Gita 04.02 – The Gita lives through those who live the Gita

Bhagavad Gita 4.2 evam parampara praptam imam rajirishayo viduhu sakalene hamata yogonashita parantapa evam thus parampara praptam in parampara praptam obtained imam rajirishayo viduhu imam this knowledge Krishna this is the word imam earlier also in 4.1 at the start imam vivasvate yoga so this so this knowledge was received in parampara by whom rajirishayo viduhu rajirishi the saintly kings Prabhupada translates as the saintly kings if we look at the order of the words in that it is raja rishi if we see the first word is raja second is rishi so it would be precise translation would be royal sages saintly kings more precise Sanskrit translation would be would be rishi raj but either way saintly king or royal sages the point is that they have this combination of spiritual and political power outer and inner power the raja who has outer power and rishi who is the inner seer and inner seeing is the signal of inner power so these people who received the spiritual knowledge they were extraordinary souls and they became further extraordinary because of receiving and applying and living this knowledge they were raj rishis so the inner seer prevents the outer ruler from becoming a dictator the outer ruler whenever a person has power it is very easy to misuse the power the misuse is to be prevented then either there has to be someone else higher than oneself who controls oneself or there has to be the higher vision within oneself which which doesn't get seduced by the temptations that power brings so it is said power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely so that temptation can be resisted by when one is an inner seer when one is a rishi so the inner seer prevents the outer ruler from perverting into a dictator the raj rishi so sakaleneha mahata by the kaleneha by the power of time mahata great power of time yogo nashtah parantapam yogo the knowledge of yoga nashtah destroyed parantapa conqueror of the enemy so krishna is telling over here that when he started the succession succession from vivasvan to vivasvatmanu to shivaku and onwards in parampara the knowledge was received this is the recommendation of indirect recommendation implicit recommendation rather of how knowledge should be received in parampara why in parampara? because this knowledge is not just a matter of intellection of intellectual analysis to try to gain some understanding the knowledge is for personal application and realization and that's why when the knowledge is realized then it can be exemplified and then when that knowledge is passed on to the successor what is passed on is not just some fragments of this or that is not just some intellectual information it is a transformational way of living so the parampara is not a chain of xerox machines where everybody repeats the same words exactly the parampara is a living of hearts where the spiritual master the spiritual teacher internalizes and demonstrates the principles of selfless love and of selfless devotion to the absolute truth and the disciple will eventually become the spiritual mentor the disciple becomes inspired by that example and also becomes and gives so the disciple's heart gets attracted to the spiritual master and thereby the knowledge is passed on and the knowledge is received in the sense that the disciple also molds one's life according to the principles that the spiritual master is living according to and that way the disciple gets linked in the heart with the spiritual master and this linkage is not necessarily in terms of the disciple speaking exactly the same words with the same language with the same intonation same pronunciation same vocabulary no not at all it's not verbatim repetition it's not like a xerox machine that just takes whatever is there in the original paper and makes a xerox copy the parampara which is a link of spiritual seers it is not a chain of xerox machines it is a link of hearts that means the disciple becomes inspired by the way the spiritual master is living and then the disciple inspires the disciple also internalizes those principles and starts living according to those principles and that way the knowledge lives on through the living examples of those who are living according to it so the Gita lives through those who live the Gita so Gita is a living book it is not just a dead insentient pattern of text on some paper it is in the early text format also but it is also a knowledge to be lived and it is a lived knowledge by those who live according to it and when we receive this knowledge from them then we see it we realize it to be not just some theoretical knowledge but a transformational knowledge meant to be lived and realized so evam parampara this way the knowledge is received in parampara and when sakalenehamata yogonashtah parantapa by the power of time that knowledge is lost what does it mean it means that yogonashtaha that spiritual knowledge is destroyed now Krishna has earlier only said just now before that he has said that oh yaya this is imperishable so if it is imperishable then how can it be destroyed so nakshataha refers not to the knowledge itself but to the accessibility or availability of that knowledge actually Prabhupada indicates that by using the word lost rather than destroyed nakshataha so it is lost in the sense that the textbooks may be there sometimes now we know that a large part of the Vedic canon is also lost so many of the books are not available now but apart from that even if the books are available their import cannot be understood merely by Sanskrit expertise their import has to be understood by practice by internalization by realizing by living and by seeing others live according to that knowledge and living accordingly oneself so that when there are no living practitioners then the knowledge gets unavailable the knowledge gets lost and this happens over a period of time because time in general degenerates everything a flower that is fresh with time it becomes withered a flower that is young and beautiful over time becomes unattractive and withered so time by the power of time knowledge also gets lost Krishna now will describe how that knowledge pure knowledge Krishna will himself make accessible again by giving it to Arjuna that will be the next verse thank you.