Gita 03.31 – Krishna’s words are eternal and faith-worthy

Keme matamidam nityam anutishthanti manava shraddhavanto anasuyanto ucchante tepi karmabhi bhagavad gita 3.31 Krishna is speaking how one can by faithfully following his instructions attain liberation these are like the concluding words after he has described he told Arjuna practice karma yoga that was the consistent message from analyzed from different perspectives till 24th verse and then 25th to 30th, 25th to 29th he describes how the consciousness of a karma yogi is different from that of a karma kandi and then 30th verse Krishna says how karma yoga when it is the work is done for Krishna then that is the best so how karma yoga points towards progresses towards bhakti yoga is described in 3.30 now Krishna says that this is the instruction he has given yudhyasva vigata jvaraha it was a statement in imperative do it like this now after giving this the question comes in Arjuna's mind that you have given such clear instruction why don't people follow it and what happens to those who follow what happens to those who don't follow so Krishna will answer in this verse now ye me matamidam these are my words now Krishna doesn't although he is god he doesn't go about imposing his words based on his position as god he talks about it as his opinion but because he is himself the omniscient absolute truth so his is the absolute truth Krishna has not revealed himself as god and in general Krishna doesn't impose his words based on the authority of his divinity but rather he explains his words based on the coherence the logic and the quotation of and the quotation of scripture what he also will see in 13th chapter he himself says that what the sages have said I am repeating ye me matamidam nityam these are eternal words it is not that Krishna has just circumstantially put together improvised some doctrine to make Arjuna fight the war no these are eternal words so the instruction that Krishna has given is eternal and eternally relevant because it talks it refers to time independent principles the soul being in material bondage and finding happiness only through liberation to the spiritual level these are eternal principles these are eternal truths whether we are in ancient, modern, pre-modern, post-modern whatever times we may be in it doesn't matter these are eternal truths and anutishthanti maanavah maanavah those human beings who are anutishthanti who live according to these words so what happens to them shraddhavanto anasuyanto shraddhavanto they live with faith shraddhavanto and then anasuyanto without any envy so those who live like this mucchante tepi karmabhi mucchante they are freed from even when they are karmabhi when they act in karma when they do actions still they will become liberated so Krishna says that these are not just to be heard but anutishthanti means one should situate oneself according to these words that means one should live according to these words and if one does so then how does one do this shraddhavanto anasuyanto so with faith without envy with faith means that these are words which are potent, these will work for me and I will give them a sincere try, honest try wholehearted try anasuyanto, now why is Krishna considering himself to be the object of karma yoga, who does he think he is he is just another person, no he is not just another person, he is a supreme person so when there is no envy for Krishna then surrender to him becomes easier, so that's what is being talked about here and that is what is Krishna's instruction to Arjuna that shraddhavanto anasuyanto now the concept of shraddha is very important in not just the spiritual life but actually in all walks of life and Krishna will talk about shraddha in the next chapter also in two verses 4.39.14 it says here he will talk about shraddha in two verses 3.31 and 32 so 31 talks about how what happens to those who put faith in him and 32 talks about those who don't put faith in him, faith is actually something which is essential in all walks of life when we pop a pill into our mouth on the prescription of our physician we are putting faith in that physician faith essentially the way it is used in normal parlance how can you put faith in that, it means we are doing some activity and we are hoping for a result but we are not sure whether we will get the result or not so that way when we act then we are putting faith in ourselves so we put faith in a doctor when we take medicine when a man and a woman get married they put faith in each other that this particular person will be faithful to me, faithful to me generally means that no one will not have relationships outside marriage and if somebody has that relationship then the opposite of being faithful is being unfaithful cheating so infidelity in marriage can be a ground for divorce so faith and the word also that is used marital infidelity that means unfaithfulness so faith is not something which is reserved to the religious or spiritual domain, it is required in all walks of life, breach of faith or breach of trust that is a culpable crime in many governmental interactions or even business interactions again the principle is faith, trust so now we actually accept the principle of faith in so many of the other activities that we do but when we come to faith in God faith in a process to attain God we both say how can I have faith, why should I have faith but it is simply an extension to the spiritual realm of what we are already doing in the material realm now things may seem a little more challenging for our faith in the spiritual realm because we can't see but then because we can't see that is all the more reason for faith for putting faith because without faith we would not be able to progress because what can we see then, if as it is we are not able to see then if we are to progress in that direction faith is all the more essential so Krishna when he asks for faith it is reasonable faith because he his faith is sensible and it is verifiable, sensible means that is when a doctor says you got rashes on your face because there is some blood contamination and this medicine will cure the blood contamination whatever is told over there the diagnosis makes sense and then some prescriptions are given we see that prescription contains the appropriate chemicals its appropriate chemical composition for countering the disease so they say yes we put faith in the medicine also so like that when the diagnosis makes sense that is sensible faith when we take the medicine and verifiable means we accept, we find that oh it cures me therefore it is verifiable so Krishna will later say in 9.22 to protect the truths of scripture can be verified by experience from within so Krishna is telling here that have faith that I am not giving instructions to you to mislead you it is actually to lead you to liberation and when we put faith in Krishna then we move forward in our spiritual life in our onward journey towards him by our steady progress because one step at a time one step at a time we take based on our faith and as we keep taking steps forward we keep getting higher taste we keep gaining deeper realization so faith Krishna is asking us we can choose whether to put faith or not rather than thinking that faith is some gift which I will get in the future no faith is just as we take the medicine and we find ourselves getting cured then our faith grows in the medicine but then so faith is a gift which comes from Krishna but faith is also a choice we decide that should I do this or should I not do this we can do activities which enhance faith and our faith will grow if we do activities which damage faith the faith will go down so by choosing to do activities which enhance faith we can move onward in our spiritual life.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
keme matamidam nityam anutishthanti manava shraddhavanto anasuyanto ucchante tepi karmabhi bhagavad gita 3.31 Krishna is speaking how one can by faithfully following his instructions attain liberation these are like the concluding words after he has described he told Arjuna practice karma yoga that was the consistent message from analyzed from different perspectives till 24th verse and then 25th to 30th, 25th to 29th he describes how the consciousness of a karma yogi is different from that of a karma kandi and then 30th verse Krishna says how karma yoga when it is the work is done for Krishna then that is the best so how karma yoga points towards progresses towards bhakti yoga is described in 3.30 now Krishna says that this is the instruction he has given yudhyasva vigata jvaraha it was a statement in imperative do it like this now after giving this the question comes in Arjuna’s mind that you have given such clear instruction why don’t people follow it and what happens to those who follow what happens to those who don’t follow so Krishna will answer in this verse now ye me matamidam these are my words now Krishna doesn’t although he is god he doesn’t go about imposing his words based on his position as god he talks about it as his opinion but because he is himself the omniscient absolute truth so his is the absolute truth Krishna has not revealed himself as god and in general Krishna doesn’t impose his words based on the authority of his divinity but rather he explains his words based on the coherence the logic and the quotation of and the quotation of scripture what he also will see in 13th chapter he himself says that what the sages have said I am repeating ye me matamidam nityam these are eternal words it is not that Krishna has just circumstantially put together improvised some doctrine to make Arjuna fight the war no these are eternal words so the instruction that Krishna has given is eternal and eternally relevant because it talks it refers to time independent principles the soul being in material bondage and finding happiness only through liberation to the spiritual level these are eternal principles these are eternal truths whether we are in ancient, modern, pre-modern, post-modern whatever times we may be in it doesn’t matter these are eternal truths and anutishthanti maanavah maanavah those human beings who are anutishthanti who live according to these words so what happens to them shraddhavanto anasuyanto shraddhavanto they live with faith shraddhavanto and then anasuyanto without any envy so those who live like this mucchante tepi karmabhi mucchante they are freed from even when they are karmabhi when they act in karma when they do actions still they will become liberated so Krishna says that these are not just to be heard but anutishthanti means one should situate oneself according to these words that means one should live according to these words and if one does so then how does one do this shraddhavanto anasuyanto so with faith without envy with faith means that these are words which are potent, these will work for me and I will give them a sincere try, honest try wholehearted try anasuyanto, now why is Krishna considering himself to be the object of karma yoga, who does he think he is he is just another person, no he is not just another person, he is a supreme person so when there is no envy for Krishna then surrender to him becomes easier, so that’s what is being talked about here and that is what is Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna that shraddhavanto anasuyanto now the concept of shraddha is very important in not just the spiritual life but actually in all walks of life and Krishna will talk about shraddha in the next chapter also in two verses 4.39.14 it says here he will talk about shraddha in two verses 3.31 and 32 so 31 talks about how what happens to those who put faith in him and 32 talks about those who don’t put faith in him, faith is actually something which is essential in all walks of life when we pop a pill into our mouth on the prescription of our physician we are putting faith in that physician faith essentially the way it is used in normal parlance how can you put faith in that, it means we are doing some activity and we are hoping for a result but we are not sure whether we will get the result or not so that way when we act then we are putting faith in ourselves so we put faith in a doctor when we take medicine when a man and a woman get married they put faith in each other that this particular person will be faithful to me, faithful to me generally means that no one will not have relationships outside marriage and if somebody has that relationship then the opposite of being faithful is being unfaithful cheating so infidelity in marriage can be a ground for divorce so faith and the word also that is used marital infidelity that means unfaithfulness so faith is not something which is reserved to the religious or spiritual domain, it is required in all walks of life, breach of faith or breach of trust that is a culpable crime in many governmental interactions or even business interactions again the principle is faith, trust so now we actually accept the principle of faith in so many of the other activities that we do but when we come to faith in God faith in a process to attain God we both say how can I have faith, why should I have faith but it is simply an extension to the spiritual realm of what we are already doing in the material realm now things may seem a little more challenging for our faith in the spiritual realm because we can’t see but then because we can’t see that is all the more reason for faith for putting faith because without faith we would not be able to progress because what can we see then, if as it is we are not able to see then if we are to progress in that direction faith is all the more essential so Krishna when he asks for faith it is reasonable faith because he his faith is sensible and it is verifiable, sensible means that is when a doctor says you got rashes on your face because there is some blood contamination and this medicine will cure the blood contamination whatever is told over there the diagnosis makes sense and then some prescriptions are given we see that prescription contains the appropriate chemicals its appropriate chemical composition for countering the disease so they say yes we put faith in the medicine also so like that when the diagnosis makes sense that is sensible faith when we take the medicine and verifiable means we accept, we find that oh it cures me therefore it is verifiable so Krishna will later say in 9.22 to protect the truths of scripture can be verified by experience from within so Krishna is telling here that have faith that I am not giving instructions to you to mislead you it is actually to lead you to liberation and when we put faith in Krishna then we move forward in our spiritual life in our onward journey towards him by our steady progress because one step at a time one step at a time we take based on our faith and as we keep taking steps forward we keep getting higher taste we keep gaining deeper realization so faith Krishna is asking us we can choose whether to put faith or not rather than thinking that faith is some gift which I will get in the future no faith is just as we take the medicine and we find ourselves getting cured then our faith grows in the medicine but then so faith is a gift which comes from Krishna but faith is also a choice we decide that should I do this or should I not do this we can do activities which enhance faith and our faith will grow if we do activities which damage faith the faith will go down so by choosing to do activities which enhance faith we can move onward in our spiritual life