Essence of Gita 4 – God helps those who let him help them

Hare Krishna welcome back to our discussion on the essence of the Gita we are discussing the four nakshaya verses of the Gita 10.8 to 11 we discussed how in 10.8 Krishna talks about knowledge about him is transformational and it brings about the harmonization of the head and the heart in the cause of devotion then in 10.9 we discussed how devotion is not just a connection with God but it's also a spiritual connection with others in connection with God and now in 10.8 and 10.11 we discuss how God guides and helps those who devote themselves to him the 10.10 describes 10.10 bhajitaam preethi purvakam incomparable incomparable 10.10 those who engage bhajitaam preethi purvakam lost are devoted with great love incomparable with great love those who devote themselves, for them I give the intelligence by which they can come to me. So here Krishna states that they can come to me. So we all long for love and life eternal.

All the movies, all the novels, especially those which are centered on romance, probably among the most popular and widely read genre of movies and novels. So they usually talk about achieving happiness ever after. And the heart's longing for love is reflected in such an aesthetic expression.

We want love and we want that love to go on forever. And the Bhagavad Gita helps us understand how that love can go on forever. It is not by transporting ourselves to an imaginary world in a novel or in a movie where we identify ourselves with a hero or a heroine and we think that now I'm going to have my happy ever after.

When people watch movies and people watch television and they're basically watching movies where the hero and the heroine hug each other, people often whistle and cheer. Why? What are they doing? Basically they are enjoying second-hand pleasure. They're imagining if I would be there and if I would be doing that, it would be so enjoyable.

And if someone else is doing it, we are imagining that it's second-hand pleasure. And not only second-hand, quite often when people are watching movies, they also want something to eat, something to munch on, something to chew. Why? Because everything else in the imaginary, something should be real.

Something should be real. And that's why they want to munch on something, eat something. So the point is that we try to fulfill our longing for love and joy by entering into an imaginary world created in novels and movies.

But the Bhagavad Gita explains that we don't have to retreat into imagination to try to fulfill our longing for love. We can rise to illumination. Don't retreat to imagination means we go down.

This is the level of life. We go down in the sense that we are entering the imaginary world. But we can rise up, rise to illumination.

What does it mean? When we understand our identity as souls, when we understand that we are spiritual, that we are related with God, that we have an eternal relationship with God who is the eternal object of our love, then that relationship becomes the center of our life. And the more we make God the object of our love, the more we experience lasting fulfillment. And beyond this world, the Bhagavad Gita says it's an eternal world.

परस्तस्मात्तु भावो अन्यो यक्तो व्यक्तात् सनातनः So परस्तस्मात्तु, beyond this world, भावो अन्यो, there's another nature. And that nature is eternal. That is the kingdom of God.

And that is what our heart longs for. That is where we belong. And that is what we can attain if we learn to love God.

Krishna says over here, किन्नमामुपयांतिते देनु कम्पुन्ये So the happily ever after that our heart longs for will be fulfilled if we learn to love God and to attain His eternal abode by centering our life on Him. So when we try to serve Him, Krishna says that, तेशाम् सत्वनुक्तानाम् Those who constantly try to serve Me, तदामि बुद्धियो गंतं I give them intelligence. So here, the principle of God's reciprocity is talked about.

Sometimes people think, Is God partial? He blesses some people, He doesn't bless some people. No, God is not partial. He is reciprocal.

As we approach Him, so He rewards us. ये थामां प्रपद्धियो देनु ते ताम से खलीबा बजाओं याओं In 4.11, Krishna says that, As all people approach Me, I reciprocate accordingly. So this is the dynamism of divine love.

Where we approach God with what affection we have and God rewards us with illumination. Illumination so that whatever obstacles may come in our life, by the power of love, we can go beyond those obstacles and we can move towards the supreme satisfaction that comes by love. Today's thing is further elaborated in the next verse.

तेशां एवानु कमपार्थ आहम ज्यान जंतमः नाक्षयाम् यात्व भावस्त्व ज्यान दीते न भासतः तेशां एवानु कमपार्थ Now says, I do Anukampa, I give mercy to those who are devoted to Me. आहम ज्यान जंतमः The darkness which has come from ज्यान नाक्षयाम् यात्व भावस्त्व नाक्षयाम् नाक्षयाम् means they, it's destroyed, आत्मः भावस्त्व I am situated in the heart, Krishna says. I have been situated in the heart.

ज्यान दीते न भासतः ज्यान दीते With the torchlight of knowledge, भासतः भासतः means, I am an autistic person, it's illuminating me. ज्यान दीते न भासतः So here, what we are looking for, what Krishna is telling us is that even if someone isn't, someone is deficient in some capacities you know, like He, Krishna still loves us. Krishna's love for us doesn't depend on who we are.

Krishna's love for us depends on who He is. In this world, we always have some insecurity. We fear that people will not love us for who we are.

And that's why we try to put on airs. People try to dye their hair, people try to use facelifts, and people try to put on so many artificial things by which they think that they will become more attractive, they will be more loved, they will be more attracted, others will become more attracted to them. So people try to pull in their bellies, people try to put in artificial dentures, people try to act and speak in more polished ways, people try to appear more learned by using big, big words.

So in this way, we all try to seek love through externals. There's an ad of a popular Bollywood hero who is seen by a young man. This Bollywood hero is being mobbed by girls who are hugging him, squealing and kissing, and they don't even neglect this other boy.

And then this Bollywood star comes and tells this boy, you know what's my secret? It is fair and handsome, so a shampoo. And then this boy also supposedly puts that shampoo and then he comes and all the girls, many of the girls come running to him and they hug him and kiss him. Now such an ad is actually an insult to human dignity.

It's an insult to both male intelligence and female intelligence. You know, to portray that a woman will fall for a man just because he has put some shampoo on his hair, now that is an insult to female intelligence. And to believe that men will believe such fairy tales, that is an insult to male intelligence.

But unfortunately, such ads do become popular. Why? Because they tap into our inner insecurity. They make us feel that, we all feel that we won't be loved for who we are.

And that's why we want to put on some airs, so that then we'll be loved. But God loves us for who we are. And Krishna says that even if there is some darkness, there is some ignorance in our heart, if we just redirect our love towards Him, then what will happen? Krishna says, That ignorance, that darkness which is there, because of ignorance, I will destroy that.

So Krishna says that, He will uplift us, He will elevate us, He will liberate us, we just need to turn to Him. We just need to turn to Him. So God's supreme power is there by our side.

If we just decide to go on God's side. Now God respects our free will. And although He wants to help us, He will not interfere with our free will.

He will not impose Himself on us. But if we seek His help, He is there to help us. Like they say that God helps those who help themselves.

This is true. But sometimes this saying is misinterpreted, or misapplied to mean that, if you help yourself, then you don't have to pray to God, you don't have to turn to God. God will automatically come to help you.

That is a wrong understanding. We all need God's help. So God helps those who help themselves, by turning to God for help, by opening themselves to God's help.

Just like, a doctor helps the patient if the patient helps oneself. But what does the patient help oneself mean? That doesn't mean that the patient takes medicines according to one's own plan. What it means is, that the patient takes medicines according to the doctor's prescription, and cooperates with the doctor.

So to the extent the patient does that, to that extent the doctor will be able to help the patient. And similarly, to the extent we turn to God, and we harmonize our life with Him, to that extent God's supreme power will illumine us, will remove our obstacles from within and without, and help us move towards progress and success. So this is the message of love, of the Bhagavad Gita.

That God loves us, and He is ready to elevate and liberate us, if we just connect ourselves with Him. We will discuss, in the last part of this series, how this message of love is demonstrated, further in the setting of the Gita. Thank you.

Hare Krishna.