Bhakti Shastri (078) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05 Text 19 to 24

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Hare Krishna.
Welcome to our Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course. We are now coming towards the end of the fifth chapter. We are in the third section.
The first section talks about how Karma Yoga is Karma Yoga is same as but easier than Gyan Yoga. It provides the same result but it can be practised more easily. And the remaining chapter describes how the Karma Yogi stays free from bondage.
So 7 to 16 talks about how fixing the mind and the Atma keeps the Karma Yogi free from bondage. And then 17 to 29 talks about how fixing the mind and the Paramatma frees the Karma Yogi from bondage. So we discussed how in the 17th verse the four faculties of our subtle setup.
The intelligence, the mind, the faith and the goal. We centre them on Krishna. And those who do that, they develop equal vision towards all living beings.
Now Krishna will describe what is the result of that equal vision. Those who have that equal vision, Krishna says they are as good as liberated even while being in this material world. So 5.19 Iha means in this world, in this life itself.
They have conquered over. Sarga is cycle of birth and death. They have conquered over cycle of birth and death.
Who are they? Those whose mind is situated in equanimity. So samya is related with the word from the previous verse. 5.18d is repeated here twice in 5.19b as well as c. Samya is equanimity.
And then what is the nature of that equanimity? That makes them as good as Brahman. So there is no dosha. This false refers to, not the false that we often think of, but the false refers to the contaminating effects of the three modes.
They have gone beyond the three modes. So what is beyond the three modes is Brahma. So they have become as good as Brahma.
And therefore, therefore they are situated in Brahman. So here Krishna describes how the equal vision can situate a person in Brahman. So actually speaking, the soul is transcendental.
And for the soul, what is happening in the material realm doesn’t really matter. Because everything in the material realm is ultimately temporary. It just comes and it goes.
It doesn’t matter for the soul. Now why it matters is because the soul is attached. The soul thinks, this will make me happy, that will make me miserable.
But in the soul there is sama. Understood. Actually nothing material can make me happy.
Because I am not material. I am transcendental. My real life is the life of spirit, not the life of matter.
So therefore, when a person starts seeing everything material equally, then naturally there is no more attachment to matter. Excitement about what changes happen in the world of matter. And then that itself is liberation.
Now what is bondage? Bondage is caused by our own desires to enjoy this world. And those desires to enjoy the world are present because we think that certain things in this world are enjoyable and certain things are lamentable. We want to avoid them.
But when we don’t feel like this, when we are sama, then that’s as good as liberation from bondage. So Prabhupada explains what flawless means, nirdosham. The Lord is flawless because He is without attraction or hatred.
So, raga and dvesha. That is based on illusion and that creates flaws within us. So similarly, when a living entity is without attraction or hatred, He also becomes flawless and eligible to enter into the spiritual sky.
To enter into the spiritual sky. That means, Prabhupada uses the word Brahman to mean the Lord over here. Brahman can mean Brahmajyoti, it can mean Bhagwan.
As the Bhagavata’s thought flow will evolve, we’ll see that Arjuna will tell that Krishna is Parambrahma. He is the Brahma in the highest manifestation. So what Prabhupada is giving us over here is what Krishna is going to tell, what Arjuna is going to confirm later on in the Bhagavad Gita.
So, flawlessness means one is not having attachment or aversion. Now the question may come, how does one become situated in this Brahman platform? So, of course, Krishna has told, vantad buddhah sadat manas. Invest these four faculties, but how does one practically do it? So now Krishna will describe a process.
So the set of verses from here onwards, they are both descriptive and prescriptive. So, what I mean by descriptive and prescriptive, let’s look at the verse first and I’ll explain. So, na praharishe priyam praapya nodhvijet praapya cha priyam sthira buddhir asamudho brahma vid brahma nisthitaha na praharishe priyam praapya So, when one gets something that is dear to one, priyam praapya, na praharishe one doesn’t delight.
And na udvijet praapya cha apriyam When one gets something that is apriya, that is undesirable, one doesn’t do udvijet, one doesn’t become dejected. So one doesn’t become elated when one gets the desirable and one doesn’t become dejected when one gets the undesirable. How is that? sthira buddhir, the intelligence is fixed.
And the person is asamudha. So mudha is a person who thinks that this is pleasurable, this is not pleasurable, this is miserable. So one who doesn’t think like this, that person is asamudha, the person has gone beyond the illusions of this world.
And such a person is brahmavid and to make it more categorical, not only brahmavid, the person is brahmanistha. Brahmavid means knower of brahman. Such a person is not only the knower of brahman, person is also situated in brahman.
Brahmavid, brahmanistha. So in this way, the person moves forward. So this is Krishna telling that how can one come to the brahman platform? By the practise of spiritual life, which involves the sadhana in which one becomes equipoised towards material things and slowly, with study and intelligence, situates oneself on the spiritual platform.
So Prabhupada explains that brahman realisation means we have to go from brahman, parmatma, bhagwan. When one comes to bhagwan realisation, that is complete realisation of. Such a person is brahmavid, brahmanistha.
So to be equipoised amidst happiness and stress. This is a theme which Krishna has talked about repeatedly in the Bhagavad Gita and that indicates basically transcendence. Just like if a person is watching, some people are mad after watching a particular sport.
In India it might be cricket, in America it might be soccer, in America it might be rugby, in Europe it might be soccer. There are different sports like that, which people are completely infatuated with. Some person who is not so emotionally involved in the sport, what happens is, somebody wins, somebody loses.
One team is in ecstasy because they have won and the other team is in agony because they have lost. You can see, we can see this duality in a tennis match. At the end of the tennis match, one side is the one player is the winner and the other is jumping up and down.
Jumping with hands raised high and the other person is sinking into the grass in misery. These are the dualities. These are the dualities that characterise existence.
As long as one is infatuated and attached. But say a person is not emotionally involved in the sports match. And that person is … Yes, the match has happened and one side has won, one side has lost.
But a person who is not emotionally involved, the person is not emotionally affected also. So like that, when one is purified, one is no longer affected. And that is the test of spiritual advancement.
That is the test of authentic growth in spiritual life. What is the test? The test is that one is able to steadily move forward and attain the real life of spirit as contrasted with the conditioned life which one is practising in this world. This is called Brahman realisation.
Now let’s move forward. So what is required for this kind of being … … That Krishna will describe in the next verses. How one should be detached from external things.
But the point is let’s look at this verse. So 20 to 29 describe characteristics. These are naturally possessed by siddhas and they are consciously cultivated by sadhakas.
So these are descriptive of the siddha. Siddha means those who are perfected. Those who are perfected, they naturally are detached like this.
And those who are practitioners, those who are striving for perfection, they will consciously cultivate this by sadhakas. So they are descriptive of those who already have those characteristics and they are prescriptive. Like a doctor gives a prescription, do this, this, this.
They are prescriptive, act in this way. So we may get excited because of our attachments, certain things may make us very excited. But a devotee thinks okay, ultimately as long as I can keep serving Krishna, nothing matters.
Let me not get too excited about it. Let me not get too excited. So that way we stay detached.
We stay calm, we stay focused. And we move forward in our spiritual life. So consciously cultivated by sadhakas.
So now let’s look at the next verse. So these are all verses which are both descriptive and prescriptive. So this is talking about how one can come to the level of being equipoised.
So bahaya sparsha. Bahaya sparsha is external contact. So that external contact may sometimes be pleasurable, sometimes miserable.
But either way, the person is asattatma. Asattatma means that person is detached. So asakta is attached, asakta is detached.
So the same prefix. When there is emphasis, it can have a different meaning when there is no emphasis. O and A makes a world of difference over here.
A sakta is attached, O sakta is detached. So when the person is detached, everybody has to get happiness somewhere. So where does the happiness come from? Vindati aatmaniyat sukham.
Vindati means to delight. Delight in what? Aatmaniyat sukham. In the aatma one delights.
So inner happiness. And such a person is a brahma yoga yuktaatma. Such a person is, now brahma yoga is not some aatma, some different kind of yoga like karma yoga, jnana yoga, dhyana yoga, there is no brahma yoga.
Here the point is such a person is a brahma yoga yuktaatma. Person yoga here refers to connection, it is not a separate person of sadhana. Krishna is talking of generic description over here.
Such a person is connected with brahma, yuktaatma, is connected, well situated. And that person eventually sukham akshayam ashnute, attains happiness. What kind of ashnute? Ashnute means to gain or to enjoy.
So it is significant, Krishna is using words for enjoy twice over here. Vindati and ashnute. So akshaya, sukham akshayam ashnute.
Akshaya is that which ends, that which deteriorates, that which is capable of being exhausted. Akshaya is that which never gets exhausted. Sukham akshayam ashnute.
So unlimited happiness. So bahayasparsheshva saktaatma, vindati aatmaniyat sukham. This verse has an interesting progression.
Let’s try to understand this progression. So each of the lines can be thought of as pointing to our progression. So first step is that we become detached from external stimuli.
We don’t get too excited about sensual pleasures. Then after that what’s the second step? One turns inwards and starts seeking happiness within. So when we start seeking happiness within then what happens? Then we learn to concentrate on the supreme.
If our vision is outwards then we cannot focus inwards. Therefore we need to turn inwards. When we concentrate on the supreme then what happens last day? Then we relish imperishable happiness.
That is sukham akshayam. So Krishna is there within our heart and Krishna is an ocean of happiness and it’s not just a finite ocean. It’s an infinite ocean of happiness.
So what happens is when we turn inwards towards Krishna we can connect with that ocean. So the first step is okay externally there’s nothing great to experience in this world. So I’ll not look outside.
Gradually I start turning inwards. That means we start seeking pleasure in our inner connection. So now initially vindati means there’s a little happiness.
So we chant Hare Krishna, we remember Krishna, we are experiencing a little bit happiness. But what happens as we move forward? We start, as we turn inwards, so initially when we chant Hare Krishna we are not able to concentrate. But as we start practising spiritual life we start able to concentrate more and more.
And we start going deeper into our inner connection. And then what happens at that time? Brahma yoga yukta atma. We become situated in our connection with Brahman.
And then as we become strongly situated in that connection, then there is Sukham Akshaya Mashnate. One experiences Akshaya Sukha. Unlimited happiness.
So that’s how we come to the level of experiencing supreme happiness. Supreme happiness. Sukham Akshaya.
So now let’s look at Shri Prabhupada’s report. So Prabhupada quotes about this Akshaya Sukha. He quotes the words of Yamanacharya which he has quoted earlier.
And Prabhupada makes a significant point that actually the whole world, the highest pleasure in terms of matter is sex pleasure. The whole world is moving under its spell and a materialist cannot work at all without this motivation. Cannot work at all Prabhupada says.
Ultimately people may do many other things but this is what it boils down to. This is what they are dreaming and fantasising about. But a person engaged in Krishna consciousness can work with greater vigour without sex pleasure which he avoids.
That is a test in spiritual realisation. Spiritual realisation and sex pleasure go ill together. So go ill together.
Why? Because sexual pleasure is physical and spiritual pleasure is transcendental, non-physical. So to the extent we are identifying with the body to that extent we can’t experience spiritual happiness. And to the extent we are identifying with the soul we will not be attracted to bodily happiness.
So there is a difference between the two which makes them antipodal. So in general at the level of Karmakanda, at the level of Karmakanda dharma artha kama moksha. So it is considered that when one gets a happy family life, fulfilment of kama, that is considered also to be a blessing of God.
So that is true. Now but that does not mean that one gets completely caught in gratifying one’s senses. Kama does not refer to sense gratification.
It refers to all-round material well-being. Artha does not refer just to the bank balance in a person’s accounts or the person’s cash available with the person. It refers to all-round material prosperity.
So all-round material prosperity and all-round material satisfaction. So these are referred to by artha and kama. So in Karmakanda these are also considered to be dharmic.
They are considered to be religious. When a person becomes a serious spiritual seeker, at that time the person doesn’t get caught up in these things. The person understands that dharma, artha, kama are important at one level.
But far far more important is moksha. And moksha ultimately means, we discussed how mukti, ritva, anitha, rupa and svarupa, it means to become situated in our relationship with Krishna. So when a devotee becomes situated in the relationship with Krishna very strongly, the devotee doesn’t get so caught up in the pleasures of this world.
And this will happen gradually to us as we keep studying ourselves in our relationship with Krishna. So in pravapasi this is the test of spiritual realisation. What does it mean? That means, we may sometimes feel very good, oh I am making spiritual advancement.
I feel great pleasure, great satisfaction when I take darshan of Krishna, when I chant the holy names, when I come in the association of devotees. Sometimes we feel like that, sometimes we don’t feel like that. So these feelings will come and go.
But if you are following the regulative principles steadily, within the regulative principles also there is falling at the gross level, there is falling at a certain level. So as we move forward in the following of the regulative principles, then we become, we are staying at a detached level. So as we keep experiencing inner happiness, we start giving up outer happiness.
And as you keep giving up outer happiness, you start experiencing inner happiness. Now we want to know which starts first. You know, do I first give up outer happiness and then experience inner happiness? Or do I first experience inner happiness and then give up outer happiness? Actually, first comes hearing.
So first comes hearing, touch, runu, as Krishna will tell in the start of 7th chapter, 7.1. First we hear and understand how outer happiness is temporary. It ultimately leads to misery, as Krishna will tell in the next verse. On the other hand, inner happiness keeps growing and growing, akshaya sukha it is.
So it begins with hearing. And by hearing, we try to move away from outer happiness and we try to move towards inner happiness. And then by both these things, we experience inner happiness and then by that we feel inspired, okay, let me further move away from outer happiness.
And then by hearing, even when we seek for outer pleasure and get a little outer pleasure, we understand. This leads to so much misery, there is so much agitation, so much irritation. And at the end of it, the pleasure is so tiny, it is not worth it.
Therefore a person feels, okay, let me not pursue this pleasure. This is how gradually a person becomes detached. So first we should always focus on hearing.
We will see that if we are not hearing regularly, our Krishna consciousness will become weak, will not be attentive in our chanting, will not be serious in our cultivation of bhakti, then we are not experiencing inner happiness, naturally we will be dragged towards outer happiness. And then we will collapse. So we will collapse in the sense that we will be dragged outwards and outwards further away from Krishna.
So how far we will go away, we can’t say, so better not take that risk. Therefore, we understand that it all begins with hearing. Now Krishna will talk about on what basis can a person become Baha’i’s Parasheshwa Saptatma.
Why should one give up outer pleasures? Because they lead to misery. This is a very well-known verse from the Bhagavad Gita which Prabhupada would quote very often. Let’s look at this 5.22. So yehi samsparshja bhoga, dukkha yonaya evate, adhyantavantah kaunteya, nathishuramate budhaha.
So yehi samsparshja, samsparshja means by contact with the senses, with the sense objects. Bhoga, bhoga means the sense pleasure. samsparshja bhoga.
So when there is contact with the senses and the sense objects, the tongue eats delicious food, the hands touch some soft objects, the eyes see something beautiful. So there is bhoga, there is pleasure at that time. But what happens, Krishna says, dukkha yonaya evate.
There is dukkha. Why is there dukkha? Because it is temporary. See when we seek sense pleasure, there are three possibilities.
It is unattainable. Our eyes see so many good looking forms. No human being can enjoy all the good looking forms that the eye sees.
So most of the pleasures that we look around, they are unattainable. So that just creates craving, craving, craving. I don’t get anything at all.
Then they are not attainable. Then even if they are attainable, then also we find out they are not palatable. That means I get it, but after I get it, I find, hey, this is not pleasurable at all.
I had dreamt so much. Somebody thinks, oh, there is this new hotel where there is such a delicious food. I want to go and eat all that.
But when I go and find out, it doesn’t taste at all good. So we get it, but it doesn’t live up to our expectations. It is not palatable.
And then even if it is palatable, then we find it’s not retainable. So retainable means how long can we keep eating? Even if we get the most attractive sense object, how long can we enjoy it? Our body’s capacity is limited. Our body itself is time bound.
Every sense object is time bound. So nothing is retainable. So either way, if you look at these three possibilities, not attainable, not palatable, not retainable.
In all three ways, ultimately what we get is misery. Ultimately what we get is dukkha yo naiva te. So there may be some pleasure, but when that pleasure goes away, it will lead to misery.
And sense pleasure is like a sandwich. Imagine the sandwich, there are two thick loaves, and in between there is some delicious item. There may be some butter, there may be some vegetable sandwich, some fried, something fried or something spicy, which tastes really good.
Now imagine that there is a sandwich, and both the loaves that are there, the upper loaf and the lower loaf, they are huge. And they are not only tasteless, they are untalatable entirely. They taste terrible.
So one wants to eat the sandwich, one starts, puts the mouth, the sandwich, doesn’t taste good. But one thing, at least there is a thin layer in between, that I will enjoy. But then you go through the sandwich, you go through the sandwich and find there is a thin layer in between.
And you find, oh there is a next layer, next loaf, that is also dry and tasteless. So what are those two loaves referring to? The upper loaf is hankering. The lower loaf is lamentation.
And in between, there is a little pleasure. And sometimes what happens is, we get cheated and there is a sandwich with no loaf only in between, nothing in between only. There are just two loaves together.
So like that, every sense pleasure if we think of, first there is hankering. Ah, I want it, I want it, when will I get it, when will I get it, when will I get it, when, when, when. The mind is whipping us, come on, get it, I want it, I want it, when will I get it.
So there is hankering. And hankering, people may call it pleasurable, but it is not pleasurable, it is miserable. Actually when we start engaging in sense gratification, or start fantasising about sense gratification, it is torture when the desire comes, do it, do it, do it, do it.
It is torture actually. And then as one is experiencing the torment, the torment of hankering, of craving, and then one gets the enjoyment. And if that enjoyment is there, yes, actually what we call pleasure is largely a relief from the torment, that’s all, relief and a release from the torment.
And then that tiny layer of the sandwich, the taste that ends, oh, it got over. I wanted it to go on, but it got over. I wanted it to go on, but it got over.
Why? I want more, but I can’t get it. So then there is lamentation. There is hankering and there is lamentation.
In between there is tiny little pleasure. So ādi-antavantaḥ kaunteya, what Krishna is saying, this sandwich example is good to keep in mind to understand this point. So ādi-antavantaḥ, just like there is a sandwich, the taste layer is only in between, that is a tiny, our bite will barely pass through it and get over.
So sense pleasure is ādi-antavantaḥ, it has a beginning and it has an end. And therefore, a wise person, na teṣu ramate buddhah, the wise person does not delight in such a pleasure. Buddhah is a wise person.
So Krishna is contrasting this with what he used in the previous verse. He used asambudhah. So asambudhah is a person who is not deluded.
So that person is buddhah. So there is buddhah and there is mudhah. So buddhah is a person who is not infatuated by material pleasures.
Mudhah is a person who gets intoxicated and captivated by material pleasures. Na teá¹£u ramate, ramate means does not delight. Such a person knows that okay, these pleasures, they are nothing to look forward to, they are nothing to dream about.
Now Krishna uses a very precise word over here. Dukkha yonaya evate. Yoni means womb.
Dukkha yonaya means the womb of misery. What Krishna is saying over here is sense pleasure is pregnant with misery. Now, when there is pregnancy, there may not seem to be an immediate change over there.
But eventually once there is pregnancy, there will be delivery. So similarly, sense pleasure, it’s pregnant with misery. And once the pregnancy is there, the delivery of the misery is going to come.
And this is such a delivery that no abortion is possible. Can’t avoid it. Once when it started, it will just take off its own momentum like a juggernaut.
One cannot stop it. It will stream roll all of one’s protests and attempts to stop and misery will hit us. You can’t avoid it.
So Dukkha yonaya evate. So it’s a womb of misery. So when one understands that actually there is misery that is bound to come sooner or later when I engage in sense gratification.
The person thinks I don’t want to get involved in this. Na teshu ramate budhaha. Now Prabhupada explains.
Prabhupada takes the word Rama. Na teshu ramate. And he connects it with the Padma Purana where he is describing what the word Rama means.
So ramante yogino anante, satyananda chidatmani, iti rama pade naso, param brahma vidiyate. So ramante yogino anante. Ramante yogino anante.
That the yogi is ananta. They enjoy unlimitedly. In what Satyananda chidatmani.
Satyananda. They experience real happiness. Chidatmani.
It is spiritual happiness in the atma. Satyananda. Mithyananda is what is there in this world.
Iti rama pade naso. That absolute truth that has been given the name Rama. Param brahma vidiyate.
Vidiyate means it is known as. So that absolute truth which enables one to experience great happiness that is called as Rama. The word Rama, ramati, ramayati it is said.
One who delights and one who gives delight. So the Lord delights in himself and he gives delight to others. Ramati, ramayati, iti Rama.
So that’s another explanation. So the yogis. Now not everybody can do Ramanindra.
Materialistic people, what are the stories you are talking about? What is the big deal about it? But then they will want some other stories. They will have stories of Mickey Mouse and Harry Potter and they will have all kinds of fantasy novels which they will be ready. So why not read about the Supreme Lord and develop a taste over there.
So ramante yogino anante. We all want something fantastic, something wonderful, something extraordinary to think about, to study, to hear. So if we get that in the Supreme Lord that is wonderful.
So ramante yogino anante. So nateshu ramate budhaha. They don’t enjoy, the wise people don’t enjoy in this.
What do the wise people do? They enjoy in the relationship with the Supreme Lord. And Prabhupada quotes from the Bhagavatam, famous verse, which he would quote again and again and again, 5.5.1. At the start of the fifth chapter, in 5.1 Prabhupada quoted another section from this, chapter 5.5.4-6, asanapi kleshidasa deha. Rishabhdev’s teachings were something which Prabhupada quoted quite frequently.
So here he is quoting the verse which begins the instruction. So Rishabhdev is instructing his hundred sons headed by Bharat Maharaj. And he starts by telling, don’t waste the human body in animal pleasures.
So let’s look at this verse. na ayam deho deha bhajaam nrloke kashtaan kamaan arhate vidbhujaam ye tapo devyam putraka ye na sattvam shudhye desmad brahma saukhyam to anantam na ayam deho. That with this body, deha bhajaam nrloke.
Deha bhajaam means one shouldn’t enjoy. Nrloke, especially in the human body. That pleasure which is born with the deha.
Kashtaan kamaan arhate. So one should not do kashta to fulfil kama. One doesn’t have to do enormous hard work.
Kashta means enormous hard work. Kama, to fulfil lust. Why? Vidbhujaam ye.
So here this word is like a slap on the face of the sense enjoyer. What is it being said over there? That what is the pleasure that one is enjoying? That is the pleasure of vidbhujaam. Vid is stool.
So those who enjoy the stool, that is their pleasure. What is the meaning of that? The stool enjoyers are the hogs. So what is the pleasure of the hogs? The hogs are animals and animals live for eating, sleeping, mating, defending.
So even pigs, they unite and they have their piglets. And they also delight when, they also have their orgies when they enjoy sense pleasure. And if human beings also do that, then there is a, what is so special about the human beings? So vidbhujaam ye.
So it’s a standard of animal pleasure. Why should a human being work hard for that pleasure that is enjoyed even by these low class animals? So what should one do? Tapodivyam. Divine austerity one should perform.
What will happen by that austerity? Putraka yenasattvam. So he is saying that my dear sons, putraka yenasattvam shuddhyet. Your consciousness will become purified.
If you do austerity, your consciousness will become purified. And then what will happen by that? Esmad brahma saukhyam tu anantam. You will experience brahma sukha which is ananta.
So this pleasure, so Prabhupada is connecting this with this as well as the previous one. This verse is saying don’t enjoy because it will lead to misery. So Prabhupada is saying yes, that’s what the scriptures say.
That this is a low class pleasure, animal level pleasure, don’t enjoy it. But seek to become purified by performing austerity. And then one can have unlimited happiness.
So this brahma saukhyam tu anantam can be correlated with 5.21. So here it is unlimited happiness, there also it is imperishable happiness, same point. So how does it work? Why do we need to do austerity? Because in the transitional stage, when we are winning ourselves away from material pleasure and we are trying to gain the spiritual pleasure, at that time there is a struggle. But if we go through that struggle, if we weather that storm, then what happens is we move further and we experience real spiritual happiness.
It’s like a disease condition and a disease condition a person cannot enjoy. So the period of treatment is a period of austerity. And once one follows the austerity then one can experience real happiness.
Once one is healthy. So Prabhupada writes the more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries. So the more pleasure we seek in material level, the more misery also we will get.
We can’t avoid that. Now, Arjuna gets the question at this point. Yeah, I know.
Okay, even if I agree that he has material enjoyment leads to misery, but still just knowing this, my desires don’t go away. The desires still stay. So what should I do? So Krishna says, Tolerate.
He throws a challenge to Arjuna. Tolerate. Arjuna, if it is Shaknoti, if it is possible for you, so whom to tolerate? What? Tolerate, what this he will explain that in third line.
So by lust and by anger, certain urges come up. But tolerate them. And for how long? You have to tolerate it.
These urges are born from the body. And because they are born from the body, they will be there as long as you have the body. Therefore, you have to tolerate them as long as you have the body.
Now this can be sobering at the same time, it can also be hope-giving. Sobering means we know that we have a struggle as long as we have a body. But actually as we become purified, the struggle becomes more and more manageable.
The struggle becomes more and more winnable for us. We will be winnable. So, Praakshari is the Mokshanath.
What will happen? Such a person will be well-situated. Not only well-situated, such a person will be happy. So it’s interesting that what Krishna is telling over here is that the urges will come, but tolerate.
Oh Arjuna, if you are a warrior, you can tolerate the onslaughts of the enemy, when they hit physically still you will keep fighting even if you are wounded. So can you tolerate the onslaughts of lust, of anger, when they attack and wound you? Can you tolerate those attacks and still keep fighting, counterattack? Chaknoti, tolerate. So, tolerance is the wall between temptation and transgression.
Temptation is we feel, oh, I want to enjoy it. Some images come up in our mind, some desires come up, we start feeling. Temptation.
Now all of us will get temptations. But transgression means when we act on the temptation and we do something wrong. So, it’s not that every time there is temptation there has to be transgression.
No, that’s not necessary. The tolerance is the wall. So, if there is something which is moving, a vehicle is moving from here to here, but suddenly we find there is a wall over here.
It cannot move forward. So, tolerance is the wall that prevents temptation from becoming transgression. So, yes, temptation comes, but I just let the temptation come and tolerate it, it will go away.
It is not going to be there forever. Calm down, calm down. Don’t get excited about it.
So, Chaknoti, if it is possible to tolerate. Now, actually all of us tolerate various things in our life. Now, for example, if we are working with somebody, working with a superior and that superior speaks harshly to us, we will not snap back at the person.
There are so many situations in our day-to-day life where we tolerate using our Kundalini intelligence. It’s not that if I snap back over here it will make things worse. Later I will communicate myself properly.
So, my feelings, my concerns, I will communicate it. So, we all have to use tolerance. Tolerance is not necessarily weakness.
Actually, often it is intolerance that can make us weak. Tolerance can help us to become strong. So, it can help us to choose the right response and make the right response.
So, tolerance is strength. Lack of tolerance is weakness because it makes us slave to our impulses. So, Krishna says tolerate it.
Is it possible for you, Arjuna? So, like that a warrior, if he is thrown a challenge, the warrior says, yes, I can do it. So, that’s how we should feel. So, when the temptations come, we shouldn’t think, oh, temptations have come, now I have to fall down.
What can I do? These temptations are coming. No. The temptations simply indicate that we have become disconnected from Krishna.
So, when the temptations come, that doesn’t mean that we have to become connected with sense gratification. You see, if there are, in America and other places, where there are long, long roads, in many places, as a matter of security, on the side of the roads, they have some sort of speed breaker sort of things. There are bumps.
So, when a person is driving on the road, and the person is inattentive, maybe because the roads are long and clear, the person dozes off to sleep or something while driving, sleeping on the wheel, the vehicle starts going off track. When it starts going off track, what happens is, it meets these speed breaker-like structures, which cause the person to jolt. And the vehicle jolts, and the person wakes up.
And the next person wakes up. Hey, the vehicle is going off track. Pull it back on track.
So, when the jolts come, when the jolts come, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the vehicle has to go off the road and one has to meet with an accident. The jolts are a warning that one is going off track. So, what should we do when the jolts come? Pull the vehicle back on track.
So, similarly, when material desires start rising in our mind, that simply means that we are going off track. When temptations start coming in our mind and start agitating us, then that means our Krishna connection has become weak. We are meant to be going on the straight road of Krishna consciousness, but we are straight off track.
So, when we are straight off track, what should we do? Pull back. Pull back and come on track. Not that because the temptation has come, so I have to act in it.
That means, because the jolt has come, now I have to go into the ditch and fall off. No, it is not like that. So, at that time, pull back.
So, rather than seeing the arrival of temptation as a cause for capitulation. Capitulation means giving up. We should see the arrival of temptation as a cause for retaliation.
Retaliation. Yes, my mind led me off track. I will fight.
I will come back on track. So, we should see the arrival of temptation not as a cause for capitulation, but as a cause for retaliation. My mind took me off track.
I will not be cheated. I will come back. Yes, it is not safe to fall asleep while you are driving, but if it happens, it is not that we have to become made of an accident.
We can pull back on track. So, the jolts that we experience inside when we start getting tempted, that simply indicates that we have started steering off track. We have started going away from the path of Krishna consciousness.
When we come back on the path, chant Hare Krishna. Remember some philosophy. Pray to Krishna.
Think of some beautiful pictures of some deities. Sing some melodious bhajans. Some prayers.
Whatever. All of us have to have our own ready stock of weapons. Weapons means these are the means by which we beat down the temptations.
So, all of us need to have that ready stock of weapons. And with them, when we beat down temptation, then we become calm. We become steady.
We become composed. And then we can come back on track. So, Krishna is saying, Tolerate.
And praak sharir vimokshanat till the moment of death. Actually, we should never let our guard down. As a say, a firefighter becomes more and more seasoned, more and more experienced.
It is not that the firefighter has 20 years of experience. That doesn’t mean that because the firefighter has 20 years of experience, so the fires that are going to get set in the city are going to become smaller. Now, the fires will still be as big, but the firefighter will be expert.
You know, for the first time, when the firefighter goes and sees, there is a fire. You know, what happens is the fire hose is aah! The fire hose drops from there. Too big fire.
What should I do? Then somebody says, Come on. Buck up. Take up this fire hose.
Pour the water on it. So, and then he pours the water and the fire is already extinguished. But if the firefighter is a seasoned firefighter, 20 years down the line, then what happens? Then as soon as the fire is seen, immediately, the fire hose is picked up, the button is pressed and exactly knows, okay, the fire is coming from here, so I should put more water on this side, not on this side.
And exactly with intelligence, with diligence, with speed, the person expertly extinguishes the fire. So, it’s not that the fires will not be set off just because the firefighter has experience. So, lust is like a fire.
So, just because I have practised Krishna Consciousness for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, that doesn’t mean that the fires of lust will not be set off. Yes, they are really provoking sense objects. And, of course, our provocation may be lesser.
It should be lesser. But it doesn’t matter whether the provocation is lesser or not. The important thing is that we have the means, we have the knowledge to extinguish it.
So, rather than lamenting, Oh, why are these fires of lust getting set up? We should become more seasoned, more experienced. As soon as the fire gets set off, extinguish them. Extinguish them.
So, take on the fire hose. What is our fire hose? Our fire hose is remembrance of Krishna. So, when we take up the fire hose, the remembrance of Krishna, and start dousing the fire, and the fire dies off.
So, what we should expect is not that the desires won’t come up. Actually, the desires will also stop coming. But they will not stop coming just because we expect them to stop coming.
They will stop coming when we repeatedly and insistently say no to them. No, nothing doing, nothing doing, nothing doing. Every time we indulge a little bit in the desire, the desire blazes forward.
And every time we say no to it, the desire goes, desire dies down, dies down. Sometimes, occasionally, it may appear that when we say no to a desire, sometimes it appears that the desire is becoming stronger. We say no to the temptation, and we feel, this temptation, it is troubling me all the more.
Actually, it is not like that. Prabhupada gives the example that when a circus trainer is training a tiger. So, initially, the tiger, how the tiger is trained, normally, it is trained through eating.
So, when the tiger does what the circus trainer wants, the tiger is fed. Otherwise, the tiger is not fed. So, now when the tiger is not fed, at that time, the tiger’s roar starts becoming more threatening, more menacing.
It seems as if it is going to shake off and break off through the whole cage itself, the way it roars. And an inexperienced observer may say, it becomes so ferocious, better feed the tiger something. But the experienced circus trainer knows that the tiger may be roaring louder, but it is becoming weaker.
It is roaring louder externally. But because it is not being fed, it is becoming weaker. And if one can tolerate that, tolerate that loud, loud roar, no matter how much you intimidate it, I am not going to get threatened.
A tiger cannot come out of the cage. It cannot do anything. So, then, gradually, it becomes docile.
It understands, my roaring is not going to get me anywhere. Then, I have to simply do what this tiger trainer is telling me, then I will get food. Otherwise, I will not get food.
So, then the tiger becomes docile, becomes obedient. And even after it becomes obedient, still the tiger has to be dealt with caution. It cannot be trusted very easily.
So, similarly, the mind is like the tiger. Then, the mind says, come on, enjoy. He says, no.
Enjoy! The mind starts roaring like a tiger. Roaring. Come on, do it.
Okay, okay, okay. Don’t trouble me so much. Please start becoming submissive to the mind.
Instead of becoming submissive to Krishna, we become submissive to the mind. We don’t have to become submissive to the mind. We don’t have to become intimidated by its scaring techniques.
Actually, the mind is screaming louder, but if we are not fulfilling its impulses, it is becoming weaker. It is becoming weaker. And, initially, it will be roaring, roaring and scream.
But gradually, if we don’t fulfil its desire, then that roar will come down to a whimper. And then it will become silent. So, actually speaking, we have to starve the mind.
Praak Sharir Vimokshanat. So, rather than expecting that the desires will go away on their own, what we should do is, repeatedly and insistently, consistently, we say no to those desires and not get intimidated by their threats. Then they will become weaker.
They will become weaker. So, we talked about two aspects over here. First is that when we become spiritually seasoned, we shouldn’t expect that desires go away.
Rather, we should become expert in our responses. Yes. Expert firefighter becomes quick in the responses.
Quick and expert. This is how I should douse this fire when it has come. And secondly, what we should do is, when we are practising spiritual life, we don’t get intimidated by the threats.
And, starve the mind. When we starve the mind, it will eventually become extinct. It will become silenced.
So, that is Krishna said, Arjuna, is it possible for you? If it is possible, then you will be able to move forward and become Sukhi. Yukta means well-situated. Sukhi means happy.
Actually, we will have relief. We will have happiness when we become detached. If we are indulging, the desires will keep blazing more and more and we will never have happiness.
So, Prabhupada writes over here, It is the duty of the transcendentalist to try strenuously to control desire and anger. This is a very significant usage. Try strenuously, Prabhupada says.
So, most people try strenuously to fulfil their desires. Try strenuously. If you want to fulfil some desire, what all they are ready to do, do that.
What all? Say, when a boy falls in love with a girl, then that person is ready to do so much. And people go and watch movies about it and read novels about it. That person is ready to risk one’s life and risk one’s good name, risk everything for the sake of love.
So, actually, most of that love is lost. But the point is, the people are ready to be strenuously working for that. So, just as there are people who strenuously work to fulfil their desires, devotees work strenuously to transcend their desires.
They tolerate first and then transcend. So, no doubt, spiritual life is hard work. The work is inner.
The work is inward, not outward. But the work is not out there. And when we do the work, the result is far better, far greater.
By fulfilling our desires, the result is going to be temporary. If at all the desires get fulfilled, we discussed how it is not attainable, not palatable, not retainable. One of these will go to the fall and dukkha yona everything.
But, if we become purified, if we become students for a spiritual platform, then it is going to be ever relishable, ever fresh, ever relishable. That is what we are going to get. Therefore, a devotee learns to tolerate.
A devotee becomes determined to tolerate. So, now Krishna talks about turning inwards, once again. So, he has told, how do we deal with outer desires? Know that they lead to misery and tolerate.
Then, yo antah sukho antar aramas tath antar jyoti deva yaha sa yogi brahma nirvana brahma bhuta dhikachyati So, Krishna says, this verse is similar to 3.17. astvātmatrūp nivasya ātmatrūptasya mānam ātman nivasya antuśtas Look for inner happiness. So, antar comes three times. Antar comes twice, three times actually.
Yo antah sukho, one who is happiness in words, One who delights in words and one whose light is in words, antarjyotirevayah. So she is saying, emphasising, turn inward, look for happiness in you. So what happens to a person? So yogi, brahma nirvanam, so a person attains spiritual happiness.
And when a person attains spiritual happiness, brahma bhutodhigacchati, brahma bhutodhigacchati. So first a person will attain spiritual happiness and this person will attain spiritual existence. So now, brahma nirvana, we may say it doesn’t mean spiritual happiness.
What does it exactly mean? Actually, Prabhupada translates brahma nirvana as liberated in the supreme. Let’s look at this word brahma nirvana once again. It is a significant word.
People think that the word brahma nirvana is a Buddhistic word. So yeah. So what does this brahma nirvana mean? The materialistic people think that life ends with death.
The jnanis understand that life begins after death, jnanis think that life begins with death. Because they say, oh, this material existence is an illusion. Reality is when we come out of the illusion.
Life begins with death. But bhaktas understand that life begins whenever we start serving Krishna. Because eternally what are we going to do? We are forever going to serve Krishna.
So the moment we start serving Krishna, that is the time from which our real life begins. And our real life continues, continues, continues, continues. Eternally.
So life begins whenever we start serving Krishna. That is brahma nirvana. So nirvana is often thought of as a Buddhistic word.
Nirvana means cessation, termination. So yes, there is cessation of material existence, nirvana is there. But along with that, there is brahma.
Brahma means that there is higher spiritual realisation, there is life in brahma. So brahma nirvana means ending of material existence and beginning of existence in spiritual realm. So because Krishna is also saying after that, brahma bhuta udhigacchati, that person also attains brahma bhuta, that person attains spiritual existence.
So this word, brahma nirvana, comes several times in the Bhagavad Gita. Let’s look at its occurrences. So it has come in 2.72 earlier.
Ishaate brahmisati partha, nainam prapevam viti, sattvasyamantakalepi, brahma nirvana vichati. So it has come once over there, that a person who is situated in the spiritual life and if he remains that way at the time of death, the person attains brahma nirvana. And now here it has come in 5.24, it will come again in 5.25 also, labhante brahma nirvana, vishayakshina kalmasaha, chinnadvaitayatatmana, sarvabhutahitairataha.
So it describes the person who does all these things, one who is purified, one who is free from impurity, one who works for the well-being of others, such a person attains brahma nirvana. And then once again it will come in 6.15. In 6.15 Krishna says that the person who practises yoga steadily, that person attains yunjanevam sadatmanam yoginayatmanasa, kshantin nirvana paramam, matsamstham adhigachyate, so there he uses the word nirvana again. So nirvana is cessation of existence.
So now what Krishna is telling over here is that nirvana is there, but nirvana refers to end of material existence, but along with that there is brahma nirvana. That means that nirvana refers to end of material existence, but brahma nirvana and brahma bhuta refers to simultaneous revival of spiritual existence. So simultaneous revival of spiritual existence.
So the mayavadas, the buddhists, they give the example that a candle is lighting, the candle gets extinguished, like that our illusory existence ends and then we enter into the void. But actually even if the candle gets extinguished, the energy that is there, which led to the lighting of the candle, that energy doesn’t get extinguished, you know there is conservation of energy. So the energy will continue to exist and that energy will simply get transferred in some other form.
So like that, yes, at the time of death, the consciousness is no longer manifest in the material form. But that doesn’t mean the consciousness gets extinguished, the consciousness continues to exist. The consciousness simply is expressed, is channelised to some other level, where one experiences deeper level of reality, one experiences a higher consciousness.
So simultaneous revival of spiritual existence is there. So in this way, actually, Krishna says one attains spiritual existence. So turn inwards and by turning inwards, one will attain spiritual existence.
That is the goal of life. Now Krishna will take further about how one can experience the spiritual happiness. Now Prabhupada explains that a liberated person enjoys happiness by factual experience.
Now factual, Prabhupada says, actually when a devotee is happy, that is factual experience, it is not some sentimental imagination. People think, they want to chant and dance and sing and they look so bright faced. But why are these people so happy? Why are these people taking some drugs? What is it that makes them so happy? Their faces are so bright.
What is it that makes them happy? Because it’s factual experience of happiness. It’s not just some sentimental imagination. The soul, when it comes in contact with Krishna, through the sound of the holy name, through spiritual sounds, then what happens is the person experiences higher happiness.
So Prabhupada explains, what does factual happiness mean? Factual experience, you can therefore sit silently at any place and enjoy the activities of life from within. What are the activities of life? The activities of devotional service, the remembrance of Krishna. A devotee can sit in any place and meditate on Krishna’s pastimes, chant the holy names and experience a deep fulfilment.
A devotee doesn’t need anything external. Of course, a devotee comes out in the external world and acts in the external world also. Because the devotee wants to share the happiness that has been relished internally with others.
The devotee is not dependent on that. So, antah suko antara aram. So we may not experience this at all times, but all of us have our experiences when we start relishing inner happiness.
Oh, this is so relishable, this is so wonderful. I wish I could hold on to it more. We can hold on to it.
We all get occasional glimpses of spiritual happiness. You know, we may go for some yatras, or some days we go for darshan. And the darshan is very beautiful.
Sometimes there are very wonderful kirtans. Sometimes the classes are very memorable. So all those are our spiritual memories.
They are our treasuries. So we have to make our memories into a treasury. What do we do? In our memory, we remember the times when we have had these wonderful spiritual experiences.
So instead of letting our memory become filled with recollections of our past sense gratification, which will keep haunting us. Oh, you enjoyed like that. Come on, enjoy again, enjoy again, enjoy again.
So instead of letting those memories stay, we replace those memories with our devotional memories. So, unfortunately our memory doesn’t seem to adhere to these sort of recollections. So we have to consciously cultivate it.
Sometimes we may have exhilarating spiritual experiences, but we just completely forget them sometimes. Sometimes we hear some classes, such brilliant insights. This insight is life changing.
What am I going to do? Change my entire life. But maybe just one day after that we forget that whole thing. We have to cherish those memories.
How do we cherish? It can be by remembering internally, or maybe it can be by noting down externally in some personal diary, making a small short diary where we just have the most important points, most important experiences, most transforming realisations inside that we have had. And keep them in a treasury. So of course we have to internalise them and our memory has to become our treasury.
But we have all had those experiences, and if we keep perceiving spiritual life, those experiences will become more frequent and more consistent. So they will become more frequent and more persistent. They will come more frequently, and when they come, they will stay for a longer time also.
And in that way, we will come to a spiritual state eventually where we attain sthai bhav. Sthai bhav means steady spiritual emotion. Bhakti Rasamrishananda talks about this.
So steady spiritual emotion when we have, then material emotions will no longer trouble us. And that will be our eventually the pathway to, the steady pathway for our spiritual perfection. So Krishna says that such a person has attained brahma nirvana, liberated from material existence, reinstated in spiritual existence.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.