Gita 07.03 – The rarity of knowing Krishna reveals the mercy we have the opportunity to relish

Onwards.

Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 7.3 Krishna here continues to describe the glory of the knowledge that he is going to give in 7.1 he stated that by this knowledge you will know me in full and your mind will become attached to me in 7.2 he stated that I will give you both knowledge and realization and with this you will transcend all the illusions of material existence and you will attain actually by which you will get knowledge and realization and you will have all that you know all that is to be known and now in this he talks about the rarity of knowledge especially knowledge about Krishna among hundreds of people thousands of people Shatha is hundred and Sahasra is thousand among thousands of people few endeavor to perceive any knowledge beyond the material beyond the knowledge of the immediate world knowledge of the long term good and even among those who acquire this knowledge so among them they may become Siddhas earlier Siddha refers to they getting Atma Gyan or they getting some Yogic Siddhis but few know me in truth so most people are materialist among them few are spiritualist and among spiritualist also few are devotees so Krishna is conveying doubly the rarity of those who know him now he didn't use the word Bhakti over here but he used the word Tattvataha know me in truth and Krishna has said earlier in 4.9 that those who know me in truth those who know about me in truth my appearance and activities they won't take birth again they won't take birth again but what will happen to them they will come to me Krishna is using an ambiguous first person reference he is not stating they will attain my nature or the life that I am or the soul within me or anything like that he is saying they will attain me straight so they will come to me so that is clearly the destination of the devotees who come to Krishna and live eternally with him so the destination the result of knowing Krishna in truth Tattvataha is that we will attain him and the process for knowing Krishna is talked about later in 18.55 how can we know him by Bhakti by devotion can know him as he is as Krishna is we can know him through the process of Bhakti so that means this Tattvataha knowing Tattvataha the process that is required is Bhakti and by knowing Tattvataha the destination that is attained is also the destination of the Bhakta that is Bhagwan that means there is no scope for this knowledge of Krishna in truth being misrepresented as impersonal knowledge Krishna is talking very clearly about him as a person and knowing him as such and he says this is very rare why is it rare thousands of people few endeavor to know about Krishna very few and among those who know about Krishna those who know those who endeavor for transcendence and those who succeed in attaining transcendence even they attain knowledge of lower levels of transcendence they attain knowledge of the all-pervading effulgence of Krishna in his impersonal manifestation of Brahman or they attain impersonal realization of the Paramatma where Krishna is Krishna doesn't exhibit any personal past reciprocal pastimes there so among spiritualists also few actually become devotees similar verse is there in the Sri Bhagavatam Muktanam Apisiddhanam those who are liberated and those who are perfected so Siddhanam is the same word that is used over similar word that is used over here Kifta Apisiddhanam Apisiddhanam is exactly the same half phrase half line so Narayana Parayana those who are devoted lord Narayana Sudurlabha Prashant Prashantatma Sudurlabha extremely rare Krishna also used the word Sudurlabha in the Bhagavad Gita in this chapter to refer to those who come to the knowledge that he is everything Krishna says in 7.19 that Paunam Janmanamante Gyanavan Mam Prapadyate Vasudevah Sarvamiti Samatma Sudurlabha so he says that after many lifetimes those who come truly to knowledge Gyanavan Mam Prapadyate they surrender to Krishna Vasudevah Sarvamiti they understand Vasudev to be everything Samatma Sudurlabha such such Mahatmas such people are Mahatmas and they are Sudurlabha Labha is that which is attained Durlabha is that which is very rarely attained Sudurlabha is like there is a double intensifier here so Labha is qualified Durlabha so Durlabha means the opposite of what it is but Durlabha is further intensified there are two modifiers one is the opposite modifier many times putting one word before a word makes it mean opposite Paryaptam Aparyaptam so that Durlabha so Karma and Dushkarma Karma and Vikarma so V becomes a a modifier a prefix that makes the meaning opposite and that opposite sense is intensified by another prefix prefix refers to a word that is fixed before a word not a word part of a word something that is fixed before a word so here Durlabha is rare very difficult to obtain and Sudurlabha is extremely difficult to obtain extremely rare so what Krishna is stating here in 7.3 he will reiterate in 7.90 after further analysis which we will come to when we come to 7.90 essentially here Krishna is stating that knowledge about him is very rare and by glorifying this knowledge in this way he is capturing Krishna's attention suppose there is a very very successful businessman who has practically minted money earned billions billions and then such a person says that now I will tell you a secret that is known to very few people a secret by which you can multiply your money everybody will be able to hear especially when money is given reverence like god nowadays so people will want to know what is the secret please tell us so similarly Krishna has told that knowledge about him and fixing the mind on him are the top most perfection of yoga so for a person who is Dharmic like Arjuna who knows that life is ultimately meant for attainment attaining not material wealth but spiritual perfection he knows the glory of that knowledge glory of that achievement knowledge about Krishna and Krishna is now emphasizing that glory through talking about its rarity so in the first text Krishna talks about in 7.1 he talks about the result of this knowledge that is your mind will become attached to which is the perfection of yoga in the next verse he talks about its about its extent everything will be known to you everything we discussed in our previous talk refers to everything in essence details are endless but the principles if we know principles act as adequate guidelines for existing as more than adequate guidelines for us to live successfully and in this verse he talks about the rarity this knowledge is rare because the desire to know Krishna is rare in the heart of the soul and we need to sincerely determinately cultivate that desire by associating with those who have that desire and thus we will be able to move onwards towards Krishna thus we will be able to attain Krishna so what Krishna is essentially saying here is that oh Arjuna knowledge about me is extremely rare and that knowledge that knowledge I am going to give to you so it is extremely rare extremely precious please hear it hear it Arjuna and this knowledge will grant us also the supreme perfection now in today's social context also we can see that although there are people who are religious they have very little positive knowledge about God they just believe usually in some dogmas and follow some rituals and there are large number of people who are largely materialistic so those people who are seriously devoted to God who are seriously seeking God and who want to make love of God their ultimate aspiration they are extremely rare not to speak of those the rarity of those people who actually achieved love of God so this the rarity of knowledge about Krishna is even more evident in Kali Yuga because most people are nominally religious or are materialists and in such a context those of us who have the opportunity to know about Krishna and the opportunity to learn to love him to practice to render service to him to cultivate devotion to him we are all special we are all as Krishna says one among thousands if we apply the two degrees of superlative then it becomes one among millions so those who endeavor for transcendence are one among thousands and further among although Krishna does not use explicitly word against Sahasra Nishanam Sahasra but again few among them so that Kashi used in the previous line to refer to one among thousands few among thousands we can apply that to the next comparison also so even among those who are spiritually minded many people become voidists, impersonalists and so each of us because we are all one among millions and this is not a matter of arrogance for us not something by which you should become arrogant because it's not by our credit that we have come to know about Krishna it is only by the credit of the devotees who have strived to give Krishna to us that we have got some knowledge about him and actually we cannot say that we know Krishna we know him superficially if we knew him tattvata then we would fall in love with him we would understand that actually nothing is all as attractive as him and there is no reason for me to appeal to anyone other than him, to devote myself to anyone other than him, the fact that we are still attracted to other things indicates that our devotion right now is superficial, our knowledge about Krishna is also superficial but by hearing Krishna's message, by meditating on his message and by cherishing that message, cherishing the direction to fix the mind on him that comes as a part of his message we can all become absorbed in Krishna and we can truly know Krishna by which we will attain him as 4.9 has said.