his position further clear in the next verse. How is it that he doesn’t forget? He says, my body is different. ajopi sanam vayatma bhutanam isvaropi san prakritim svam adhishthaya sambhavamyatma mayaya So ajo, although I’m unborn, son of vayatma and imperishable.
So now actually, aja and avyaya these are characteristics of both the soul and the Supreme Lord. The soul is also unborn and the soul also never perishes. But the difference is bhutanam isvaropi san for all the other bhutana, for the other living entities, the Lord is the Ishwara, the Lord Supreme Controller.
And prakritim svam adhishthaya that taking, being, bringing the prakriti under my control, I come, sambhavamyatma mayaya I manifest my presence. How? Atma mayaya by my own nature. Now this is a very important verse and this is quite a technical verse.
The Vaishnava and Mayavadi Acharya, Mayavadi scholars have practically fought wars on this verse. What does it mean? What does it refer to? The Supreme Lord taking a material form or the Supreme Lord still maintains his own self-fame form. So the word prakriti often is used to mean material nature.
But prakriti essentially means energy or nature. And when Krishna says prakritim svam it refers to his own nature, his material nature. When Krishna is saying my prakriti that means he is saying that prakriti is under my control, not that I am under the control of prakriti.
So Krishna says material nature is my nature and adjusting it I manifest myself. Now sambhavamy sambhavamy can mean it can mean creation, it can also mean manifestation. sambhavamyatma mayaya refers to I manifest myself by my internal potency.
I manifest myself by my internal potency. So what Prabhupada explains is now sambhavamyatma still appears in every millennium. So now somebody may say there is no in every millennium in this translation.
So where is Prabhupada getting it from? So actually that is next verse says sambhavamy yuge yuge. So Prabhupada is simply putting what is later here itself to make the point clear here itself. So Prabhupada says prakriti means nature as well as svarupa.
The lord says that he appears in his own body. So he does not change his body. And Prabhupada further makes the point what does the word maya mean? Maya refers to lord’s causeless mercy.
So it is by his mercy that he appears. It is by his mercy that he appears in this world. And he appears for the sake of benefiting all living beings.
So here Krishna is making the point very clear that he is coming by his own arrangement and for the sake of benefiting everyone. So when he appears he does not come under the control of material nature. Rather material nature always remains under his control.
So Prabhupada gives the example that a prisoner goes into the jail. At that time the prisoner comes under the control of the laws of the jail. But if the prime minister goes to the jail to just visit the prisoners to see how the prison situation is then the prime minister does not enter the laws of the jail.
The prime minister is always above the laws because the prime minister is not coming there due to being sentenced for jail. The prime minister is coming there to visit to encourage the prisoners to reform. So similarly when the lord comes the lord is not sentenced to bondage and mortal existence.
The lord comes by his own will and he comes to liberate the soul from mortal existence to give them the knowledge and to give them the process by which they can become liberated. That’s why he doesn’t become bound. And when Krishna comes in his own body at that time his own form at that time his form remains spiritual.
So that is actually the mystery of incarnation that normally we can’t see spiritual form. Though we can’t see spiritual form when Krishna manifests people are able to interact with him as if he is just like one of them. So at occasional times Krishna just manifests his extraordinary power.
Durudhana was thinking that Krishna is another Kshatriya I will catch him and arrest him. And suddenly a form that is sky high the Virat, Vishwaroop, Krishna manifests. Durudhana and all his soldiers are stunned.
What is this? So Krishna can manifest at any time when he wants extraordinary power and opulence. But it is a great mystery that when Krishna appears in this world the people who are there at that time they think that he is just like another person. Yes, he is powerful, he is heroic he has done things which we can’t do but they think he is just another person.
Okay, so not all the Kshatriyas at his time understood that he is the Supreme Lord. So when Shishupal blasphemed Krishna in the Rajasuya Yajna Shishupal was not alone. Along with the king of Chedi there was Shishupal there were others also Chaitanya, Daya and Rupa He and other kings were also there.
They, these other kings supported Shishupal in the blasphemy of Krishna. Why? Because they did not understand that Krishna was the Lord. So the concept of the principle of incarnation of avatar is a great mystery that the Lord manifests from the spiritual level to the material level and makes himself visible and accessible to people with material vision also.
But then those who are with material vision because their vision is grounded in matter is rooted in matter is trapped in matter so they see the Lord also materially. Only those are fortunate those who try to become purified and elevated they can understand that this person is not an ordinary person this person is the Supreme Lord and then they can also devote themselves and attain liberation by that. So here Krishna describes how even when he comes in the world it is Prakritin Swam Adhishtaya it is by his own nature by his own free will and he remains unbound he remains transcendent.
Now why he comes to this world? In this verse he described how he comes. In the next two verses he will describe next three verses in fact he will describe why he comes. That we will discuss in the next class.
Thank you very much.