Bhakti Shastri (079) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05 Text 25 to 29

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Hare Krishna. Welcome to our Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastra course.
We are now in the last part of the fifth chapter. We have discussed 5.24. So in this last section, Krishna is telling that how a yogi can attain liberation by fixing the minor supreme law. And the crux of this discussion is the redirection of our pleasure-seeking propensity from matter to spirit, from outwards to inwards.
So 5.20 said that a person who is equipoised amongst pleasure and pain stays, comes to a spiritual platform. 5.21 says for that one should be detached from external pleasures and then one can attain unlimited spiritual happiness. 5.22 said that what is the basis for detaching oneself from external pleasures? Understanding that they are wombs of misery.
They are temporary and they will end in misery. And 5.23 said that still the desires may come, but one should tolerate them. And the 5.24 says that we turn inwards and delight inwards.
Then we will attain the Brahman platform. So 5.20 and 5.24 are like parts of a cycle. 5.20 talks about Brahma with Brahmanistitaha.
That’s what 5.24 also returns to. That a person attains Brahmanirvana. So now Krishna will continue that and talk about attaining Brahmanirvana, attaining the spiritual platform.
Let’s look at the verse. So labhante means one attains. Brahmanirvana.
Brahmanirvana means the spiritual platform. We discussed this yesterday. Who attains it? Labhante is to attain, to gain.
Hrishaya. Hrishaya is now the word Rishi is usually Narada Rishi or Vyasa Rishi. We use the word Rishi, Muni.
Each of them have their specific meanings. But generally the word Rishi means one who turns inwards. That’s the context of the previous verse also.
The previous verse said that Hrishayaha, those who have turned inwards. Yontah Sukhontarahamas. The previous verse is talking about turning inwards.
So when this word is used in that context, it will continue to mean that. One who turns inwards. Prabhupada writes those who are active within.
What happens to such people? Kshena Kalmashaha. So Kalmashaha is contamination is the heart. These will be destroyed.
Now Krishna has talked to use the same word in 5.17 in the deep part. Jnana nirdhuta kalmashaha. Jnana nirdhuta.
So by knowledge, the person becomes freed from all contamination. Tad buddhaya sadatmanas tanhi shastat parayanah kachchantya punaravrtti. Jnana nirdhuta kalmashaha.
So Jnana nirdhuta. One will become free from all sins, by all contaminations, by the power of Jnana that is acquired by investing one’s mind, one’s intelligence, one’s faith and one’s aspiration. So now here Krishna is saying the same point that the person who attains Brahma Nirvana has to be Vishayakshena Kalmashaha.
And for becoming Vishayakshena Kalmashaha, Chinna Dvaidha. Dvaidha is duality. Dva.
Dva. Dvandva. Dvaidha.
They are all related words which basically means duality. This is good, this is bad. Chinna Dvaidha.
One cuts through that. And the person is Yataatmanaha. Yataatmanaha means Yataatmanaha.
So one who is improper, translated as one who is engaged in self-realisation. Yataatmanaha. Yata can mean controlled, renounced.
So one who is controlled at the level of soul, one who is focused on realising the soul. Sarvabhutahitiratha. This is a significant point.
Sarvabhutahitiratha means such a person is engaged in the well-being of all. Now what is the connection of this with the overall theme of the verse? Many people feel that those who pursue spiritual realisation, they are very self-centred. They don’t bother about the world.
They are simply concerned about their own purification, their own liberation. And they don’t care for others. Krishna says that is not the case.
He says that those who are striving, those who are the people who attain self-realisation, those who are Sarvabhutahitiratha. Those who are engaged in the welfare of all living beings. Now Krishna will use the same describer, Sarvabhutahitiratha, once again in the 12th chapter when he is describing the impersonalists.
So he says in 12.3, 4 and 5, he talks about impersonalists and then there he says, Sarvabhutahitiratha. So there also he uses the word Sarvabhutahitiratha. So he says those impersonalists have to be engaged in the well-being of all and they have to contemplate in the all-pervading, quality-less, formless, activity-less Brahman.
And eventually they will also attain Krishna. The next verse is a very difficult process. Klesho Diktarasteesha, 12.5. So is it that the impersonalists alone are well-wishers of all living beings? No, the point is even the impersonalists have to be well-wishers, have to be benefactors for all living beings.
What about, what to speak of devotees? Krishna will talk about devotees in the same chapter later in 12.13 when he says the devotees are the well-wishing friends of all living beings. So there he will explain that my devotees are non-envious towards all living beings. They are actually the well-wishing friends of all living beings.
So why are they the friends? Because they see that all living beings are the parts of Krishna, they are the children of Krishna and we are all one family. So how can our beloved Lord be happy if his other parts and parcels are suffering? So we have to do what we can to help them also come back home. The impersonalists on the other hand, their compassion is not so personal-based because their ultimate reality is not personal.
So then even their emotions can also not be personal. So the sarvabhutahitirataha for them is more that they should not discriminate among various living beings. That means whoever be the living beings, they should be able to have an attitude of compassion towards them.
They should have an attitude of, they should not discriminate, oh this person is, I like this person, I don’t like this one. They should have samya, they should have equal vision towards everyone and equally they should be having a benevolent attitude towards everyone. So the point is both kinds of spiritualists, whether they are personalists or impersonalists, they are expected to engage in the welfare of all living beings.
Now what is the welfare that they should engage in? That is indicated by the qualifications that these people should have in this verse. They are rishayakshinakalmasah, chinnadvaitahitatmana, they are kshinakalmasah, they are freed from impurities. See unless people are freed from impurities, they cannot engage truly in the welfare of everyone.
Why? Because when they want to engage in the welfare, do welfare for everyone, they should know how to do welfare. If at one level doing welfare seems very simple, oh person is starving, give some food, person doesn’t have clothes, give some clothes. Yes, these are noble, these are compassionate, but the problem is playing society are not so simple.
Why are those people hungry or bereaved? That’s because there is a whole social economic complex that is governed by greed and exploitation on one side among the haves and that is fuelled by the wantonness of everyone including the have-nots. Even the have-nots don’t have self-restraint. Many times when we give beggars some money, they use it for smoking instead of eating.
So instead of taking food, they smoke or drink. So we have discussed this elaborately in our Manoseya Madhoseya topic. The point is that helping also requires some level of understanding of what is the real help.
So the greed and the wantonness, wantonness means the unrestricted, unregulated indulgence in pleasures, even self-defeating, self-destructive pleasures, that is wantonness and that has to be curbed. So how is that to be dealt with? That is to be dealt with by the practise of, by the attainment of higher spiritual happiness. Unless a person experiences higher spiritual happiness, the person cannot give up lower happiness.
If the person doesn’t give up lower happiness, then the person cannot actually do good to others because the exploitative mentality will come up sooner or later and even if there is no exploitative mentality, even if there is actually a compassionate mentality, still if we don’t know, a person may want to help a sick person but if the person doesn’t know how to treat the sick person, how much help can be done? So people are sick because of lust, anger, greed and pride and illusion and those who are free from these contaminations and those who know how to pray for others, they can offer the best help. So those rishis, those who are internally active and those who are free from contaminations, they are the people who can help others. So that is the, in a sense, the qualification for helping others.
Otherwise, we certainly, that doesn’t mean that everybody else is banned from helping others. Everybody, those who are concerned enough, noble enough, compassionate enough to want to help others, they will naturally do what they can to help others and that tendency of being concerned about others with some level of selflessness is to be appreciated. At the same time, their help is not going to be complete, it’s not going to be holistic, it’s not going to be sustainable because as long as we only help at the level of the body, we can’t really help.
The anarthas are present, anarthas are misleading and degrading and hurting people because they are directing people’s consciousness away from spiritual reality, where lasting happiness exists. So people have to be helped, people have to be guided to redirect their consciousness to higher spiritual reality. When their consciousness gets redirected over there, then they will become freed from their infatuation with worldly things and then they will be able to do good to others and they will be able to receive good from others.
So sarva bhuta hi deyata, that’s why. Hrishayakshina kalmasha, it’s important they be capable of, they be pure, then they can help. That’s why Prabhupada writes, a person engaged only in ministering to the physical welfare of human body cannot actually help anyone.
Just as a person who doesn’t know how to treat a patient cannot really help, maybe some encouragement can be given but as far as relieving the disease is concerned, it cannot be helped. So the real cause of one’s difficulties in the hard struggle for life may be found in one’s forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord. So it is this forgetfulness that needs to be removed and that is what the Rishi does.
So now Krishna talks about how a person will eventually attain liberation. So Krishna is repeatedly using the word brahma nirvana over here, so spiritual liberation. So what is required for that? Kaama krodha vimuktana, one is freed from kaama and krodha, vimuktana, mukta is liberated, vimukta is thoroughly liberated.
So kaama krodha, where are these coming from these two? Actually we discussed earlier how kaama and krodha are what Krishna talks about as the inner enemies in 3.37. When Arjuna asks in 3.36, what is it that impels us to do wrong things? Then Krishna replies kaamesha krodhesha. So kaama and krodha were coupled together at that time. Of course before that also in 2.62-3.63, Krishna talked about how kaama when frustrated leads to krodha.
So there also Krishna has talked about how they are connected. So when desire, when we have desire, desire becomes strong, it becomes lust. When lust is obstructed or frustrated then it becomes anger, wrath.
So now Krishna has referred to these again in 5.23. In 5.23, 5.22 was that understand that sense pleasure leads to misery, therefore don’t engage in the sense pleasure. But now in 5.24 he said, that was 5.22, so 5.23 he said that therefore tolerate. So what one has tolerate? So again kaama and krodha were coupled together.
So this coupling of kaama and krodha is important because many people they give, they are able to control kaama but then they can’t control krodha. The Bhagavatam says that sometimes the jnanis, they cross over the ocean of lust but then they fall and drown in the puddle of krodha. So now nobody will drown in the puddle, the puddle is supposed to be very small.
But actually the point is that when one controls kaama, if the kaama is not purified, it’s just suppressed, that means there is a constant battle of wills going on. You know, I want it, no I will not do it, I want it, no I won’t do it. So there is a battle going on, that battle creates an inner hardness, an inner, you could say hardness and harshness.
And then because it’s also self-centred, I will do it, I will not do it, I will do it, I will not do it. So the bhaktas are focussing on Krishna, I want to love Krishna, I want to serve Krishna, I want to please Krishna, therefore I will do what will please Him and therefore I will do this. So the focus for the devotee is not on I, the focus is on Krishna and that’s why that desire to please Krishna crowds out the desire to enjoy or the desire to renounce.
So as devotees we are motivated by the desire to renounce and not the desire to serve, then what is likely to happen is that we will be having a volcano-like eruption of anger sometime or the other. Because what will happen is when we deny our own desires, our material desires of course, when we deny our material desires, you know, I’m giving up this, I’m giving up this, I’m controlling myself so much and still so many things are going wrong, still this is happening, that is happening, that is happening and sometime or the other, all that anger will boom, explode like a volcano and that coming other hot lava coming out can break our relationships, it can break our bhakti also. So we see this in the Bhagavatam that we see in the Vedic scriptures as well, the Bhagavatam contains references to it, we have Vishwamitra Muni, you know, when he was doing meditation, first he was tempted by karma and when he was tempted by karma, so Menaka came and seduced him and then he fell prey to her and he again did austerity at that time, he was determined, now I will not fall prey again.
So then when Rambha came along, what happened? You know, he, when he saw her coming, the first time when Menaka came, he was so captivated by her that he forgot who he was and what he was doing and just became attracted to her and started living with her and united with her. When Rambha came, he understood what she was doing and he understood that she has been sent by Indira and she is plotting his fall. So when she came that way, he felt a rush of wrath coming over him and he cursed her.
So now what happened? When he did that, through that also he lost his power. So ultimately we want to direct our emotions towards Krishna, so kama and krodh both direct our emotions away from Krishna. So there, both in that sense can be obstacles.
So now krodha, anger is called as kama-anujya. So kama-anujya, anujya means younger brother, like Lakshmana is called as Rama-anujya and in the Shri Sampradaya, the Ramacharit is considered some kind of manifestation of Lakshmana. So Rama-anujya, the younger brother of Rama.
So similarly, krodha is called as kama-anujya. That means where kama comes, sooner or later krodha will come. Krodha will come.
Anujya is birth. Anujya is to take birth. Anu is inferior, lower and later.
So one who is born later, after kama. So in general, when one has to become spiritually advanced, one has to become free from kama and krodha. Kama-krodha-vimuktanam.
If one is free only from kama, of course that is also a challenge. But if one is only free from kama but not from krodha, that means actually the desire is not in getting redirected towards Krishna. The desire is simply getting redirected in the same material arena.
That means what we want to do is, say this is the material level of reality, this is the spiritual level of reality. So we want to take our desire and move it from here and move it over here. So from the material level to the spiritual level.
But when we don’t redirect our desire towards the spiritual level, then the desire simply shifts from one material object to another material object. There are some people who want to give up alcohol addiction and they are told that if you want to eat something or drink something, taste something which feels good to you, you take chocolates. This is called substitution therapy.
But then those people become addicted to chocolates. Now chocolates may not be as harmful as alcohol, but that is really no solution. It is just going from one material urge to another material urge.
It may be a lesser of the two evils, but still it is an evil. So as devotees we don’t want this kind of substitution of one material thing with another material thing. We want purification.
Purification means replacement of the material with the spiritual. And this is not actually a replacement, it is a reversion. Reversion means we revert back to what we were originally.
All of us are souls and as souls we are meant to delight in the spiritual level of reality. So we simply revert back to the spiritual level of reality by the practise of spiritual life, by purifying ourselves through sadhana bhakti. So kama krodha vimuktanam.
So we become free from kama and krodha by the practise of sadhana bhakti. And then yathinam yathachetasam. Yathachetasam means it is controlled over the mind.
Prabhupada translates here as the mind. So chetasam as the mind. In consciousness it can be the mind also.
So here Krishna is telling that if we are to control kama and krodha. Now kama and krodha are primarily internal. If you want to control them it is not enough to do that externally.
We have to do it internally. So I may say that I have not indulged in lust or I have not went out my anger. But that won’t purify me.
Certainly it is good to at least control oneself on a physical level. But beyond that we have to remove the anarthas even from the mental level. Because as long as they are at the mental level they will be prodding us, pushing us, goading us, punching us, pinching us.
In various ways they will be tormenting us to act it out on the physical level also. Therefore kama krodha vimuktanam yathinam yathachetasam. Yathachetasam is one who is controlling the mind.
And that is why it is so important for us to remember Krishna. When we remember Krishna then we redirect our heart’s desires from the material to the spiritual. Then abhito brahma nirvanam.
Abhito means assured in the near future. In the near future. This is again another time in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna is talking about soon, not after very far.
In the fourth chapter he has talked about this. In 4.39 he says gyanam labdha param shantim achirenadhi gacchati. So there achirena.
Achirena means not after a long time, soon. So similarly abhito, for the translation of Bhuta was in the near future. Abhito brahma nirvanam.
In the spiritual realm one will attain liberation. Now we may wonder why is Krishna not referring to maham so much over here. He does refer to it but not so much because right now he is not talking about bhakti yoga directly.
He is building the Bhagavad Gita’s thought flow towards bhakti yoga. Now of course all these verses, their principles can be applied even in the path of bhakti yoga. But these are generic spiritual principles.
That means understanding that we should not pursue outer pleasures and we should pursue inner pleasures. These are generic principles we apply to karma yogis, gyan yogis and bhakti yogis. The means by which one will try sense control, that will be different.
So we are talking about controlling the senses from the bhakti perspective, fixing the mind in Krishna. The gyanis will talk about it from a different way. They will talk about naiti, naiti.
The karma yogis will talk about it from a different way. But it is the generic spiritual principles that are being talked about. So Prabhupada goes so far to say that actually what to speak of impersonalists and mayavadis, even those who are outside the vedic fold like the shunyavadis, the buddhists and the jains.
Prabhupada does not talk so much about the jains but buddhists he says. Even the shunyavadis, they all three agree that entanglement in material desires is the cause of suffering and one has to give up that entanglement. The method of giving entanglement will be based on one’s conception of the positive spiritual, of the goal.
So when the goal is a positive spiritual reality, when the goal is a loving and lovable person whom we can serve even with our senses in this world, then the process of becoming free from our material desires becomes much easier. But still it is for us to become free. So abhito brahma nirvanaṁ vartate viditātmanāṁ.
So viditātmanāṁ, those who are, that will be there soon for them, viditātmanāṁ, those who are self-realised, ātmanāṁ, those who actually turn to the level of ātmā. So now Prabhupāda talks about this beautiful verse of how one can become yatacetasāṁ. So he says, he says bhāgavatam 4.22.39 So this is actually Prithu Mahārāja, this is the Prithu Mahārāja section and it is describing over here how that, that absolute truth, bhajivāsudeva, worship that absolute truth.
So that is the conclusion of the whole verse is bhajivāsudeva, worship Lord Vāsudeva. And what is the rationale? Why should one worship Lord Vāsudeva? That is described prior to that. That absolute truth, that Vāsudeva.
So the lotus feet of the Lord, pāda-paṅkaja-palāśa, vilāsa-bhaktyā. So vilāsa means to delight. One should delight in the lotus feet of the Lord.
With how? Bhaktyā. That means the devotee chants, dances, sings, worships the deity, hears the pastimes, and devotees should delight in that. Sometimes some devotees think that renunciation means we should not feel happiness.
No. Actually if we chant and dance, is it that we should not chant and dance for our pleasure? Well, it should not be that we should be chanting and dancing only for our pleasure. But it is not that we are not meant to feel pleasure.
That means that we should chant and dance in a graceful way, not in a sensuous way, certainly not in an obnoxious way. But in the early days of the movement when the devotees were in Lower East Side, at that time the hippies would come and some of them would dance. And when they would dance, they would dance in very sensuous ways, exposing their body and moving their hands and legs in a way which would be almost sexually provocative.
So once one young girl was doing like that, and the devotees told Prabhupāda. And Prabhupāda told the mother, he is going to talk with that girl and to get her to dress beautifully and then dress properly. And then she came and then she again participated in the kīrtana.
Now she had no mal-intentions over there. It was just that she thought she had taken drugs and then she was hearing the chanting, she just went off, flipped off, was not aware of what she was doing. So that kind of dancing Prabhupāda would not encourage.
But certainly when we dance and sing, when we hear kṛṣṇa-kathā, if we experience happiness, that is good, that is why we need to experience happiness. But the test of our devotion is that even when we don’t experience happiness, we continue doing the activity. Some days when I chant, I feel it’s so tiresome, it’s so boring, but still I continue.
Why do I continue on? Because I know that this is the way I will experience happiness. This is the way I will make spiritual advancement. Therefore, this is what I will do.
So vilāsa-bhaktyā. The devotees should delight in the practise of bhakti. When that happens, the forces of karma, the desire for fruitive activities, the residual impressions in the mind which impel us towards fruitive activities, they are deeply bound, but they become uprooted.
The saintly people, they uproot them like that. And this, there is no other way to do it. What is other way? Those who try to empty their mind.
Matayo means consciousness. Those who try to empty their mind. Don’t think of that.
Don’t think of that. Don’t think of that. Don’t think of that.
Those who try to do that. They, even if they endeavour to empty their mind, they can’t do it because Sroto refers here to waves. So, if somebody is in the coast and that person decides, you know, I want to make the coast dry.
How is it possible? We may dry the coast by throwing the water back into the ocean, but just after sometime some waves will come and again the coast will become wet. Again we dry it up, again the coast will come, again the waves will come and it will make us wet. So, how is it possible? Actually, if we try to empty the mind, what is going to happen is waves are going to come.
Waves of sensual desires will come either from the outside world when we perceive sense objects or from the inside world, that means from our own memory, when our past recollections of sensual intelligences become aroused for some reason or the other. So, they are like waves. So, the waves, they will keep coming and they’ll keep flooding our consciousness.
So, the only thing to do is, if we try to empty our mind, no, I won’t think of this, I won’t think of this, no, but that’s what thoughts will come up because impressions are there, the sense objects are there externally and the images are there internally. So, therefore, the solution is not to make the mind empty but to make the mind full. It’s to make the mind full with Krishna.
So, if I have a glass of water and I don’t want water in I have a glass. Now, by default, the glass will be filled with air. Now, if I don’t want it to be filled with air, what do I have to do? Air, go away.
It’s not going to work. Even if I turn the glass upside down, still it will be filled with air. Then what do I do? Then I get some vacuum machine, pull it out and make a vacuum inside the glass.
But how long can I keep the vacuum? As soon as I give a little exposure to that, that vacuum will get filled and air will come inside. So, it’s practically impossible to make the glass empty into a total vacuum. Like that, it’s impossible to make our mind empty.
Rikta Matayo is impossible. So, what is to be done? Fill the glass with water. If I fill the glass with water, once it’s filled, then there’s no room for air to come inside.
So, like that, if I don’t want sensual desires to come in my mind, rather than trying to pull out the sensual desires, I fill my mind with devotional desires, devotional impressions, devotional thoughts. Fill my mind with Krishna. Then there’s no room left.
So, Prabhupada had once gone for a Delhi Pandal programme. Thousands of people had come for the programme. As he was returning back, several of his disciples were there.
And when Prabhupada entered, all the people were offering obeisance. And when he would leave, people would offer obeisance. People were rushing to touch his feet.
So, Prabhupada asked the disciples, you know why they are all offering respects to me? Disciples did not reply anything. He said, because I am free from sex desire. Because I am free from lust.
And then the devotees were stunned to hear this. And Prabhupada said, not that I have no lust. And Prabhupada realised that this is such a level that the disciples can, it’s far, far away for disciples.
Not that I have no lust, but Prabhupada said, I have no time for lust. I have no time for lust. So, that is what each of us can aspire for.
And no lust will take a long time, but no time for lust is possible for us. If we busy ourselves in devotional service to Krishna, there are so many fulfilling activities that we can do. And when we start engaging in those activities, then this constant craving that is there, it will just go in the background.
And it will stay in the background and eventually it will go out of the ground only. So, it will just go, it will go out gradually. It may take a long time, but we can keep it in the background.
There is no need to let it come in the foreground. So, if we keep thinking about it, sometimes thinking too much that I will not do it makes us do it. Because even I am, I will not do it, I will not do it, I will not do it.
What I am, I am thinking about it. I am not thinking about Krishna. So, when I am thinking about something in a negative way and I shouldn’t do it, but what is happening, my thoughts are going towards that and that contemplation may kindle my desires even against my will by the force of the mind’s obstinacy.
So, therefore, we should delight in Krishna Consciousness. When we delight in Krishna Consciousness, then whatever is being talked about over here in this section, that will be able to apply. And then Prabhupada quotes another verse over here.
He says that, so now in the previous verse, Prabhupada said that how one should delight in bhakti. And now what will happen by delighting in bhakti, delighting in meditation Supreme Lord? That is given, that is an example over here. So, So, by vision, by meditation and by touch only to the fish, the tortoise and the birds maintain their offsprings.
So, this is the Vedic understanding. Now, we know that the birds, they sit on their hens, on their eggs and they keep it warm and comfortable and gradually they are sitting on the eggs, the birds hatch the eggs and the birdlets come out. So, the birds nourish their offsprings just by touch.
Similarly, it is said that the fish look upon their offspring and the tortoise through meditation. Now, actually looking and meditation is something which is not really observable. How can science know whom somebody is meditating on? And there may be specific kinds of fish and tortoise which do this.
So, even if today scientific evidence does not support this idea, it does not mean in principle it is impossible. There are certain kinds of living beings which may be capable of doing these things. So, just like when we say swan is able to separate milk from water.
Now, is it that all the birds that are called swans today are able to do that? Not necessarily. Just like we have lotuses. Now, not all lotuses are as fragrant as they are talked about in the Vedic scriptures.
Why? Because there are different kinds of lotuses, there can be different kinds of swans, there are different kinds of fish, there are different kinds of tortoises also. So, here Krishna is talking about a special kind of fish, tortoise. So, the point is, when these kinds of examples are given, the important is not on the factuality of the specific example, it is on the principle that is being taught through that example.
So, because the factuality is dependent on our relative perception and what we may consider counterfactual today, maybe just because of our limited perception and how much can we actually observe. So, we should not focus whenever such examples come up, we should look at the principle. The principle is what? Principle is something is growing.
So, that the offspring is growing because of the benevolent care of the parent. So, similarly, here the Lord is telling that similarly do I also. So, here what is the point? That just as we are meditating on the Lord, the Lord is also meditating on us.
The Lord is actually always there with us in our heart and is always thinking of our welfare. But when we don’t think of him, we don’t allow him to act much for our welfare. Just like a doctor wants to treat a patient, but the patient doesn’t want to be treated and doctor really can’t do much.
The doctor needs the patient’s cooperation. So, when we start thinking of Krishna, we start cooperating and then Krishna is able to help us more and more. So, we have to understand that when we are practising spiritual life, it is not that we alone are struggling to fix the mind on Krishna.
Actually, Krishna is also striving to help us fix our mind on him and he is helping us to move closer to him that way. So, this is Prabhupada’s explanation of how Brahma nirvana takes place. Brahma nirvana means Brahma is Krishna and nirvana means liberation from material existence.
So, we fix the mind on Krishna. Now, here Krishna in the next two verses will give a brief explanation of how one can attain liberation by the practise of Ashtanga Yoga. So, now let’s try to understand the chapter overview first to understand what is happening.
In Arjuna’s mind, there were two options, Karma Yoga and Gyan Yoga. Actually, in his mind, there are only two options, action and renunciation. So, Krishna has told him about how there can be action in renunciation.
The two do not have to be opposite. The two can be integrated. They do not have to be fragmented.
So, when Krishna explains that, how it can be fragmented, how it can be integrated, then the question comes up, is it that action alone will ultimately lead to liberation? So, Karma Yoga alone can it lead to liberation? Yes, it can. Karma Yoga, so that means when a person is practising Karma Yoga, eventually the person can renounce the world and go to the forest. Just like a person, when the person is a grahastha, the person lives in the world and acts in Karma Yoga.
But later on, when the person takes vanaprastha and sanya, that person at that time may not be acting in Karma Yoga. That time, the person may take up Gyan Yoga, the person may take up Ashtanga Yoga, that person may take on full-time Bhakti Yoga also. So, that can vary.
So, then Krishna, the way Krishna has spoken is, by work alone one can attain liberation. That means one can stay in a liberated state even while practising one’s work. But eventually, as the varnashrama progression is there, one will renounce the world.
So, when one renounces the world, what should one do at that time to complete the process towards liberation? Then Krishna is telling over here, instead of Gyan Yoga, Krishna has already told, that is, Krishna has said that, actually, when one is not practising Karma Yoga, one will get dukkha. So, Krishna says, if one wants to practise Gyan Liberation, then one can practise Ashtanga Yoga. So, we will describe Ashtanga Yoga in two verses over here.
And this will be elaborated in the sixth chapter. The sixth chapter is among the longer chapters of the Gita, 47 verses. And there he will talk about the principle of how to renounce the world through Ashtanga Yoga.
And then, in the last verse of this chapter, 29th verse, Krishna will talk about Bhakti Yoga. And when he talks about Bhakti Yoga, that will be elaborated in the next section of the Bhagavad Gita, that is, chapters 7 to 12. So, this is the progression.
So, in the first five chapters, Krishna has established that, for Arjuna, action is better than renunciation. Karma Yoga is better than Gyan Yoga. And when he does Karma Yoga, eventually, when he wants to renounce the world, at that time, he can either practise Ashtanga Yoga or he can practise Bhakti Yoga.
And Bhakti Yoga can be continuously practised, one will have to change the process. That he will talk about elaborately in the later chapter, 7 to 12. So, now, let us look at the brief glimpse of Gyan Yoga, of Ashtanga Yoga, that Krishna uses over here.
So, first Krishna says that, bahir baharyam, keep outside. What should one keep outside? Sparshanakritva. So, sparsha refers to sense objects such as sound.
So, sparshanakritva. So, sparsha, here, normally, we may say sparsha refers to touch. Yes, but sparsha refers, in general, to the contact of senses with the sense objects.
Krishna has used that, the word sparsha in a general sense, in 5.22. So, same point, same usage Krishna has used. So, keep external sense objects external. Don’t focus on them.
So, what should one do with the eyes? The eyes, fix the eyes in the middle of the two eyebrows. Krishna is talking about here, practising the process yogasanas, where one is doing pratyahara, shutting out the sense objects. And then, pranapanasamukritva, so, regulate the breath.
So, these first verse, 27th talks about the physical control that one should do. At the physical level, what one should do? Regulate the breath, turn away from the sense objects, fix the eyes in between the two eyebrows. Then, in the next line, he will talk about what one should do internally.
So, bring the senses, the mind and intelligence under control. And that person should be focused on attaining liberation, understanding that nothing in this material world can make me happy. I want to go beyond this material world.
So, mahir mokshaparayanah, and then after that, vigat-iccha-bhaya-krodho, the person becomes free from iccha, bhaya and krodha. Now, Krishna has talked about iccha and krodha earlier. So, where is bhaya coming in now? So, iccha can be equated with kama.
So, kama-krodha-vimuktanam, Krishna had talked about in the previous 5.26, and we discussed their coupling elaborately. Now, where is bhaya coming from? Actually, bhaya is a component which these three Krishna talks about regularly. He has talked about it in vitarag-bhaya-krodha twice, once in 4.10, when he is talking about how the three obstacles to taking surrender of him.
He has talked about in 4.10. And before that talk, he has talked about it in the second chapter also in 2.56, when he has said that, vitarag-bhaya-krodha-siddhir-mri-vichyate, dukheshu-divinamana-sukheshu-gatas-praha. So, these three are together, raga, bhaya and krodha. So, raga refers to attachment, oh, I want to enjoy this world.
Krodha refers to, why can’t I enjoy this world, who can stop me, I’ll get over the obstacles. Bhaya is, I don’t know what is there in this world. I don’t want to explore this.
Let me stay where I am. So, these are all obstacles. So, one should not have desire for this world.
One should not be frustrated with this world in a pent-up resentful, angry sense. If somebody renounces out of hatred for this world, that aversion will also keep one’s thought fixed on the world. Even when somebody wants to renounce, the renunciation should be because of, not because of frustration for the world, it should be because of attraction for the other world.
If it is based only on frustration to this world, then that cannot be sustained. To be sustained, it has to be based on attraction to the other world. So, that’s why one has to become free from krodha also.
And then, you get ichcha-bhaya-krodha. And bhaya is, oh, I don’t know if there are relationships and there are complexities in the relationship. I don’t want to get into this business.
Let me just stay out of this whole thing. Let me submerge into some void or something like that. All these misconceptions, when one is free from, and Krishna doesn’t say such a person will become liberated.
Krishna makes an even surprising declaration. He says, such a person is always liberated or one who is in this stage is always already liberated. So, Krishna is telling about, once one goes into the pratyahara stage, we’ll discuss about the next chapter.
But once one shuts out the external sense objects and fixes the mind in the words, then after that, if one is free from the anarthas, then one is as good as liberated here itself. And then Prabhupada talks about keeping the eyes open and not closing the eyes because one may just fall asleep. And then Prabhupada says this will be thoroughly explained in the next chapter.
And then, so Prabhupada also makes it clear that Krishna consciousness is better than Ashtang Yoga. So, let’s look at the last chapter, last verse of this chapter, which is an oft-quoted verse again. The person will attain peace.
Who will attain peace? The person who understands that Krishna, he is the enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities. He is the proprietor of everything. He is the well-wisher of all living beings.
Such a person will attain liberation. So, such a person will attain peace. Now, Prabhupada had made pamphlets of the peace formula using this and he would distribute that.
This is the peace formula. What is the peace formula? To accept Krishna as the proprietor, as the enjoyer and as the well-wisher. So, now, you may wonder what has this got to do with anything? How can accepting Krishna as the enjoyer, you know, people think generally if we have to gain peace, then we have to do some negotiations.
Okay, there are these two countries fighting, so then a peace conference has to be there and some NKML settlement has to be there and the grievances have to be addressed. So, this is important, no doubt, at a material level. But at the material level, peace will always be elusive, it will always be unstable, because there will be always people who are exploitative.
So, real peace will have to grow from within the hearts of people. When people are internally peaceful, then they can radiate peace outwards. And how can people become internally peaceful? When they can become internally satisfied.
As long as people are determined or dependent on external satisfaction, till that time, they cannot have, they cannot have peace if their external situations are disrupted. And those external situations are bound to be disrupted, because the externals are unstable. So, here Krishna is talking about inner peace as the only sustainable building block for outer peace.
So, now, let us first look at what this verse means when Krishna is in these three components. Then we will discuss about, then we will discuss about how Krishna can liberate us from, how this understanding can liberate us from material existence. So, actually speaking, chaantim vichyati.
So, what we have to do is, before we can have peace in the world, we have to make peace with God. What does it mean to make peace with God? You say, who is fighting with God? You know, God is not involved in the fighting. Some people may say that I am not fighting with God, who is fighting with God? But actually, we are.
When we want to enjoy separate from Krishna, in a sense, we are waging war against Krishna. We want to enjoy separate from him. And that is unfortunate.
So, we may not consciously be hostile towards Krishna. But subconsciously, we are, in a way, trying to usurp his position. He is supreme enjoyer.
And we are meant to be co-enjoyers with him. We are not meant to be independent enjoyers. When we try to be independent enjoyers, we become, our enjoyment becomes limited by the finitude, by the limitedness of our capacity to enjoy.
Whereas, when we connect with Krishna, then our enjoyment becomes unlimited. Because he is unlimited, his capacity to enjoy is unlimited. And our capacity, our enjoyment becomes connected with his enjoyment.
So, therefore, we have to make peace with God. So, this verse is a call for making peace with God. And when we make peace with God, what happens exactly? Then, peace comes within the heart.
When peace comes within the heart, then we can have peace in the outer world. So, actually speaking, whenever things, whenever we make some plan, I want to do like this. And when it doesn’t work out, then we feel so much resentment.
Why didn’t it work out? Why didn’t it work out? That resentment can go in three directions. It can go towards others. Why did they come in my way? Why did that person do like that? Because of that person I got angry.
And when it goes outwards, then what happens is we become hateful, we become vengeful. And we may or may not hurt that person, but that hatefulness, that vengefulness, vengeful means revengeful. So, that vengefulness hurts us, definitely.
Or that resentment can go inwards and we start blaming ourselves. I am useless, I bungle up everything. I can never do anything well.
I am useless. People develop inferiority complex, people develop depression, people develop suicidal urges also. So, that resentment can go outwards, it can go inwards, or it can go upwards.
Why does God do things like this? Why does God do like that? Why does God do like that? Why, why, why? So, in all, now when we, that resentment becomes like a wall between us and God. And when God wants to help us, we can’t accept his help. Because if we are resenting somebody, how can we take the help of that person? That resentment becomes a wall between us and God, and we can’t take his help.
So, that’s why when we want help, what do we have to do? We all need help in this world. This world sends such obstacles and reversals in our path, that we all need help. So, that help comes through knowledge and faith.
So, we understand that Krishna is always my well-wisher. And whatever he is doing is ultimately for my good. So, I may not understand it immediately, just as a patient may not understand how a surgeon’s knife is doing good.
The surgeon’s knife is doing pain only, causing pain only. Same way, we may not understand immediately. But over a period of time, we will understand.
So, we have to be patient, we have to be faithful. So, that is surudham sarva bhoktanam. So, when we find we want to be the bhokta, and we find that we are not able to be the bhokta.
We make certain plans and think I will enjoy this one. We are not able to enjoy that. Then we want to have this.
For enjoying, we all need things. I want to enjoy, then I need property, I need money, I need possessions. So, sometimes our possessions are taken away or the position that we want, we don’t get them.
Then that resentment comes up. But we understand that actually surudham, Krishna is the well-wisher of all living beings. When we understand that Krishna is the well-wisher of all living beings, then he is my well-wisher also, he is the other’s well-wisher also.
So, then that resentment comes down. That resentment starts breaking down. Okay, whatever Krishna has done is for my good.
Let me see how it, let me how best I can continue on acting in this world. So, when we have that attitude of trying to act in the best possible way, then we become purified by that. And when we become purified of the resentment by that, then more and more the way becomes clear and the peace becomes deeper and deeper.
So, whichever way our resentment may go, we have to understand that resentment is never positive emotion. Therefore, if you send resentment on retirement, nothing doing. I’m not going to be resentful.
It’s happened, it’s happened. What’s happened has happened. What can’t be changed, can’t be changed.
What’s gone wrong has gone wrong. But the present is still there with me and I can change the present. So, let me do what I can in the best way possible now.
And for that Krishna is there to guide me. Krishna is there to help me. He’s there to empower me.
So, that way we move forward in Asmuchana. So, this faith, can free us from enormous mental resentment. You know, when we accept in principle Krishna is my well-wisher.
Even if I don’t understand how right now, Krishna is my well-wisher. That accepting that fact, once we know that, and this is not just on, not just something which you have to accept on faith. Actually, if we live, if we choose to act accordingly, we will find out in our own lives things which seem to be terribly wrong.
Over a period of time, we’ll see how they actually work for our good, how they make things better for us. He’s the well-wisher of all living beings. So, then when we understand that he’s the well-wisher of all living beings, then we will not become unduly possessive.
I want this, I want that, I want that. And when people are possessive, then because people are excessively possessive, that’s why conflicts come up. You know, there are, most of the wars take place over wealth, over property, over power.
And that involves, all of it involves possessiveness. So, people want to be possessive. Hitler wanted to be the emperor of the whole world, at least of Europe.
And later on, he wanted to conquer Russia and Asia also. So, his idea was that he had that possessive mentality. So, he wanted to, he was saying that I want to be Sarvaloka Maheshwara.
I want to be the Ishwara, Maheshwara, the controller of all people, all living beings. So, sorry, all places, Sarvaloka Maheshwara. So, that was in a tiny way, that was his desire.
And that’s what the desires of those who want to wage wars and conquer generally is. So, therefore, when we understand that Krishna is my well-wisher and all that I need for my happiness is to serve Him, I don’t need to assert Krishna’s position and try to become Sarvaloka Maheshwara. And I don’t have to become a Bhokta independently.
If I just become a Sevak, then that will give me enjoyment in its own way, that will give me satisfaction, far deeper satisfaction than what I can get as a Bhokta. When we understand this, then we will become peaceful. Shanti, Mrityuti.
So, the Shanti here Krishna is talking about is not necessarily the Shanti that comes from absence of war in the outer world. War in the outer world will continue. But the war in the inner world is largely fuelled by resentment towards things and people and ultimately towards God.
So, that resentment can be sent to retirement by the knowledge that Krishna is the well-wisher and I just need to serve Krishna. Then that is Shanti, Mrityuti. Now, this verse is actually a conclusion of the other verses in the sense that this verse is talking about the unity, how Krishna is the ultimate goal of various paths.
So, when Krishna is saying that, I am the Bhokta of all the Yajnas. So, the Yajnas are performed by those people who are practising Karma Yoga and those who are practising Karmakanda. We discussed this about Yajna elaborately in third chapter.
So, they do Yajna. So, that means Krishna is revealing over here that I am the goal of all those people who practise Karma Yoga and Karmakanda. And Bhoktaram Tapasam.
Tapasas are generally performed by the Jnanis. They do some austerities to try to become detached from this world. So, Krishna is saying, I am the goal of the Jnana Yogis also.
Sarvaloka Maheshwaram. So, some of the worshippers, some of the demigod worshippers, they aspire to go to the planets of the demigods because they think that those are their worshipable deities and they want to be with them and they think that will make us happy. Now, Krishna talks about Antadevavartadevan.
He talks about that in 9.25. So, here he is saying that actually even the Lokas and the Devatas are my Lokas only. They are secondary proprietors. I am the ultimate proprietor.
Therefore, the implication is come back to me. And then Surudham. Surudham refers to the goal of Ashtang Yoga.
The Ashtang Yogis, they want to turn inwards and meditate on the Absolute Truth. They want to meditate. They want to be constituted in Dhyana and they want to turn inwards and fix their consciousness on the Supreme Lord.
They want to perceive inwards the Supersoul. So, that Lord whom they want to perceive in the heart, I am that Lord. I am the Surudham.
So, Surudham can mean well-wisher. It can also mean one who is situated in the heart. So, the well-wisher is situated in the heart.
But Krishna is also talking about the fact that he is factually situated in the heart. He is present as a Supersoul in the heart. That is what is being pointed to over here.
And that way we can say that this verse also refers to him being the goal of the Ashtang Yogis. And then Sarvabhutana. That means that ultimately he is goal of all living beings.
Mammavartamanuvartante manushyaparthasarvasya. Krishna is saying in 4.11 that all people are on my path. That point is being reiterated over here.
He is the goal of all living beings. In this way, in this verse, Krishna is in a succinct way, in a indicative way, telling that he is the goal of all paths. And Prabhupada’s purport over here, it is a long and classic purport.
So, Prabhupada says, the bare facts of life, or bare facts means they are not adorned facts, no varnishing, there is no decoration, just simple facts. What are these facts? The Lord is the master of material nature and the conditioned souls are under the stringent rules of material nature. Unless one understands these bare facts, it is not possible to achieve peace in this world individually or collectively.
This is the sense of Krishna consciousness. Lord Krishna is the supreme predominator and all living beings, including the great demigods, are his subordinates. So, sense of Krishna consciousness means, overall, Krishna consciousness is not just activities.
I chant Hare Krishna, I study the Bhagavad Gita, I associate with devotees. These are all important. But the sense of Krishna consciousness is Krishna is the master and I am his servant.
That is the sense which we should have. And that sense will actually enable us to move forward in spiritual life. And then, Prabhupada says, now this is a very interesting statement, Krishna consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life, even while one is within the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practise in the material world.
So, by practise in the material world. So, that means, normally, in the path of Gyan Yoga, there are two distinct steps. First is, one is practising, one is acting in the world, then one disconnects oneself from the world, so that one can become connected to the spiritual reality.
But in the path of Bhakti Yoga, one may stay in the world, but one invokes the spiritual reality by a devotional intention. So, it is arousing of spiritual existence, even while we are in the material world. And that is what makes it so exciting, that we do not have to give up the material world entirely for the sake of attaining the spiritual world.
We can be in this world, but we can act in a regulated way, in a devotional way, dovetailed way. And then Prabhupada writes, there are various paths. He says that there is a gradual process of elevation in the practise of the aid.
Now, he talks about the aid service. But these only preface perfection by devotional service, which alone can award peace to the human being. It is the highest perfection of life.
So, ultimately, after the Ashtang Yoga process, one comes to Samadhi. And in Samadhi, one becomes Krishna conscious, because at that time, one becomes conscious of Krishna. And that is what is the ultimate goal.
So, if somebody starts practising Krishna consciousness in an alternative way, without going through the other processes, the whole process of Ashtang Yoga, then that person can more easily achieve the same perfection. So, these only preface. So, they just come before and the real thing is Krishna consciousness.
So, in this way, Krishna in this chapter has talked about three things. First is the first section, verses 1 to 6, he has said that Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga will lead to the same result, but Karma Yoga is easier. Then in the remaining chapter is explained how Karma Yoga will lead to liberation.
So, first, verses 7 to 16, he has stated that by knowing Atma and understanding oneself to be the Atma, one can stay free from bondage. And from 17 to 29, by fixing the mind on the Paramatma, one can attain liberation. So, in this way, Krishna has told that Arjuna, you should practise Karma Yoga, have no doubts that by acting in the world, you can attain liberation.
So, now Krishna in the next chapter will describe how and when one eventually has to renounce, what should one do when one renounces at that time. That we will discuss in our next