Can you explain some section of scripture that we can’t easily understand?
Okay is there an example of how you cannot understand something well then i'll have to explain why you can't understand it also isn't it okay i've done a whole bhakti shastri course in the bhagavad-gita so there are 108 classes on all the 700 verses they're on youtube also so there's one verse 12.12 which you know most devotees just they hear my class one devotee told me he has heard that class 25 times till now just couldn't understand it so now it's not in my class that is difficult it is just that that verse itself is very difficult so what is happening from 12.8 to 12.11 krishna is talking about different levels at which one can practice bhakti he says first you just fix your mind on me absorb me otherwise practice sadhana bhakti if not you work for me you can't work for me just work for some good cause and then after that this is like a hierarchy going down down down and then suddenly krishna seems to invert the hierarchy in 12.12 he says that shreyo hi gyanam abhyasa then there's gyan yoga then there's dhan yoga So, Krishna is saying that Shreyohi Jnanam Abhyasa, Abhyasa what it means, we have to find out. Krishna is saying better than Abhyasa is Jnana, better than Jnana is Dhyana, Jnana Dhyanam Nishishyate.
But above Dhyana is Karmaphala Tyaga, so, Karmaphala Tyaga is Karmayoga, so, why is Krishna putting Karmayoga above Jnana and Dhyana? So, and why is he putting, Krishna has used the word Abhyasa before in 12.9 to refer to Sadhana Bhakti. He says that, Asachittam Samadhatam Nishipnosi Maistram Abhyasa Yogendhatam Aam Ichcha Aaptam Nithichaya. By Abhyasa you can attain Maya Bhakti.
So, Krishna is putting, so, earlier he has put Abhyasa at the second level. Below pure devotion one rank is Abhyasa, Sadhana Bhakti. But now he is putting Abhyasa practically at the bottom of the ladder only.
Below working for him, below working for some good cause, he is putting Abhyasa at the bottom of the ladder. So, what is going on? And why is he putting Karmayoga, Karmaphala Tyaga above, at the top of the ladder? So, there is a book published by Madhya Sampradaya, Bhagavad Gita. I read like big, almost like a 500, we have Bhagavatam volumes, Bhagavad Gita, big 500.
And then I looked at Bhagavad Gita chapter 1. So, it is one chapter with commentaries by around 15-16 Acharyas. And like that they have 18 volumes of Bhagavad Gita only. So, there are so many commentaries.
So, now Vishwacharya Krildakar gives a particular commentary to this verse. Baldevidya Vishen gives another commentary to this verse. So, Ramacharya gives another commentary to this verse.
And all of them are explaining this verse in different ways. The conclusion they are explaining, what Krishna says is right. What does this hierarchy mean? So, this is actually a very complex verse.
So, Shreyohi Dhyanam Abhyasa. Dhyana Dhyanam Vishishti. Dhyana Karmaphala Tyagam.
Tyaga Shantiranandam. So, here one explanation of this verse is that actually this is not referring to Karma Yoga, Gyan Yoga at all. What it is saying is that Shreyohi Dhyanam Abhyasa.
That just mechanically doing Abhyasa, mechanically practicing Bhakti. Just chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, uttering it. Better than that is to acquire knowledge about the Absolute.
To know about Krishna. Just knowing about Krishna is not enough. Dhyana.
Meditating on Krishna is even better. And then he says, then Dajar explains that Dhyana Karmaphala Tyagam is not a comparative. It is productive.
That means Dhyana Karmaphala Tyagam. It is not that Dhyana is better than Karmaphala Tyagam. Rather Dhyana will lead to Karmaphala Tyagam.
So, here the comparison ends over here. That means mechanically fixing the mind on Krishna. Knowledgeably fixing the mind on Krishna.
Becoming absorbed in Krishna. There are three levels. And then when the mind is absorbed in Krishna through meditation, then what will happen? Automatically detachment from the fruits of work will come.
And when this detachment comes, then there will be peace. So, here what the Acharyas have done is, the first two levels are comparative. But the last two are not comparative.
They are deductive, they are productive. This leads to this. This reduces from this to this.
This is one expression. Like that, there are different expressions given of these words. So, basically, if we go into the technicalities, there are a lot.
Now this you may say, I also understood this. But I had to explain why. See what happens is, it's only when we have gone through the phase of non-understanding, that understanding seems special.
So, if say, now before I got this understanding, I had read the Bhagavad Gita a dozen times. Before I read the Acharyas' commentary. And each time I would read this, what is going on in this verse? Just read it again and again and again.
Just don't understand it. And then when I read Baladevi Avishnu's commentary, when I read Vishakhapatra's commentary, then I read my Prabhupada's commentary. Prabhupada was saying the same thing.
But it's just not making sense at that time. So, like that, when you go deep into Shastra, you will see that there are many subtleties. And then the Acharyas' words, they do mean those subtleties.