Bhakti Shastri (114) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11 Text 51 to 55

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Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course.
Now we are at the last part of the 11th chapter. The 11th chapter is called as the Viratrupa, the Vishwarupa rather. So, the Vishwarupa is the description of the universal form, the revelation of Krishna.
And in that we have discussed till now, several sections. Currently we are at verse 51, which is part of the last section. So, let us have an overview of the various sections before we continue from verse 51.
So, verses 1 to 4 are Arjuna’s request to see Krishna’s universal form. Verses 5 to 8 are Krishna’s descriptions of the universal form. Krishna is giving a preview of what is going to come.
Then verses 9 to 14 are Sanjaya’s description of the universal form. Sanjaya is, from a distant perspective, the camera goes backwards and he describes what is happening over there, what Arjuna is saying. 15 to 31 is Arjuna’s description of the vision.
Then it has several divisions, four divisions precisely. We discuss Arjuna’s vision of the universal form, what he saw. Then he saw Arjuna’s vision of what is the effect of the universal form on the universe.
Then Arjuna’s beholding of the Kaalarupa, the vision as manifested on the battlefield. And then the effect of that on Arjuna and concluding with his prayer, who are you? Then after that, 32 to 34 is Krishna, as the vishwarupa, telling Arjuna that become my instrument. And then after that there are Arjuna’s prayers, 35 to 46.
So those prayers also we discussed had four parts. Because first he offers, he glorifies, then he offers obeisances, then he seeks forgiveness, and then he requests for the beholding of the four-handed Chaturbhuja. And then that’s returned to the Saumya rupa.
Now in the 50th verse, Krishna has obliged Arjuna’s request by beholding the vishwarupa. Sorry, beholding the, from the vishwarupa, he came to the Chaturbhuja rupa. And from the Chaturbhuja rupa, he came to the Vibhuja rupa.
So like that, the vision is gone now. And now Arjuna is going to reply to what Krishna has just done for him. So let’s look at the verses.
arjunuvAca drishtvedam manushyam rupam tava saumyam janardana idAnimasmi samrttaha sachetaprakritim gataH So drishtvedam, drishtva idam, I am seeing, manushyam rupam, the human form, tava saumyam janardana, tava, of yours, saumyam. Saumya is gentle, Arjuna says. It’s beautiful.
Saumya can mean soft, gentle, soothing. janardana, o, as we have discussed earlier, the word janardana can mean chastiser of the enemies or it can also mean, o, protector of people in general. idAnimasmi samrttaha, idAni means now, I am, samrttaha, settled, calmly settled, sachetaprakritim gataH, I have returned to my own nature, my consciousness, sachetaprakritim gataH.
Prakriti means nature. So we see that Arjuna has a steady relationship with Krishna. That is a relationship of friendship.
At the external level, it may appear that Arjuna is a kshatriya, Krishna is a kshatriya, and these are two kshatriya friends. But that is only an external vision. At a deeper internal vision, both of them are transcendental.
Krishna is the supreme lord and Arjuna is a devotee. And so, prakritim gataH. So from external point of view, prakritim gataH means, okay, two kshatriyas are now returning to their original friendship.
But from an internal perspective, it is that the lord and his devotee are returning to their intimate relationship. So that prakriti is not material prakriti. In the world, prakriti generally we use in terms of material prakriti, but that is not its only use.
The word prakriti basically means nature or energy. As nature or energy, the important point is that there is material nature or material energy and spiritual nature or spiritual energy. So both exist.
And both are playing a role as per the lord’s will. So the word prakriti used in a spiritual context, we see in So in 9.13, Krishna uses this word. So as prakriti, he uses daivi, his divine.
Arjuna has returned back to the normal situation. So actually, you know, in this world also, when we face very troublesome situations, suddenly in this material world, something extremely bewildering happens. We may lose a loved one or there may be a terrible accident in which we get immobilised temporarily or we may have a huge financial loss or there might be a big earthquake or a tsunami or some other hurricane or natural disaster.
And then that is, in one sense, we are seeing the kala rupa of Krishna. And even a devotee can get bewildered when the devotee sees the kala rupa of Krishna. In the sense that it’s not that a devotee is heartless.
And when we say we should be spiritual, that doesn’t mean that we can naturally, we can, we’ll normally be dead to all material emotions. We don’t want to get carried away with material emotions, but we shouldn’t just distinguish all emotions between material and spiritual. Yes, that is one level of difference.
But there is also something called as human response. So we shouldn’t dismiss everything at the human level as material, because we are currently existing at three levels, physical, mental and spiritual. And in this physical and mental are material and they do affect us.
So we see Arjuna also grieved bitterly when Abhimanyu was killed. Was it that Arjuna forgot the philosophy? No, it’s not that Arjuna forgot the philosophy, but there are natural emotions of affection between the father and the son, and then father will naturally grieve. So the point here is that even a devotee may get overwhelmed.
Arjuna is reassuring Arjuna that don’t be troubled, don’t be bewildered. So Arjuna was feeling like that. He has said in his prayer that minor being is completely with it.
So like that it can happen to devotees also, that when material nature shows its ugly feature, it shows the Kala Rupa. So at that time a devotee can also be devastated. And then devotee can also lose perspective and devotee can become overwhelmed.
So at that time, this is Arjuna, My dear Lord, what is this? What kind of form is this? Now we hear about Kala Rupa conceptually and it is good to know about the concepts, but along with that, we also need to know that this is not just a conceptual description. Along with that, it also is meant to instruct us. So the unfortunate things that happen in this world, actually they are the Kala Rupa of Krishna.
Now in one sense, time I am the destroyer of all the worlds. So whatever destruction happens and whatever destabilisation it brings, it’s not just that only the destruction at the Kurukshetra war was due to the Kala Rupa. No, all destruction is by the Kala Rupa.
So we understand this is also Kala Rupa. This is not a pleasant form. This is agitating form.
And as Arjuna, first in bewilderment, what is this, my dear Lord? And the Lord responded and then he offered obeisances and then he said, my dear Lord, please show me the Saumya Rupa. So like that, a devotee gets bewildered. One definition of intelligence as we have discussed is to, intelligence means to know what to do when we don’t know what to do.
That means that to know what to do when we don’t know what to do, that means there is a specific what to do. Okay, this problem has come. How do I solve this? I don’t know.
We don’t know what to do. But there is a generic what to do. What is that? Pray to Krishna for guidance.
Beg to Krishna, Krishna, please keep me engaged in your service and please guide me how I can serve you now. So when we do that, then what happens by that is, we keep moving forward. So Krishna will… Krishna will give us intelligence of how we can move ahead.
It may not be that the intelligence will come immediately, but it will surely come and it will help us to move on in our spiritual life. So sachetah prakritim gathah. And then when Krishna gives the intelligence, then we will see that, okay, there is this Kaala Rupa is there.
But along with the Kaala Rupa, there is something wonderful also which is happening. What is that something wonderful? Actually, it’s not that a devotee is having the head in the sky and devotee thinks that the tragedies of this world are no. As devotees, we would like, you know, we devotees don’t want anyone to suffer and tragedies bring tremendous suffering.
But still devotees also understand that ultimately it is Krishna who is the caretaker of all living beings and Krishna has some plan. And a devotee turns the eyes from the destructive form of material nature, which is Kaala Rupa of Krishna manifesting, to the Saumya Rupa. So we look at Kaala Rupa, then we turn to Saumya Rupa.
This is sometimes called as tough love, which is the Kaala Rupa of this world is Krishna’s tough love. Tough love means that sometimes love has to be tough. If a child is not studying or a child is doing mischief or a child is playing with fire, at that time the mother may have to be tough in her love.
There is love, but there is toughness also. So the Kaala Rupa is the tough part. But the Gita wisdom helps us to move from that to connect the tough part with the love part.
Understand actually that yes, yes, ultimately we discuss what is the Kaala Rupa. Kaala Rupa destroys the temporary to make way for the eternal. Destroys the temporary to make way for the eternal.
That means when we see the destructiveness and the destruction of material nature. Destruction means first we see that something is just destroyed and then by that we understand that everything, it sinks deeper into us that everything here is destructible. So when we see the destruction, which reminds us the destructibility of everything.
It reminds in a very forceful way and then that inspires us, motivates us, impels us to redirect our affection, our attraction from the temporary to the eternal, from the world to Krishna. And in that way our vision shifts from the Kaala Rupa to the Saumya Rupa. And then in this way when a devotee takes shelter of Krishna at that time devotee will become restored to the normal situation of yes Krishna is my master, I am a servant and let me keep serving him forever.
That is what we would like to do. Generally in this world when things get disturbed, how can things disturb us? When there is change in the external world that change naturally disturbs us. Now when the change disturbs us our normal expectation is that Krishna should set the external thing right and that’s what we pray to Krishna for.
But ultimately the external is not the shelter for us. The shelter is the internal. It is our connection with Krishna that is the shelter.
To the extent that the externals disturb us, to that extent it indicates that our internal is not sheltered in Krishna. Means if my internal shelter is in my bank account and suddenly the Indian rupee devalues, there is an economic slowdown and then I realise my money it’s not of much value or the stock market crash and I lose money. I feel tremendously agitated.
So that agitation, at that time I pray to Krishna, Krishna please set this right. Please let this economy come back on track or even if the economy doesn’t come back on track at least let my shares get out of the money so that I’ll have the money. I want to serve you but I need money for that also.
So now here what is happening? The externals have changed and through the external change Krishna is teaching us. Let’s see you are getting so disturbed that indicates that your internal shelter is not in me. Your internal shelter is in something other than me and that is an important learning opportunity for a devotee.
Oh that means what Krishna is demonstrating through me and what is getting confirmed by my agitation over this issue is that I am not sheltered in Krishna. So let me take shelter of Krishna. Let me move my inner shelter from money to Krishna.
If I have some respectable position even in devotee circles and suddenly my position is challenged then what happens when my position is challenged? At that time I start feeling that oh you know I have this position. I may be a counsellor and then I start feeling oh what is this? You know people are not respecting me as a counsellor. My counsellor is saying that I am not caring enough.
I am not competent enough. I am not advanced enough. There is that and because of that I feel my position is challenged.
I may get disturbed by that. Now the disturbance indicates that my shelter is not in service to Krishna but my shelter is in the prestige that I am getting as a counsellor. So what should we do in such a situation? Now we may say no but we need the external also do we right to serve Krishna? We need some financial stability by which we can serve Krishna.
If I have to serve as a counsellor if somebody is just going around doing character assassination on me then how can I serve Krishna? That may be true but we have to see things first and foremost at the internal level. So let me get my shelter within and when we do that there are external changes which are meant primarily to help us make internal changes and when Krishna sees us making internal changes then Krishna can make the external changes far more easily and effectively than what we can do by all our plans and endeavours. So that means a devotee should be able to move inwards and make internal changes and not that that means we are passive externally not that we accept everything that happens externally passively but that we don’t just act only at the external.
Okay what inner change what improvement can I try to make? Now we may say changing our shelter from some material attachment to Krishna is not easy. Yes that is true and it’s not going to happen overnight definitely that’s true but it’s never going to happen leave alone happening overnight if you don’t try for it. So these sort of situations when we are shaken up our inner being is completely troubled that time this is the opportunity for us to align our inner our inner compass towards Krishna.
It has often gone a little off track. Yes I want Krishna also but along with that I want many other things also. So we get the inner compass back straight focused on Krishna and then when we do that then then we return back to the inner position of calmness of poise of happiness.
So as we normally have in our relationship with Krishna. So now Krishna will speak after this. Now before we move forward here let’s look at one more point.
Krishna is saying Arjuna is Manushyam Roopam. What does this word Manushyam Roopam indicate? Prabhupada’s whole commentary is focused on this that the Lord’s original form is Manushyam. Manushyam is is it is it is it mean mortal? No it means human.
Human means the Lord originally has a two-handed form a form just like that that is just like in mind or rather you sometimes people say that is our form how why should God have a form like ours. So it’s not that God has a form like ours it is that we have a form like God’s. There are two different conceptions.
There is anthropomorphism and there is theomorphism. Anthropomorphism means morphized form like we have morphology the study of structures, study of shapes in biology, morphology and then there is anthropomorphism means that the idea that we have ascribed God a human form because we are human beings so we have envisioned God in a human form. This is actually it is very self-centred analysis because we are taking ourselves to be the reference point the starting point but the fact is that the scriptures describe that God has a form and God’s original form is reflected in our form.
So man is made in the image of God in the bible says that and Krishna says also in 15.7 as we will see he says that Amsa means sparks so we are all sparks of Krishna. So this form of Krishna is originally the two-handed form and that is not a mortal material form that is a transcendental eternal form and that form is what Arjuna is seeing now. It is very affectionate.
It is very easy. It is much more easier to develop an affectionate relationship with the form of Krishna as a two-handed person than as a Kaalarupa. What do you do as Arjuna when you have to offer away or to speak of say embracing or expressing love or talking even offering obeisances is difficult because Arjuna says where should I offer obeisances you know he says I offer obeisances again and again I offer obeisances ahead and behind and again again I offer obeisances.
So you know even offering obeisances is difficult what to speak of doing other things so therefore what is important here is that this manushyam rupam is the original form and relating with the original form is the original nature of the living entity and when we understand this then we will return to the original nature. If we think of going to some other relationship or going to a relationship with some other form that other manifestation that is the impersonal manifestation then we won’t get back to such a ityaprakrityam ghatak that will lead to kleshodhritarasthesha that will lead to misery and frustration as I discussed in the 12th chapter. So now Krishna will start speaking let us look at it so sudur darsham idam rupam idam rupam this form what is the nature of that form sudur darsham it is extremely difficult to see sudur darsham idam rupam and what kind of drishtvanasi anmama as you are as you have seen me as you are seeing me it’s extremely rare to see devapyasyarupasyam even the gods are they are constantly aspiring to see this form so what happens what is he telling over here that this is very very difficult to see now we see in the 10th canto that before Krishna was to appear at that time when he was in the womb the devatas came and started offering prayers and all the devatas are offering prayers because they are all recognising that Krishna is the eternal transcendent lord they know that Vishnu is the person to whom they pray and now Vishnu said that I will appear and then here accordingly according to that prophecy here the lord has appeared but when Krishna appears even they are surprised that’s how Brahma gets bewildered that’s how Indra gets bewildered how does that happen because even they have not seen this form you know generally the devatas so this is the the below is the lower planetary system in the middle of the above is heavenly and then above that is the shirasagar where there is Vishnu residing and then beyond that is the spiritual world so normally the devatas go to the shirasagar and there they don’t even see Vishnu they pray to Vishnu and then Vishnu responds generally by giving a message in the heart of Brahma so the devatas don’t get to see Vishnu also regularly although Vishnu of course comes sometimes sometimes means whenever the whenever Vishnu is to perform some assist devata so Vishnu may come and attack fight on behalf of devatas but generally Vishnu also is not seen seeing Vishnu is still it is it happens but seeing Krishna is very rare and that’s why I say deva this form devas also they are constantly desiring to see it so now Prabhupada basically explains the purport that it is only by opening of spiritual eyes that we can see the lord it is not by any ordinary means now Krishna will go on by describing this so now 52nd verse he has said that this is very difficult to see when devatas are hankering to see it now the 53rd verse he will describe what all are the ways by which one cannot see him when we say it’s something very difficult to achieve then we will say no okay suppose you want to say that if you want to go to badrinath it is very difficult to go there then we may say oh actually you cannot by plane then you can say you cannot go there by train and you cannot go there by car you cannot go there by boat also and how do you go because you will have to walk all the way to the top oh really that you understand so normally when you want to say something is difficult we will give a can’t go do this you can’t go this way you can’t go this way you can’t go this way you can’t go this way so like that when Krishna says it’s very difficult to know him first and 53rd verse he tells what all are the ways by which we cannot go there now of course some parts of badrinath may be accessible now but there are some parts of guru badrinath very remote and then you just have to walk up there only so the point is this is the example which is meant to illustrate a particular point so now Krishna will describe what are the ways in which one cannot know him so 11.53 naaham vedair na tapasa na dhane na chaij jaya not by study of the vedas not by tapasya not by giving charity na chaij jaya not by worship by none of these can i be known then how can i be known so by not by study of the vedas these four ways you say not by known and what what happens exactly what cannot be done that is not being told over here how we can be normally told in the next verse shakya evam is it possible evam vidho drashtum evam vidho means like now like you are seeing me now drishta vanasi mam yatha as you are seeing me now so now it’s very significant that the impersonalists want to say that actually there is some higher reality beyond krishna and that’s what we have to go to but krishna is very clearly saying mam yatha seeing me is rare the impersonalists say oh actually when you are less intelligent you can think of a form and then when you become more intelligent then you go beyond the form but then krishna is telling actually seeing this form itself is rare it is not that he’s saying that okay this seeing this form is for common people and going beyond the form is rare he doesn’t say that it is it is so rare by that by this normal vedic process of elevation one cannot get to see it so vedic process of elevation generally give punya and take one to swarga but they cannot take one beyond so these are the four things naham vedair vedair means the study of the vedas so the recitation of the vedas the memorisation of the vedas somebody might do a lot of austerities you know by willpower we know the past time of the milk drinking brahmachari in chaitanya charitamruta just taking only milk but what happened was that chaitanya mahaprabhu said you cannot just obtain the supreme lord by austerity you know or just by drinking milk by doing austerity like that you require pure devotion for that so na tapasa we see the example that there are many examples of people who are vedic pandits we have the example of kishore kashmir in chaitanya charitamruta very learned in the vedas but still he did not understand what the ultimate goal of life is so refers to those who give charity now the point giving charity is good but that doesn’t necessarily prove anything that that doesn’t necessarily prove that this this charity necessarily transcendental now charity is in goodness but we cannot know the supreme lord by goodness now harish chandra is a famous king in the vedic culture who is glorified for his truthfulness but that doesn’t make him automatically transcendental or spiritual so people may give a lot of charity but by charity alone one cannot know the lord so then ijjaya means worship so now the word ijjaya can refer to deity worship but now in this context in the vedic context ijjaya refers to fire sacrifices by worship so actually when the sacred fire comes when the brahmins are chanting mantras and they’re offering ahuti then that is ijjaya they’re doing worship of vishnu who is manifesting his mouth through agni so agnideva is manifesting and agnideva is accepting the sacrifices and those sacrifices are going to all the devatas through him so even by that we cannot know and that we see in the past time of the yagic brahmanas their wives they were able to see their wives were able to see what that their wives were able to see that they this is the supreme lord and we should go to him and in fact they did not even think so much that krishna is the lord of our heart let us go to him but when they saw this and their husbands they thought you know we are performing this make sacrifice what are these children doing over here get out of the way they did actually they didn’t even say get out of the way just neglected him completely it is quite impersonal and quite dehumanising to neglect a person like that so so how can you you cannot know me by any of these means so actually when krishna says you can’t see me so seeing is not just literally seeing in the past time of mukunda when chaitanya maha there’s a long past time most of you will probably be knowing it that he was having some association with mayavada and chaitanya mahaprabhu got very angry because of that and chaitanya mahaprabhu said you will not be able to see me for 10 million lifetimes i started done first chaitanya mahaprabhu said take him out of my association never bring him back and then he is they said you’re not going to see me for after 10 for 10 million left and started dancing and just 10 million left and i’ll be able to see him chaitanya mahaprabhu so pleased by his positive attitude by his faithfulness by his humility by his devotion and he called him back and then he offers prayers and then he says my dear lord actually you have allowed me to see you that is a great fortune but then even the demons saw you and seeing you is actually not really seeing you you know because real seeing you happens with devotion demons like shishupal dantavakra kamsa charasandha they all saw you but what did they want to do they saw you are all attractive supreme form which is the shelter of all living beings which even brahma and shiva and lakshmi adore and what did they want to do they wanted to shoot arrows and kill that form so what kind of what is the use of seeing in this way this is my dear lord real seeing of you is seeing with devotion and that seeing with devotion can happen only when there is devotion so please grant me devotion you’re giving me your darshan i’m grateful for that but please grant me your devotion also then i’ll be able to truly see you so here he’s praying that please uh so when he is saying so when one does all those all these activities they’re good and then vedas these are good by their virtuous activities in vedic culture but they alone don’t lead to the vision of the lord so what is required for that vision that will describe they don’t lead to vision means one may even get to see the lord but one will not be able to understand the significance of darshan of the lord and that’s why it is almost as if one has not seen the lord only so to see the lord means to actually see with understanding and how that happens that will be described in the next verse bhaktyātmananya yāsakya ahamevam vidho arjuna yātum drashtum ca tattvena praveṣṭum ca parantapa so bhaktyātmananya yāsakya bhaktyā by devotional service ananya yāsakya ananya means anya is different or other ananya means there is no nobody else it means undistracted it is unmixed by any other thing not mixed by fruitive activity not mixed by speculative knowledge it’s not directed towards anything else or anyone else and it does not contain anything else bhaktyātmananya yāsakya ahamevam vidho arjuna you will know me as i am means right now as you’re knowing me that way i can be known yātum drashtum by yātum means by knowing in this way drashtum seeing me tattvena tattvena mean in truth tattvena and then praveṣṭum ca parantapa praveṣṭum you will enter now where will you enter now sometimes as soon as we hear the word enter i think what is happening enter is this referring to brahmanjyoti that we have to enter into the brahmanjyoti no krishna doesn’t use any impersonal aspect over here impersonal reference over here all that he is saying is you will enter so what will you enter into you will enter into the tattva yātum drashtum ca tattvena praveṣṭum so you will enter into the truth of my understanding prabhupāda writes as he translates it that you will enter into the mysteries of my understanding so krishna is not saying that there is some other truth that is higher than me and i am here and that truth is there and you will go beyond me to that there is no such reference to anything beyond him all that is being said is that by bhakti one will understand you’ll be able to bhaktyātmananyaÅ›akya aham evambidho arjuna as i am now aham evambidho arjuna yātum drashtum one will know and one will be able to see and then will enter in and in this way we’ll be able to move forward so in our spiritual life so what does this mean now god is known by a particular process and we cannot use any other process to know him so actually the important point to recognise here is that the lord is compassionate and he wants to reveal himself at the same time the lord has a relationship of love with all living beings and it is at the basis of that love that the real real reality the spiritual world is sustained and it is the basis of that love that all reciprocations and revelations and relationships happen so krishna wants us to come to that platform of love if you see that you know there is a body we have body we have mind we have intelligence we have ego and we are also the soul so the soul is the seat of emotions the soul is the actually what we use as we use the word heart that is actually referring to the soul so that soul has a natural relationship with krishna so none of the other parts actually activate the soul they activate other parts of the body other parts of our current being for example karma is primarily on the physical level jnana is on the intellectual level uh yoga is on the mental level so here like these are mostly physical activities in a way that i’m speaking with my mouth tapasa i’m doing a studies for the body i’m doing charity i’m using money which is external to me and i’m using some material paraphernalia ghee and grains for worship so where is my heart getting invested over here no it is not but in here krishna says ananya that means nothing else just purely the heart that doesn’t mean that the body and the mind and the intelligence are not used but one is not distracted by them to other things so when purely our heart is offered then then krishna accepts that and then krishna reciprocates and reveals himself so essentially bhaktatva nanya ya shakya by that krishna is telling us the natural reality of how we can relate with him i say if i’m going by a train and the conductor asks please show me your ticket he says do you know that i have got a degree from iit i was a gold medallist okay that’s good show me your ticket right now do you know that i went to america and i got a degree from mit that is good but show me your ticket just told you know that i have a recognised for the i was a teacher and i got the best teachers award that’s good but show me your ticket when we are taking a particular path then a particular qualification is required for that so all the other things they may contribute in some way but there is a particular central central qualification that is required so like that all the other if you have done if you have done ijjaya if you have done vedaya tapasa all those are good but all of them should ultimately contribute to bhakti and by bhakti we will know him and then by that knowledge we will be able to move forward in our spiritual life so prabhupada explains in this purport that that actually this bhakti was given by lord chaitanya mahaprabhu very freely was appreciated by rupa goswami is the most munificent man of charity this is and then prabhupada talks about how one should worship as the deity and then so why is prabhupada talking about he’s talking about is to establish the point that that the other things can be utilised so dana can be utilised in the path of bhakti the dana is given for krishna but it is not just dana it is bhakti that will give us and we queue krishna and then that dana becomes not dana but it becomes bhakti and then prabhupada talks about how now it’s interesting for the beginners of the lord the temple worship is essential and and now for this prabhupada quoted this verse so one who has parabhakti in devta and one who has bhakti in guru then the meaning of this gets illuminated under those grotesque so there is illumination that happens and prabhupada writes the two indicates that other processes will not work and then prabhupada again emphasises toward the power point that the personal form of krishna the two-handed and the four-handed are completely different from the temporary universal form so the universal form is temporary it is not eternal and then prabhupada makes the point that krishna changes from the universal form to the four-handed form of narayan and then to his own natural form of two hands that means that there was krishna originally there was krishna originally from krishna the universal form came from there the four-handed form came and now the two-handed form has come so actually people who mistake bigness to be the sign of true greatness but they they cannot understand how krishna’s two-handed form is the greatest somebody’s got a hundred channel tv so now give me a two channel tv now somebody’s in a sahasra rupa sahasra bahu bha vishwa murte sahasra bahu has got hundreds and thousands of arms if somebody thinks that the standard the greater the number of arms the greater is the form of god you think two arms there’s nothing great about it but no the greatness of the form of god is not manifested necessarily by the number of arms that that form has got it is manifested by the intimacy of love that form reciprocates and then all those forms are coming from krishna so prabhupada quote from the prabhupada quote several verses here let’s look at some of those verses and see the context and she’s saying this now prabhupada’s point here is that all forms come from the form of krishna maadi purusham tamaham bhajaame so in his one breathing in the duration of one breath period taking shelter of that much time depending on that loma is hair so loma vilaja is the pores on the body so we have hair on the body and then there through which the sweat comes out so loma vilaja that vision and that is all this happens from the form of vishnu vishnur maha this is maha vishnu but that maha vishnu what is the one in sahi is a kala vishesho he’s just one part of this one expansion of the supreme lord and govinda maadi purusham tamaham bhajaame he i offer my obeisances to that lord so he quotes very clear and then you have form and it is so namo vedanta vidyaya understanding him means understanding the vedas so guru you are the supreme lord buddhi sakshine actually the important point in this verse is all the sanskrit is straightforward straightforward over here prabhupada’s emphasis is that you have a transcendental form you you have an eternal form krishno vayi paramam daivatam prabhupada is quoting several verses so all those all these verses prabhupada is quoting to point out that krishna’s form is transcendental it’s not that some there is some tattva beyond krishna that we have to go to no is the highest tattva and prabhupada also quotes here elsewhere there are some there are some places where prabhupada does not give any references because when he quotes from the previous acharyas they have also not given references so so means avatar here this is descended and what is the name of this form descent is krishnakhyam is krishna param brahma narakrithi that is come as param brahma who has come as narakrithi as a in a narakrithi in the form of a human being and then of course prabhupada quotes several verses from the bhagavad-gita which we already discussed and then he concludes that the devotee is not attracted by the universal form the devotee is attracted by the two-handed form of krishna so in this way here krishna has concluded that actually the two-handed form is the highest and that can be known only by bhakti so prabhupada emphasises that there is no reality higher than the two-handed form so this is referring to entering into the mystery of understanding now after this krishna will summarise this chapter in one sense and prabhupada says that this verse is the sum and substance of the gita so do my work may understand that i am the supreme make me the supreme goal of light become my devotee give a bad association do not be envious of sarvabhuteshu of all living beings do not be envious yaha samameti pandava one who does this such a person will come to me so now again and again and again we see the significance over here if somebody is considering that okay there’s some tattva beyond krishna that we have to attain then immediately the next verse krishna is saying mameti you will come to me now so in this verse we will see how many times is the word mam coming at least four times so three times and then it is not that that all these three is referring to some sadhana and sadhya is something different no it’s referring sadhana as well as sadhya so all this is referring to krishna only ultimately but after that after it refers to krishna then uh then after that you’ll come to me work for me engage in my work so now this is we’ll see different levels of this working for krishna you know earlier krishna has said in 9.27 means whatever work you are doing you offer the fruits of that work to me that is one level of working and that is good that is desire that is also krishna says that by this krishna says by this also he’ll come back to me but that is not the primary uh that is not the highest level we discussed that how chakravarti paduki’s analysis of various levels and he considers and that that is not a very elevated platform of practising devotional service but here he’s not saying that whatever work you are doing you offer it to me he’s saying do my work means we do service for krishna so for example we help we do deity worship we help in book distribution we help in the missionary activities of krishna consciousness and we in this way do krishna’s work what is means that we makes me the supreme goal of life you know it’s important all of us when we live in the material world we may have some intermediate goods which are also important when parikshit maharaj was ruling the world at that time ruling the world is not easy and he you know he has to make plans he has to make policies he has to fight conflicts he has to deal with politics all these things do occur when a person is in administrative position and it’s demanding and he was doing it all and then he also had to take up the responsibility he wanted to be the king he has to take up the responsibility and he was taking up the responsibility in all these ways he was he was doing the work but then when the conflict okay now i’m going to die in seven days and immediately he left he left and what did he do he left and he turned towards the so uh turned towards exclusive focus on supreme lord by renouncing the world and hearing bhagavatam for seven days so by this what is he demonstrating essentially what he demonstrates is that we may have trans temporary goals transitional goals and those goals may also be contributing to our devotional life so for a kshatriya king maintaining the kingdom is a responsibility which is ordained through god and it is his duty to the people and more importantly the duty to god in varanasi everybody has to their duty their proper do their duty properly so but still we may set up some temporary goals in our spiritual life but then krishna should be our eternal goal and whether krishna is really our eternal goal that will be tested when our temporary goal and the eternal goal conflict with each other that means normally we want our temporary goals to contribute to eternal goals yes i want to become a good speaker so that i can share krishna consciousness others i want to become a good mother so that i can help my children to grow in krishna consciousness you know i want to become a competent businessman so that i can have enough resources by which i can serve krishna so whatever it is we can set up transition uh intermediate goals for ourselves and we will naturally if we set up intermediate goals we’ll strive to achieve those goals but then those intermediate goals should contribute to the ultimate goal and sometimes the intermediate may conflict with the ultimate and at that time we have to make a wise decision a courageous decision that we’ll be ready to sacrifice the intermediate for the ultimate sacrifice the intermediate doesn’t necessarily mean that all of us will have to renounce like parikshit mahadev had to renounce but we may have to relegate something to the background and bring something to the foreground and that’s how we’ll be able to move forward so in this way we make krishna the ultimate goal of our life prabhupada explains in math karmakaran his purport is very graphic and specific he talks about a builder can build a temple for krishna person can grow flowers for krishna person can clean the temple of krishna in this way many activities we can do in krishna service but the goal is math paramo ultimately our goal is krishna math karmakaran math paramo madh bhakta sangha varjitaha the central part is madh bhakta become my devotee become my devotee and by that sangha varjitaha stay away from bad association now we may say bad association as devotees what does it mean now prabhupada translate this over here in interesting way sangha can mean association it can association of what sangha so sangha can mean association sangha can also mean contamination internal level now ultimately what happens is our external sangha creates internal sangha the word sangha a sangho him purushaha so word sangha can mean attachment the word sangha can mean association also we see this that when we contemplate in the sense objects we develop attachment to them and from attachment desire passion lust develop now actually this sangha it can refer to internal attachment or it can refer to outer association also because the two are connected if i’m going to associate if i’ll associate with drunkards all that will happen is that i’ll become a drunkard by that over a period of time so that’s external external sangha leads to internal sangha external association leads to internal attachment and the internal contaminations like the external contaminating association the internal contaminations are of two types there is fruity activities and there’s impersonal speculative tendency and both distract us away from krishna so become my devotee give up the tendencies to do things other than devotional service and then it’s interesting arjuna has just now been told this is a dramatic contrast which will jolt our conceptions just now arjuna has been shown the virat rupa and the virat rupa very graphically that virat rupa is devouring and not only is devouring all of them but even the blood is coming out and the virat rupa is licking it licking it and then it’s shown and krishna has also told arjuna all your enemies are killed they’ve all been killed so krishna has been told they have been killed krishna has been shown how they are dying and krishna sorry arjuna has been told that they will be killed arjuna has been shown how they are going to die and arjuna has been told now you kill him so conquer your enemies but now in the same chapter the gita is telling here don’t be envious towards not just towards people in general all living beings now all living beings will include the kauravas also now the kauravas are being killed that’s what the kaal rupa has shown and arjuna has been also exhorted fight and kill then how can he be nirvairaha that is the mystery of the bhagavad-gita it’s a mystery of purified consciousness so arjuna has now got nothing personal against the kauravas his point is that actually they are against dharma and he is a servant of the lord so does he have anything personal and we have to understand what do you mean by personal it’s not a devotee has any self-serving agenda a devotee has a devotee is a person and a devotee has personal emotions but the devotee does not have any self-serving agenda and because of that when the devotee serves the devotee serves faithfully and it has no animosity towards anyone we see that we discussed this in the ramayana also that after lord ram kills ravana at that time um ravana tells practically ravana is the last among the rakshasa generals to die all the other generals are killed before him so the whole rakshasa army is reduced to corpses remaining rakshasa just flee away in fear without looking to come back and there’s no one left to do no one from his family at least left to do his antya samskara his last rites and then lord ram tells vibhishan to do it and vibhishan says no he’s such a wretched person he did so many sinful activities i cannot do his last rites so at that time the lord tells him no don’t think like this actually the soul is always pure when soul comes in contact with the body like acts in wrong ways because of the conditionings that are associated with the body but now that the person has been killed we should know that does not deserve our hatred or our anger that soul is pure is part of god and you should offer your respects uh for that departed soul by doing the last rites and send the soul on auspicious destination so sometimes the lord will be fighting also the lord as the lord example has already he fought and even killed ravana but he had no animosity towards ravana similarly a devotee may have to fight at certain occasions for the sake of the lord uh that means we may have certain people who we have to cross for the prabhupada would say uh prabhupada uses the word rascals and sometimes devotees uh don’t understand what is the mood in which the rascals is used hmm prabhupada is not using the word rascal in a in a angry or uh or a hateful way he doesn’t hate anyone how does prabhupada use it you know there’s a lecture of prabhupada where he says you know krishna all these rascals are suffering and forgetfulness of you so please give me the intelligence by which i can make these rascals understand and help them to come back to you and be happy so you know if easily i would use the word rascals do we really think of the well-being good wishes of the rascals sometimes we may hear the word rascals used by some people who are loafers on the streets and they don’t care for anyone except themselves that’s their number one care but prabhupada is saying using the word rascals but he’s saying oh krishna help me to get them back to you so it’s it’s using a sense of compassion and like a parent or a grandparent telling a child don’t be mischievous so prabhupada would often say that i can use this word but if you use it people will not understand it people not take it properly that prabhupada the advantage of age prabhupada the advantage of compassion genuine compassion we actually should be the well-wishers of all living beings and when we are like that then we will be able to return back so this verse is like a practical application and the practical application which centres on actual practising of bhakti only so the 53rd verse said that other parts one cannot come to know the fourth was said that by bhakti one can know and 55th verses that how can one come to that level of bhakti 53rd says that by ananya bhakti we can know him but how do we come to the level of ananya bhakti one level below that by that by the by doing all these activities gradually we’ll come to the level of any bhakti and we’ll know about krishna and we’ll return back to krishna so in this way krishna conclude this chapter with the